Lined Curtains Beautify And Insulate Your Home
Filed Under Tips And Tricks | Leave a Comment
The ever increasing cost of energy and the accompanied overall price rise is prompting people to look for ways and means of cutting costs around the house. One major household expense is caused by energy bills. Cutting down on use of energy not only saves money, but also contributes to healthier environments. An average homeowner can surely follow many inexpensive procedures and accessories to save power and the resultant expense account energy. Here are some easy affordable ways of achieving the purpose:
Draft Excluders
For most they would invoke images of the 70s, as they failed to win favors from consumers and had very restricted patronage due not so good designing. Thankfully, the producers of these curtains could guess the reasons and rightly interpreted the requirements of present day environment conscious customers wanting to save energy and their power bills in the process.
Producers have come out with modern fashionable carefully designed draft excluders that easily blend to any style and design of room to help reduced heating in more frequently used rooms. If you can prevent drafts from entering your room, your requirements of gas or wood are considerably reduced.
An efficient way of conserving energy used for heating system is to use lined curtains. Though expensive initially, due extra backing, they more than compensate the expense in the long run. The lining has special insulating characteristics that allow it to retain heat, keeping your room hot in winters and cool in summers. If you work in night shifts or happen to be a light sleeper, start using blackout curtains that totally darken the room. Another advantage of having blackout curtain is prolonged life of your furniture and furnishings. That’s because they restrict incoming light and thus harmful UV rays of the sun. There’s more to using these curtains, as they reduce the incoming noise too, keeping you away from the murmur on the road or neighborhood park. The insulating and noise reducing characteristics achieved by use of these curtains are comparable to those of thermal and acoustic insulation, but much more affordable.
Insulation, as you should know always help to stop heat from escaping and the heat that you lose due lack of insulation costs you. Look for various sources of heat loss in your place and make arrangements to plug that loss. For instance, you may be using boiler as the main source of heating. But, are you aware that it can be better insulated by simply providing it with an insulating jacket, so easily available from local hardware stores and poses no installation problem, but surely results to saving your bills. .
And, the most convenient and effective way of conserving energy is to develop the habit of switching gadgets and accessories off when not in use. It costs less than a second, but saves you bundle of money at the end of the year, if only you spare that second at least while moving out of home. Technology comes to aid. Most of the modern electrical appliances, including light bulbs, which are introduced, have been designed to reduce your consumption of energy. Start patronizing energy saving appliances, bulbs would be a good start. It will not take you long to realize that drop in your energy bills. Apart from the expense that it causes, an electrical appliance on being left on for hours could prove to be hazardous and cause unfortunate avoidable accidents.
Have no fears or apprehensions of using modern technological domestic equipments and accessories. They offer more convenience, while saving energy. None of the above said suggested measures is difficult or expensive. Engage your children in making draft excluders using old newspapers and simply stuffing those in old stockings. In case you prefer to use your present curtains because of their style or color, incorporate curtain lining therein, though you get lined curtains in as large a variety as you wish to have.
Spare sometime for these small measures and reap financial benefits.
Ready Made Curtains – They Save Time!
Filed Under Tips And Tricks | Leave a Comment
Despite the hectic lifestyle that most of us have we can’t afford to overlook one important part of housekeeping, and that involves furnishing and styling of home. Nobody likes to compromise on that. An important feature of furnishing includes dressing up and even decoration of windows. Given to understand the importance of this aspect of housekeeping, the manufacturers and designers are out to offer varying items to suit the taste and style of most consumers in the minimum of time. The options for a busy woman include buying ready to use curtains or made to order curtains and blinds in a large variety of colors and styles. Nevertheless, most of us find it convenient to go for ready to use curtains due limitations of time.
The advantages of having ready to use curtains are many, but the most helpful feature is that it saves you time and remains affordable. As these curtains are mass produced, you have a good chance of getting them within your budget and conforming to your specifications, not to mention the variety. They make an excellent offer to elegantly decorate your room in a sophisticated way.
You can’t miss to notice the difference in ready made drapes and the other kind. These are clearly distinguished by their professional finishing and the overall appearance.
The cost effectiveness of such curtains enables their replacement, having used them even for a short duration, and you may even look into the possibility of have more than one set, thus changing them for any special occasion. Now, that’s one feature designer curtains won’t offer. Those are too expensive to offer this kind of small luxury. So, even if you don’t like designer curtains for whatever reasons, you are compelled to continue using, having spent enormous amounts.
And look to the convenience ready made curtains offer. You don’t have to spend your time looking for the right kind of fabric and the subsequent hassles of explaining the tailor how you like them to be styled. All such activities eat into your time and drain you out physically. Added to that is an element of risk of the curtains not giving a perfect fit. The strain of driving and the cost of fuel add to the final cost of the curtains, even if you manage to find time. Surely, you could utilize that time for any other household productive activity or simply spend time with family and relax.
Buying ready to use curtains, in contrast to using diy curtains, is as simple as knowing the right size of your windows and choose one that best suits your requirements from among the large variety of colors, fabrics, styles and designs available off the shelf. The whole affair is over in a couple of hours. You get them suitable for any standard sized window of any length and size. Further, you have the option of accessorizing these curtains by including tails, swags, valances and tiebacks.
Act smart, save your time, energy and money by opting for ready to use curtains.
Pinch Pleat Drapes
Filed Under Tips And Tricks | Leave a Comment
Pinch pleat drapes have continued to be in vogue for generations and are preferred even today by people who like to get nostalgic and love old traditional items and designs. For getting pinch pleats the material of drapes is pinched or bunched together along its length at regular intervals near the top. The out coming results are very interesting, depending upon the way you pinch the material and the distance between two pinches. Ultimately the curtain falls down to the floor while creating a pattern along the length nearing the top of the window.
Here are the three most common forms of pleats: butterfly pleat, double pleat and the goblet pleat. The different ways of collecting the material give it different styles.
You may have butterfly pleat by pinching the material about two inches down the top of the curtain to get the looks and shape of a Chinese fan. A goblet pleat is derived by pinching the material at the back to get the shape of cylindrical tube, while a double pleat is achieved by pinching at two points thus causing the pleats to run parallel to each other.
The effects of pleating the material are very striking. The material travels in wave formation along the length with light coming in from certain points only. Thus, you see an interesting gradient of colors that looks very soothing, adding warmth to the room, and makes the curtain look lively and exciting and not just a piece of some dull-looking material on the window.
Pinch pleat drapes: This style is most often practiced for larger windows, beside voile. Some of the places that look great in this style include a large window in the living room or a big sliding door leading to the patio. Though some people prefer to use these even on smaller windows, they certainly present better looks when falling down along greater lengths when the pleat may even come down to the floor level.
The system of attaching these drapes to the curtain rod is different than the other system of attaching the curtains. As you know, generally curtains are attached using curtain rings or eyelets thru which the curtain rod is slipped. However, pleated curtains are usually provided with pins that are pushed at the back of the curtain, through the pleat, and then attached to a rail at the top. Such an arrangement facilitates opening and closing of the curtain as it moves smoothly on the track. In case you don’t approve of this style, there is an alternative too. You may use large hooks that pass directly over the curtains but then the movement of curtains won’t be so convenient.
You may give the curtains a wavy effect and simultaneously hide the pleats and the hardware used for the curtains. You can do it in two ways. One way would be to have a valance going over the top of the curtain rod. Otherwise, you may have a cornice installed at the top.
Here area a few more additions that you can have to your curtains, depending on your personal preferences or circumstances. You can provide improved insulation to the place by having thermal backing for your drapes. Or you could have a blackout curtain lining to completely block the sun. Both the arrangements would easily fit on the back of the drapes. In case you prefer to include something lighter to let some air pass thru the room, you may have sheer pinch pleat drapes and get the usual functionality of the pleat, with the added light country style feeling of a sheer curtain.
How To Make Voile Curtains
Filed Under Tips And Tricks | Leave a Comment
Voile is an almost transparent fabric derived from cotton and is frequently used to make sheer curtains. But, the transparent nature of fabric restricts its use to only those areas that don’t need much privacy or need not be dark. They are also used along with heavier curtains when it is desirable to have some incoming light. You’ll need a double curtain rod for the purpose. Or you may hang these from a rod mounted above the window or a tension rod that fits in the window frame itself.
You’ll need the following materials for making voile curtains.
* Curtain rod
* Measuring tape
* Voile fabric
* Matching thread
* Scissors
* Straight pins
* Iron
* Ironing board
* Sewing machine
Step 1
Fix the curtain rod over the window. Using a measuring tap, measure the width of the curtain rod. The length needs to be measured from the top of the curtain rod to a few inches below the bottom of the window frame.
Step 2
Cut two pieces of voile, each about one and a half time the width of the curtain rod, but nearly 4 inches longer than the length. In case you like to sew many pieces of voile together for getting a wide curtain, you may use French seams to enclose the raw edges
Step 3
Using a small double fold hem to the top and sides of each piece of voile. To get double fold hems, fold over each edge by 1/4 inch toward the wrong side of the fabric, and again fold it over by another 1/4 inch. Heat the iron to ‘high heat or cotton’ setting and press the folds flat and then stitch them in place.
Step 4
Fold over the top edge of each curtain towards the wrong side, keeping the folded area about 1 inch wider than the curtain rod. Ensure to have same sized folds on all the curtains. Hold the folds in place with a pin and then stitch along the hemmed edge of each fold.
Step 5
Slot in the curtain rod through the casing in the top of both curtains, and fix back the rod. Make sure that the curtains are of even length, and trim if needed.
Step 6
Remove the curtain again to hem the lower edge of each curtain using a double fold, ensuring that both the curtains continue to have the same length.
Step 7
Fix the curtains back on the rod, but make sure that the right side of each curtain faces the room, and let them hang.
Silk Curtains – A Popular Window Treatment
Filed Under Silk Window Treatments | 1 Comment
Silk, though an expensive material has inherent characteristics of being graceful with good rich looks. That has been prompting generations for its being used for various purposes, that go to include curtains and draperies. Silk curtains certainly enhance the looks of an interior while reflecting the taste of the householder.
Window treatments incorporating silk give a rich look without giving that feel of over-indulgence. Latest trends in window dressing hardly leave any doubt that silk is going to be “ in” for the current year. While maintaining the traditional looks, they reflect present- day trends, being a favorite of designers and consumers too. Of course they are more expensive that most of the other materials available for the purpose, and thus would suit better a formal and classy room.
Because of the high price, it will not be wrong to say that patronizing silk for curtains is like investing in your household effects. Well, they do last longer but certainly call for proper care and maintenance. For instance, continued exposure to direct sunlight is detrimental for silk and affects its life. But, measures can be taken to add to the life of silk when used for window treatments.
The ideal way of achieving above goal is to provide lining to sheers. Materials like cotton; linen, wool or even lace can be used for the purpose. All these materials are durable and relatively cheaper. However, one needs to be careful to match these heavier materials with silk before finalizing on any one of these. Lest you happen to choose an inappropriate material, it will be safe to go far a lightweight polyester or cotton fabric. However, for a better affect, silk window treatment necessarily needs better window designs too, else they may look out of place.
Another important factor is the color of material. Silk window treatments are available in rich colors that provide a very luxurious and dramatic look. When used alone they can produce stunning effects. But, on being ill matched with a not so judicious choice of fabrics, they present a rather flat look and mar the feeling of richness associated with silk. Selecting the right kind of silk material and its color that jells with the interiors of your room is of crucial importance.
There is none denying the fact that silk, for its inherent characteristics of richness and sophistication is an excellent material for window treatment, but how you treat it under given circumstances is also very important.
