Curtains, Carpets and Decorating

The appointment with the rep from the curtain company didn't start out as well as I'd hoped. I asked about using the reverse of my chosen fabric but it was a 'no'; apparently there are three or four fabrics where this is not possible and my choice was one of them. He pointed out that on the sample I'd received it looked feasible but when he showed me other samples in that range I could see the problem, where the embroidery doesn't always show as a regular pattern on the reverse, leaving largish areas of the silver showing at random.

This meant new choices had to be made which was fun. Once I'd finished looking through his sample books I had a pile of possibilities, none of which included any of the samples I'd send for. Anyway, in the end I made my choices and I'm totally happy with my decisions. He's ordered samples of my chosen fabrics so I'll post a photo when they arrive.

He measured up and quoted for the two rooms I definitely wanted done at this stage and as expected was expensive but not heart-stoppingly so. Their pricing system is such that the more you buy the cheaper each pair of curtains is, so I asked him the measure and quote for the other three rooms ... just to see. The end result is that with the pricing structure for the quantity ordered, the Black Friday sale price and the extra 10% off (not sure what that was for but I'm not complaining!), I've placed the order for the five pairs of curtains and two roman blinds which are needed to dress the windows in five of the rooms - living room (2 pairs of curtains), dining room (1 pair of curtains), kitchen (roman blind), music room (1 pair of curtains), my bedroom (1 pair of curtains) and spare bedroom (roman blind). Every window in the house already has either Venetian or vertical blinds, so it is unlikely that I'll ever get curtains for the remaining rooms (bathroom, en-suite and my playroom). 

Then the good news that, with the exception of the curtains for the music room, they will be installed on December 4th, with the remaining pair due on January 15th. This is much earlier than expected and the decorating won't be finished by that date so the fitter will put it all up and then, if I'm happy with the curtains, will take it all down again in the two rooms which will still have to be decorated. This means that the curtain poles will be easy to refit once the decorating is completed in those rooms - there aren't any curtain tracks/poles on any of the windows in this house, which is one of the reasons I went with this company as they offer the full fitting service and in this case will work out cheaper than me arranging for different people to do the work.

I then asked him to quote for the living room carpet and was pleasantly surprised by the price which was quite a bit cheaper than the quotes I already have but for a much better quality carpet. He's agreed to honour his price until the end of January, by which time I should be in a position to order all the flooring for the house, so that's the way it's been left for now. The only difference is that I will have to dispose of the existing carpets myself where the other quotes include that, but friends and family have offered to help so it shouldn't be a problem and it'll be worth the effort to keep the price down.

I've contacted another decorator (who did some work for me in the past) and he's coming on Tuesday to quote for sorting out the painting in the living room and my bedroom. Assuming the prices is acceptable, he can do those two rooms in the week before Christmas which means I'll be able to rehang all the curtains in time for Christmas. I'll just be left with the hall, stairs and landing to be decorated but that can all wait until the new year.