bay window curtains 1840s house

[louloulou]

Hi,

I'm trying to come up with a solution to dress the bay windows of my 1840s house in Margate. The house was built in a neo classical revival style, double fronted detached house with central porch with dorric colums. The bays appear to have been added later, or it could be they just took advantage of the latest window technology available. The bays are typical of many in the local area.

The bays are three sided and squared rather than bowed and curved. The inside of the bays are panelling surround and plaster to the ceiling of the bay. I currently have an awful and cheap curtain and pelmet track from the previous owner. The curtains sag and fall off the track. I've begun researching period curtain styles and would like to adopt a contemporary take on a classic style. I went to John Lewis who proposed a double silent gliss track that can be ceiling mounted. The house is visible from the street and passers by so would like to have some kind of muslin or voile curtain up. I'd like this to look minimalist as opposed to net curtain look. Then I'd thought of swags and tails for the main curtains. A lot of the designs I see in books are for georgian houses without bays. I'm not really having much luck finding good designs for bays. Any suggestions?

Also any one have an opinion of tracks vs. poles?

It seems like we may be better trying to ceiling mount the track/pole and might have to open up the plaster to find joists. I wouldn't want to attach anything vertically into the panelling. No way it would hold a heavy curtain.

If anyone can recommend a good curtain resource book or website for reference that would be great.

Thanks

Lou

 

[sarahj]

Hello there, I did a search in the books section in Amazon using just 'curtains', and this has come up with Judith Miller Guide to Period Style curtains and soft furnishings'. I don't have personal experience of it myself, though. However, if you also click on it for more details and then scroll down the page, it shows you other books also bought by others who bought this one. These include books on interior design in a georgian house and other similar titles.

Hope this helps: I expect there will be complete silence from the men in this group.

(ducks for cover!) :wink:

 

[louloulou]

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for your help. I already have the Georgian Style book which isn't much help for curtains and doesn't have bays in it. But the other books on the Amazon list look useful. Thanks again.

Lou

 

[chuckey]

My victorian bays are like yours. I used screw fixings into the front face of the architrave and one into the plaster at each side to carry the ends. The actual rail is obsolete now. Its a aluminium strip which I bent to fit the square bays. Its been up now for 27 years now!
If you want to go for ceiling fixings, buy an electronic "stud" locator, about a tenner from your nearest big shed, then you can find where the lathe/joist nails are. Look at the distance between the ceiling and window, in my case its about 15", would have made the curtains extra big and more importently they would have looked wrong when closed.
There are no laws against picking up the fixing points for the existing pelmet and making brackets from these points to carry the new curtain rail mountings.
Frank