Custom curtains without the confusion: a buyer's guide

What a curtain job involves

At the simple end, a supplier hangs readymade panels on a basic rod — quick, cheap, and fine for standard windows. Made-to-measure is a different process: a measure-and-quote visit, fabric selection, the curtains sewn to your exact drop and width, then installation of the track or rod and a final steam and dress. The quote usually bundles all of it — fabric, making, hardware and fitting.

The choices inside that process are where the money moves. Lining (blockout or thermal) turns a decorative curtain into one that darkens and insulates a bedroom. Layered setups — a sheer for daytime privacy plus a blockout behind — need double tracks. Heading style matters more than people expect: a full S-fold heading can use nearly twice the fabric width of a simple pleat. Curtain specialists typically handle blinds too, so one visit can cover the whole house.

Understanding the price per window

Curtains are priced per window, and the guide band on this page tells the story: readymade panels hung for you sit at the low end in the hundreds, custom blockout curtains for a typical window in the middle, and layered or motorised setups climbing from there — a whole-home fit-out is comfortably a four-figure project. Treat all of it as indicative until someone has measured your actual windows.

Fabric is the biggest single variable — prices per metre range tenfold, and floor-to-ceiling drops consume a lot of metres. The useful question to ask any maker is the fullness multiplier: how many times the track width of fabric they're quoting. It's where quotes quietly differ, and it's why one quote can look cheap and hang limp while another drapes beautifully.

Choosing a curtain maker

This is an unlicensed finishing trade, so you're comparing on craft and service. Measure-and-quote visits are usually free — use that. Get two or three makers to quote the same windows in the same fabric grade with the same lining, and the comparison becomes real rather than apples versus oranges.

Good signs: they measure everything themselves rather than working from your numbers, they talk about fullness and heading styles unprompted, and they're upfront about lead times, since custom curtains are made to order and take weeks, not days. If motorisation is on the list, ask whether the motor is battery or wired — wired tracks need a power point, and any new electrical work means a licensed electrician on top.

Mistakes to avoid

Curtain regrets are mostly proportion and preparation: curtains that stop awkwardly short, tracks that bow under heavy fabric, and quotes compared without noticing one included half the fullness of the other.

• Comparing quotes without matching fabric grade, lining and fullness across them
• Skipping blockout lining in bedrooms, then paying again later for the fix
• Measuring the windows yourself for a custom order instead of letting the maker own the measurements
• Choosing a bargain rod for heavy full-length curtains that need a proper track
• Forgetting lead time — made-to-order curtains won't arrive in time for next weekend's guests
• Not asking who pays if a wired motorised track needs an electrician