A beautiful pair of curtains will doubtless have been quite expensive, so it’s worth taking the time to ensure they look their best, because if they are left in unruly folds at the side of the window when they are not being used, will look anything but their best.
Contemporary curtain styles
Many modern curtains have headings which encourage the curtains to stack to the side of the window in natural pleats such as eyelet curtains, tab top curtains and wave heading curtains. These curtains have a fixed hook, tab or eyelet ring position that predetermines the folds of the curtains. It’s worth a mention that the initial hanging of the curtains is very important. The pleats should face the front and both the flat sections at the sides of the curtains should face towards the back.
Pleating tips
A good tip is to lay the curtains on the floor, take the leading edge section of the curtains up to the first ring or tab and fold it to the back, this will give you the first pleat which should face the front. Start threading the curtain pole through the openings – you should end up with the last flat section of the curtains also folding to the back. Once you have hung the curtains, start from the outside edge, working your way down from where the pleats start at the top of the pole and make a firm crease with your hands from the top to the bottom of the curtains.
Your curtains will need to learn a little respect, so once you are pleased with the finished pleats, get some old stripes of fabric or some bits of bandage and loosely tie then around the pleated curtains in three sections, starting as near to the top of the pole as possible, one in the middle and one at the bottom. Don’t tie it tightly as it will crease the curtains. Leave them like this for 3 days, if possible with the room a little warmer than normal and then when you open the curtains thereafter, they should fold open in the natural folds you created.
Decorative holdbacks
Curtain holdbacks range from being a fairly simple disc made from wood or metal that will merge in with an existing curtain pole or a new one that does not have a specific matching holdback, to an ornamental decorative detail that enhances the curtain pole as the design detailing of the curtain finial and the holdback is the same.
These wonderful curtain pole accessories can hide a multitude of sins and give style to the skimpiest pair of ready-made curtains, or control over the bulkiest pair of full length interlined curtains. All that is required of you once you have fitted the holdback, is to close your newly fitted curtains, then starting at the top, gently fold the curtains into pleats and secure them in the holdback. Working away from the holdback to the top and bottom of the curtains, follow the pleats through to the top and bottom of the curtains and then as with the Eyelet and Tab top curtains, loosely tie the folds into place. Again leave them for three days without touching them; it will make the look of the curtains so much better when you do start using them.
We have gone back to customers perhaps 5 years later and there is the original pair of curtains still sitting in their holdbacks as they had been arranged by our fitter all that time before. The customer had so loved the beautiful way they had been dressed that they had fitted a blind of some description to be the working detail of the window.
Content Promotions Specialist Chris Taylor writes this post on behalf of curtain poles, tracks and curtain holdbacks specialists PolesandBlinds.com.
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