Dressing your windows: a practical guide to blinds and curtains

What the job involves

Blinds and curtains are priced per window, supplied and installed. Roller blinds are the budget workhorse — blockout for bedrooms, light-filter for living areas. Curtains and Roman blinds sit in the middle and bring softness a hard blind can't. Plantation shutters are the premium option, several times the price of a basic roller, and they add the look of built-in joinery.

The install itself is more precise than it looks. Blinds have to sit level and clear the window handles and reveals; shutters need square frames scribed to walls that are rarely square; motorised blinds need a power source or charging access. A proper job includes an in-home measure, because a few millimetres out on a made-to-measure blind is the difference between clean and cockeyed.

Child safety is a genuine part of this trade, not a footnote. Corded blinds have strict rules about cord tension and cleats, and a professional install keeps you compliant — worth insisting on in any home with young children.

How the cost works

A few rooms of quality roller blinds sit in the hundreds. A whole-home mix of blinds and curtains across an average three-bedroom home lands in the low-to-mid thousands, and plantation shutters throughout push toward five figures. These bands are indicative; the calculator on this page adjusts for your window count, product and whether you want motors.

Product type and window count drive the total, and motorisation is the third lever — adding a couple of hundred dollars per window over chain operation. A cost-effective trick worth knowing: a blockout roller behind a sheer curtain gives you both function and a soft, layered look for far less than shutters, and it's a combination good consultants suggest unprompted.

Choosing the right installer

This is an unlicensed finishing trade, so the free in-home measure is your best filter. A quote given over the phone or from photos routinely changes once the windows are measured properly — insist on the measure before you compare numbers, and the quotes become comparable. Ask what fabric grade and, for shutters, what material (timber versus PVC) each price assumes, because those move the per-window cost significantly.

Good consultants ask how each room is used before recommending anything — blockout where you sleep, light-filter where you live, moisture-resistant materials in wet areas. One who quotes the same product for every window without asking is selling stock, not solving your rooms.

Mistakes to avoid

Window covering mistakes are usually about accepting a rough quote or over-spending on rooms that didn't need it.

• Comparing quotes taken from photos instead of a proper in-home measure
• Putting plantation shutters everywhere when rollers behind sheers would do in most rooms
• Blockout in the living room and light-filter in the bedroom — match the fabric to how the room is used
• Ignoring child-safety cord rules in a home with young children
• Assuming motorisation is cheap — it adds real cost per window, so choose where it earns its keep
• Skipping the fabric-grade question, then wondering why one quote is half the price of another