Proudly made in Britain
Proudly made in Britain
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Hello and welcome to Made By the Forge. I'm Richard Fishenden. In this video, I'm going to show you how to measure up for a straight curtain pole.
So the first thing to do is to stand back and look at your window and decide where you want your pole to be mounted. Have a look for any obvious obstructions that might impede where you can put the brackets, things like the light switches, light fittings, beams, things like that. This window is fine. It's a nice open window, and a good wall on each side for your brackets to be mounted on.
When considering where to mount your curtain pole, we advise 15 centimetres above the top of the window, but in this instance with a low ceiling that isn't practical. So in this instance, we advise halfway between the top of the window and the ceiling. If you have it too low, then you could get daylight coming through the top of the curtain. Now you've decided where your curtain pole's going, you need to measure up for it.
So now we need to consider how much drawback we want on our curtain pole. The drawback is the amount of curtain pole that you have outside of your window opening to allow the curtain to be drawn back onto.
We advise that you have your total length plus 10% of that measurement on each side for your drawback. So if the total width of your window opening, is in this situation, 120 centimetres, that means you need 10%, which is 12 centimetres on each side for your drawback. Although we advise 10% for the drawback, please bear in mind the thickness of your actual curtains. If they're very thick curtains, you may need more than 10%. If you have very thin curtains, you may need less.
Now, when considering curtain rings, we advise one ring per 10 centimetres of overall curtain pole length. So our curtain pole here is 144 centimetres. Therefore, we need to order roughly 14 rings. Make sure it's an even amount for each side. The final thing you need to consider is a decorative end, which is called the finial. Just remember, whichever finial you choose, it will add just a little overall length to your curtain pole.
In this video, Richard from Made by the Forge explains how to take measurements before order. All of our curtain poles are made to measure and completely bespoke so accurate measurements are very important.
That being said, there are a handful of other factors that you should consider when measuring for your new curtain pole. Keep in mind the objects surrounding your window frame, like light switches, light fittings or anything else that could potentially interfere with the pole or the hanging curtains.
We advise that all curtain poles rest 15cm above the top of the window, if possible. It there is not enough space, plan to have the pole rest halfway between the top of the window and the ceiling.
It is also important to note that the curtain pole finials add extra length but don’t influence the curtain hanging area, so that space should be applied once your curtain area has been established.
We also advise to include 1 curtain ring for every 10cm of curtain pole but if you have any questions about measuring for your new curtain pole, please don’t hesitate to contact the Made by the Forge team directly.
All of these videos can also be found on the Made by the Forge YouTube channel. Follow us on YouTube for updates.
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