Query on curtains cost

I bought a house that seems to have a lot of windows!! I too discovered the mental cost of getting curtains ( or blinds) made! Fortunately I discovered that by a little creative and buying double sets of each curtains I needed I could make things work. Ready mades that you buy made up with the type if tab you want to suit your pole come in all kinds of materials and designs - as someone else said - head to Home Store, Hickeys, the big TK MAx in Blanchardstown ( whatever its called now) , and a lode of others in retail parks also sell them reqdymade. The price difference is usually about a thousand euro a curtain so its worth your while to choose from the huge ranges available off the shelf!
My ‘drop’ is the longest you can buy over the counter ( in Ireland) 90x90 and they come typically as 2 per pack and range from e120 or so up to about e200 or so depending in quality. I’d hold off for the sales as you can get some great bargains then. Someone told me about good charity shops where people often used do house clearances and they would give in sets of ‘vintage’ curtains - now in fashion or great for draught stopping old georgian doors. What is more frightening is the price if having curtains dry-cleaned - you definately din’t want to be dry cleaning old curtains or smelly curtains from a smokers house so choose carefully if you get lucky!! I’ve had most of mine up about 12 years so money well spent once you get it right! I also hd one shop bought set lined again for better insulation and that worked well for me. Again far cheeper than spending 1k on dressing a window in a house full of glass!

If you want something different, then one option is to go to the Fabric Outlet in Newbridge or Cork and select the fabric.
They have hundreds and all 4.99/metre

They also can put you in touch or act as middle person for curtain makers.

We got a group made for €1100.

No ordinary group - one large bay window, one set of French doors and one set for rear windows.

Each set has slightly different lengths (240-260cm) to suit different rails and we also wanted a very heavy lining material.

But at the same time, we got ready made curtains from Kavanaghs for other rooms for about €90/set.

We looked at home store, but their quality was very poor.

Darc19 wrote: »

We looked at home store, but their quality was very poor.

Definitely some of their curtains aren't great (shiny, tacky stripes or floral patterns) but some are decent and well you get what you pay for.

Shops often sell previously opened packs at a substantial discount. Actually i bought curtains in harry Corrys for €20, 80% off. I couldn't believe my luck til i got home and one was longer than the other. Still kept them for the spare room.

I make my own curtains - I have about 30m of fabric of various sorts waiting to be made up (when the weather makes gardening less attractive) from the Fabric Outlet in Cork, amazing value at a fiver a meter.

However there are a few tricks you can use. Buy really quite nice lined curtains from the likes of Michael Guineys - you may have to wait until something you like comes in. If you hang them out of the packet they will hang like rags, because they use very cheap header tape. The trick is to buy good quality header tape from somewhere like Home Focus/Hickeys and replace it. Its not a massively complicated job and if you can't tackle it yourself one of the sewing repair shops will do it for you without the huge expense of making curtains.

If the curtains need to be shortened this is the time to do it, shorten them from the top. The hem, especially on a lined curtain, is much more complex -odd as it seems - to alter, so take off the tape and replace, and shorten as you replace it. Of course if you have bought curtains with ring holes then that is not an option, so if your windows are not standard it may be better to get curtains with tape.