Spring loaded roller blinds for safety AND functionality

By Charlie White | Published: 12 May 2013

I try to be as open-minded about products as possible – to ensure that on each client project we’re recommending the best possible product, application or hardware for the job.

But there are certain products that I’ve always been a bit sceptical about – like spring loaded roller blinds for example.

So it’s really nice when manufacturers introduce new product innovations that completely challenge our opinions on a product. In this case, these innovations go hand in hand with recent safety scares to make a truly compelling case for spring loaded roller blinds.

So why the scepticism? Well, spring loaded roller blinds have traditionally been a bit tricky to operate. Take the bay window example below. We specified spring loaded roller blinds because there was limited space for them to operate in, behind the curtains on this lath and fascia application, but also because client didn’t want chains ruining the look, and crucially, client was used to putting up with the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the system.

bay window roller blind spring loaded

Client feedback on completion of the job was that they were “a bit tricky to set in the right position, but he was sure he would get used to it”, and as we haven’t heard back, I’m sure he did. But I don’t feel comfortable installing a system that has such obvious shortcomings. But two important developments have changed all this:

Infant fatalities:  recent high profile cases involving young children choking on blind cords and chains have introduced a compelling reason for spring loaded roller blinds, as worried parents seek to remove any potential hazards from their homes (particularly childrens’ bedrooms).

Spring loaded roller blinds are operated by one central cord pull which carries negligible risk as a choking hazard – and this can be completely dispensed with if the blind can be raised and lowered within arms reach and you’re not worried about the bottom of the blind being soiled over time by hand prints. Whereas a couple of years ago we would struggle to install one spring loaded roller blind in a year, we’re now including them on almost every installation.

Improved functionality: a recent product launch (pictured below) from one of our suppliers has heralded two exciting innovations, the first of which is improved functionality.

Previously, spring loaded roller blinds have been awkward to fix in position. You found yourself hesitantly hovering the blind at a certain height, hoping against hope that it would lock into place.

Spring loaded roller blind, Moghul

But those problems are now a thing of the past, with improved systems that lock effortlessly at the desired height, and with in-built slow rise mechanisms that prevent those comedy moments we remember from our childhood – when a roller blind would zoom back to the top at great speed and make a couple of orbits of the blind tube before coming to rest!

Improved aesthetics: I’m sometimes a bit hesitant about recommending blind boxes, as they’re typically rather clunky, naff structures that detract from the look rather than improving it, but again, the new spring loaded roller blind pictured above (from one of our recent West London installations) is encased in a discrete, low profile box that is covered in the same fabric as the blind.

It seemlessly hides the roller blind from view, allowing your eyes to instead be drawn to the main focal point of the room – whether this is the curtains, an accent wall or otherwise.

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Curtain Poles for Bifold Door Curtains

By Charlie White | Published: 29 April 2013

We’ve blogged before about the various available options, when it comes to choosing curtains and/or blinds for your bifold doors or sliding doors. What you choose will inevitably be a delicate balancing act between the practical necessities of the space itself, and the most perfect aesthetic solution.

But as you’re reading this, I suspect you’ve already formed a view as to which application (curtain or blind) you prefer for your bifold door project, so our job is to ensure that we can make your desired product work in the space available.

In this particular case, our client had just moved into a stunning new build development off Roehampton Road, West London.

bifold door curtains

With a beautiful, uncluttered kitchen area and a decent stacking space (of approx 80cms) each side of the bifold doors, curtains were the preferred option.

Now typically in this situation, particularly when there is very little wall space to work with above the doors, we would recommend a ceiling mounted track as this blends in seamlessly with the ceiling, and the curtains glide effortlessly on our track system (which has a lubricant built into the paint).

However our client really liked the idea of the bifold door curtains running on curtain poles, and the 8cms wall space above the doors was just enough to accommodate curtain pole brackets, so discussion turned to which system would be most appropriate in terms of aesthetics and budget.

curtain poles for bifold doors, Moghul

The fabulous Bradley Collection curtain poles were a little above budget, so client settled upon a stainless steel passing ring system from Evans. At 28mm diameter, the proportions of the system fitted perfectly into the space available.

There’s a very high end feel to the curtain pole components, and crucially, the passing ring system (so named because the rings are “c” shaped, enabling them to slide past the brackets that support the curtain pole when the curtains are opened and closed) means you can span an almost limitless space.

curtain poles bifold curtains

The curtains are just over 5 metres wide, and with a curtain drop of 2.4 metres, the lined and interlined curtains carry quite a bit of weight.

But as the rings can slide over the brackets when the curtains are opened and closed, we could support the pole with multiple brackets.

Here we spanned the 5 metre wide space with 7 brackets to ensure the curtains were adequately supported.

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A Swedish Blind that actually works!

By Charlie White | Published: 21 April 2013

What is a Swedish blind? It’s a simple style of blind that is raised and lowered by a cord and pulley system that hangs from the top of the blind. The cord is typically made fast around a cleat attached to the wall at the side of the blind. The only structure to the blind comes from the top batten that it is attached to, and the counterweight bar that is sewn into the bottom of the blind and runs horizontally across its width.

swedish blind by moghul

Why choose Swedish over the alternatives? The unique charm of the Swedish blind lies in it’s simplicity. There are no stacks of folds that so characterise roman blinds, and crucially, because the blind rolls up on itself, the fabric on the reverse of the blind is exposed, giving you the opportunity to blend the reverse and face fabric in a way that is not possible with some of the alternatives.

A swedish blind takes up less space when raised than a roman blind, so if your room is a little dark and you’re anxious to maximise the amount of light coming through the windows, swedish blinds might be the answer.

Variations of the Swedish Blind include roll-up blinds, which are formed in the same way, but are more suitable as dress blinds, because they are held in place at a fixed position by ribbons or other tape, rather than by a cord and pulley system.

But are swedish blinds practical? There’s one big snag with the swedish blind… typically, the cord that you pull on to raise the blind passes through a thonging (fabric strap) and glass ring system – one on each side of the blind, which drag sideways rather untidily when the cord is pulled, making it quite hard to operate the blind. Also the strap tends to hang down a distance from the top batten, meaning the blind cannot be fully rolled up to the top. So most of the swedish blinds you will see in magazine studio shots are dress blinds – ie blinds that are not intended to be operated

So to make the swedish blind actually work, we’ve replaced the thonging and glass rings – with nickle plated fixed eye pulleys, which make the blind ultra smooth to operate, and eliminate the rather untidy sideways drag that you usually get with the more traditional thonging and glass eyelet mechanisms.

swedish blind cleat, Moghul

Client case study: we were recently advising a client on the soft furnishings for their refurbished Georgian house in Worcestershire and they raised the possibility of a swedish blind for their son’s bedroom.

Swedish blind by Moghul in Clarke & Clarke fabric

Client picked out the beautiful but reasonably priced Clarke & Clarke Coniston Duck Egg Check for the face of the blind, with their Sutton Duck Egg stripe for the rear of the blind. To give the blind blackout properties we fabricated the blind with a bonded blackout lining sandwiched between the face and lining fabrics.

The blind was made with the fixed eye pulleys described above, and a 3mm cord that would typically be used for our curtain track systems – this cord being thicker and stronger than the roman blind cord that you tend to see on swedish blind systems.

 

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Silent Gliss roller blinds – peerless perfection

By Charlie White | Published: 10 March 2013

A word of mouth referral led to a phone call before Christmas from a delightful couple who were interested in roller blinds for their house, nestled in beautiful surroundings near Llantrithyd in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.

Moghul Director Charlie White and Bath Consultant Lou Ball hot footed it over to see them, armed with a large collection of roller blind books from the major suppliers, spanning an array of colours, textures and price points.

1960s decor - a roller blind solution

The house was built in the 1960′s by our clients David and Gillie, who proudly gave us a tour and later treated us to a wonderful lunch as they regaled us with anecdotes of how back in the ’60′s, a young couple had come to build such a ground breaking property in rural Wales.

Acres of glass and steel combined with minimalist decor, Gillie has over the years shrewdly adorned the property with evocative objet d’art, as well as splashes of colour that are right back in vogue this year, such as over sized lime green and poppy red cushions – testament as Lou remarked, to how cyclical design tastes can be.

The challenge ahead

Gillie had a clear vision for what she wanted to achieve. Various window treatments had over the years adorned the two main living areas (pictured above) – the first floor and ground floor sitting rooms. These had now been removed leaving each space in need of something to add a soft, completing touch. Gillie liked the idea of roller blinds and Charlie set about completing a technical measure whilst Lou discussed the fabric options.

Large panels of glass presented challenges in terms of the maximum widths that roller blinds can operate to, and in the downstairs sitting room, the configuration of the steel roof joists and aluminium sliding doors meant there was no obvious fixing point for the blinds that wouldn’t leave window showing past the edge of the blind fabric.

After much deliberation spanning the next few weeks – and quite a lot of samples through the post, Gillie decided upon the Silent Gliss Colorama fabric (specifically the thicker shade 2), and as she liked the idea of splitting the window spaces into alternating swathes of colour – we decided to err on the side of caution and have a larger number of narrower blinds (rather than spanning two or more panels with each blind).

With some revisions to the brief, and given the size of the project we thought it wise to pay a further trip to the property, to double check measurements and finalise the design of the bespoke bracket system that would be required in the downstairs sitting room (see further below).

We specified reverse rolled blinds – where the fabric rolls over the front of the blind cylinder, thereby hiding it – because this would keep the fabric away from handles and other obstructions, and further away from any window condensation.

Why Silent Gliss? When specifying bespoke soft furnishings (and in my case, particularly hardware) we have to constantly strive to maintain an unbiased approach – to recommend the best product for a particular environment or budget.

Silent Gliss roller blinds are more expensive than many made to measure roller blinds on the market. To be brutally honest, when faced with a Silent Gliss roller blind and its cheaper alternative, typically our clients opt for the cheaper option. Why? because generally, that client will be after a functional solution for privacy (think ground level bay window in suburban London), and there are some very good reasonably priced products on the market in various hues and levels of opacity that do the job perfectly well.

silent gliss 4910 roller blinds, from Moghul

The completed upstairs sitting room – with the Silent Gliss 4910 system in two shades of Colorama 2 (469 and 402)

But this project delivered up a timely reminder of the brilliance of the Silent Gliss roller blind system…

Superior mechanism – the first thing you notice when you operate a Silent Gliss roller blind is the silky smoothness of the mechanism. It glides like no other manually operated roller blind we have fitted – providing some justification for Silent Gliss often being described as the Rolls Royce of roller blinds.

Peerless fabric – Gillie and David loved the texture of the Colorama fabric – which is available in two thicknesses (or opacity levels) – Colorama 1 and Colorama 2, a large variety of colours and up to 335cms wide in its stiffened (roller blind) version. In short, (with apologies for the sweeping generalisation!) roller blind fabrics tend to have a crispy feel, and so there are few fabrics on the market that come close to Colorama in terms of emulating the softness of a curtain drape.

No surprise then that it has been Silent Gliss’s most successful fabric over the last 20 years. Laminated roller blinds give you more choice but have limitations in terms of the width and drop that the blind can be made up to.

Further challenges:

Bespoke brackets for Silent Gliss 4910 system - Moghul

On the side walls we bolted the roller blind brackets to Silent Gliss 3135 brackets – which are more typically used for their curtain track systems

The downstairs sitting room was by far the trickier of the two rooms. On the rear, facing wall we were able to fix the roller blinds in the obvious place (see above right) – on the aluminium panel above the  sliding doors. However on the longer side wall, the positioning of the steel joists along the ceiling meant that this fixing point would have left some of the blinds not completely covering their corresponding windows.

It’s always a shame when a bespoke product leaves the glass exposed down the side of the blind, so we decided to take the blinds under the steel joists, and in the middle of each window, support the blind brackets with a Silent Gliss 3135 bracket (see above left) – which is more typically used for Silent Gliss’s curtain track systems.

Silent Gliss 4910 system Colorama 2 from Moghul

Alternating shades (Colorama 2 shades 408 and 402) provide a striking contrast that tone perfectly with the room’s other accent shades

And finally – a spot of more traditional DIY was required to shorten 5 book shelves that obstructed one of the roller blinds!

Silent Gliss 4910 system close to book shelves

The book shelves were carefully trimmed in situ to allow unimpeded operation of the far left blind

 

 

 

 

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2013 Trend Update – how fashion influences soft furnishings

By Charlie White | Published: 7 February 2013

We were struck by how striking patterns and bright colours (think orange at Decorex) punctuated the displays at last year’s autumn home interiors shows, as the movers and shakers in the industry put their markers down for this year’s hot trends and hues.

And it doesn’t take long to see where the world of soft furnishings takes its inspiration from. Indeed the Fashion Report 2013 in this month’s issue of Elle Decoration leads with the headline “how the catwalk influences the way we live”.

So what is the world of fashion predicting for 2013, and how has this translated into the world of soft furnishings?

From the catwalk to the living room…

catwalk trends 2013

A stunning feature in this month’s issue of Harpers Bazaar (above, top) highlights how fashion designers are showcasing a blazing spectrum of colours for 2013 – from hot orange, red, yellow amber and pink tones, to cool serene hues of the ocean.

HUE DARES WINS! and the tabloids (see You magazine above) have translated this theme to everyday life by showing how these hues have hit the high street.

And the science behind this year’s colours – a wonderful balancing of colour…

We’ve put together some pins on our Pinterest page to give you a general overview of how the Spring/Summer colours feature in this year’s soft furnishings.

Moghul 2013 Trends Pinterest

The Pantone Colour Institute explain why these colours are so important and why they instill the sense of balance that the Institute feel is the theme for 2013 Spring/ Summer. “We’re always seeking balance in our lives but we don’t often think about colour as an expression of balance” says executive director Leatrice Eiseman.

So here’s their run down of the key colours for Spring /Summer 2013, with our take on how these colours have translated into this year’s soft furnishings schemes:

pantone fashion colour report spring 2013

Novel Neutrals:

Dusk blue – we don’t think about blue as neutral but in nature, blue is a background to almost everything and works seemlessly with the foreground colours. Calm and serenity are the catch words here (below, our embroidered motif linen union Signature Range).

Dusk blue embroidered linen union blind

Grayed Jade – has a strong grey undertone and functions perfectly as a neutral colour because of the strong grey undertone.

Linen – a “nude” like colour with a quality that gives it a light, diapherous airy feeling, enabling it to function effortlessly as a neutral (below, our embroidered corn ear and dragonfly motifs on a nude/pink linen union background).

linen union embroidered motif curtains moghul

Balancing light and bright

Emerald – a brighter, vivid colour with a sense of clarity – a beautiful spring colour that gives a marvellous grounding for other colours in the palette.

African violet – a floral colour as the name implies – an attachment to the exotic that combines wonderfully with our other Spring/ Summer 2013 colours. Swaffer have captured this with their Whitworth Linen (Gallery Range) – below.

Swaffer Whitworth Linen floral fabric

Nectarine – the answer to where orange has been for last few years. A warm coral touch.

Poppy Red – Spring time has to have some fun shades of red. A wonderful colour for combining and for creating that Spring time sense of exhuberance.

Lemon Zest – makes us smile, stop and think sunshine, and is a wonderful balancing colour to use with some of our neutral colours.

Tender Shoots – a third green showing us the importance of greens in Spring/ Summer 2013. An exhuberant, fun attention getter that bounces off our other 2013 palette colours beautifully.

Tender Shoots Pantone coloursMonaco Blue – the anchor of the entire group. Not the typical navy blue we often think of, but hightened to provide a little extra cheer whilst still being a wonderful, calm, anchoring colour to every other colour in the palette.

monaco blue swedish blind, moghul

Colour and fabric as a means of self expression

So this year, it’s all about achieving a sense of balance in our soft furnishings. The Spring/ Summer palette colours that first surfaced on the catwalk now pervade the world of soft furnishings and work effortlessly together, enabling us to combine calming neutrals with more vivid exuberant colours for a perfectly balanced scheme.

But it’s not just about colour. Many of the major fabric suppliers heavily feature floral designs in this year’s collections (see African Violet above). Meanwhile the fashion world is once again gripped by the monochrome trend, and this has translated into bold, graphic patterns in the home.

bold graphics and monochrome

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Curtains for Sliding Doors

By Charlie White | Published: 14 December 2012

The bifold door phenomenon is now embedded in every sophisticated architect’s brief when it comes to designing uber chic, contemporary kitchen and living room spaces, and in recent blogs on bifold doors we’ve discussed the various benefits of these innovative systems.

However talk to any bifold door manufacturer, and they will tell you that, with this trend towards designing ever larger glazed living area windows, sliding doors have quietly but implacably muscled in on this lucrative market (any episode of Grand Designs will support this).

Sliding doors are back: think sliding doors and you tend to cast your mind back to those rather clunky unpainted aluminium structures that we optimistically installed back in the 80′s. But they didn’t really work, did they? Draughty and ugly, with limited pane sizes, they would get stuck after a few years, and so after much cursing we all tore them out, to be replaced by some good old fashioned french doors or equivalent (this was, remember in the days before the bifold).

curtains for sliding doors

Floor to ceiling sliding doors – a stunning way to link your living space with the outdoors

But now, sliding doors bare no resemblance to their awkward predecessors. Today’s incarnations are slick, triple glazed systems which glide slickly on finger tip control. Linking your living areas with the outdoors has never been more seamless, but the age old problem of how to incorporate soft furnishings into these minimalist contemporary spaces doesn’t go away – which brings us onto this month’s case study.

curtain tracks for sliding doorsThe Challenge! Back in August one of our clients was nearing the end of a dramatic refurbishment of their south west London home, and their architects got in touch with us to discuss curtains for the soon to be installed kitchen sliding doors. Client had sensibly insisted on incorporating sheer curtains into the kitchen area design, so as to afford some privacy to this space. However the architects didn’t want to compromise on the aesthetics of the room, and were interested to know if we could install a semi-hidden track system which could continue into a cupboard, so that the curtains could be hidden away when not in use.

Choosing the right tracks: the easy part was recommending a track system, in this case the KS Klick System from Evans Textiles, chosen for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it’s profile was ideally suited to being rebated into the plaster board so as to sit flush with the ceiling with the plastering complete. Secondly the larger section of windows would span over 6 metres with three 90 degree bends. The length of this run would necessitate a join in the middle of the track, which would need to be seamless to ensure smooth operation of the curtains. The Evans system is one of the few systems on the market that can work to this challenging brief.

Sliding door curtain cupboardStacking the curtains into cupboards: by far the most challenging, and in many ways novel part of the brief concerned the cupboards that the curtains were to stack into when not in use. The first set of doors were just under 4 metres wide, with an intended cupboard area of just 50cms. The preferred option of a wave headed curtain was swiftly abandoned in favour of a double pinch pleat heading – which would be much more economical when stacked. The size and shape of each pleat, together with the number of pleats and their spacing would have to be carefully calculated to ensure the curtains could be stored in this limited cupboard space.

The second set of doors had two sections meeting at right angles, with a combined width of 6 metres. Again, the design anticipated minimal cupboard space of 50cms. As there was no way that a 6 metre wide curtain could be stacked into such a limited space, some hasty advice from us following an on-site technical measure led to the reconfiguration of this cupboard to incorporate a track that would turn at 90 degrees in the cupboard into a 1 metre deep hidden space behind a shelving system.

sliding door curtain track

The 6 metre section of track for the sliding door curtains is fixed in place prior to plastering. The track turns at 90 degrees into what will be a concealed cupboard (far right)

Our input to the architects complete, we turned our attention to fabricating the curtains. To minimise stacking space, each pleat would be sewn together at the top to stop it fanning out and using up valuable space inside the cupboards. The number of pleats on each curtain was carefully calculated, as was pleat spacing – so that the curtains stacked to the exact space required.

sliding door curtains south west london

Click on the above photo to view a video of the completed project

The curtains are hand drawn by means of 152cm long white fibreglass draw rods, also from Evans Textiles.

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Blind cord safety

By Charlie White | Published: 19 November 2012

The tragic news broke a couple of weeks back that another toddler has died after becoming entangled in a blind cord – and the fact that it happened to the child of a Norwegian shipping and oil tycoon seems to make the story resonate even stronger. This sort of accident strikes indiscriminately - regardless of wealth or otherwise.

blind cord safety device

A standard safety device that Evans Textiles supply with all chain driven roman blind headrail systems

So what’s going on, and how can we make our toddlers’ soft furnishings safer? 

Oscar Wilde famously said “life’s what happens whilst you’re making plans” and in the same way that you don’t fall on ice when you know it’s there (and are being careful to avoid it), the same can be said for these tragic incidents.

So put simply you rush up the soft furnishings in your baby’s room when they’re born (or perhaps put them near the window in your own bedroom – where clearly no care or thought has ever gone into the safety of your blind cords – and why would it?). For the first 6 to 8 months of their lives they’re pretty immobile. Mum and Dad get lulled into a false sense of security about leaving their loved one alone in the bedroom during sleepy time – and perhaps the inevitable fatigue that comes with a new arrival causes you to forget to sort out those trailing cords. And then oh so gradually, little person starts to explore the world, and this is when the accident looms large on the horizon.

To quote directly from ROSPA’s website, “research indicates that most accidental deaths involving blind cords happen in the bedroom and occur in children between 16 months and 36 months old, with the majority (more than half) happening at around 23 months.

These toddlers are mobile, but their heads still weigh proportionately more than their bodies compared to adults and their muscular control is not yet fully developed, which makes them more prone to be unable to free themselves if they become entangled.

In addition, toddlers’ windpipes have not yet fully developed and are smaller and less rigid than those of adults and older children. This means that they suffocate far more quickly if their necks are constricted.

As with drowning, toddlers can be strangled quickly and quietly by looped cords with carers in close proximity, potentially unaware of what is happening.”

Six steps to help make your child’s bedroom safe:

I urge you to visit ROSPA’s website for a definitive and exhaustive run down on everything you need to know on this subject (including downloadable pdfs and videos), but here’s a summary of some of the key points to be aware of:

  • Where you’re installing new blinds in your child’s bedroom, consider blinds that don’t have a cord, or motorised blinds
  • Do not place a child’s cot, bed, playpen or highchair near a window
  • Pull cords on curtains and blinds should be kept short and kept out of reach, and restrained with an appropriate child safety tension device where appropriate
  • Tie up the cords or use one of the many cleats, cord tidies, clips or ties that are available
  • Do not hang toys or objects that could be a hazard on the cot or bed
  • Don’t hang drawstring bags where a small child could get their head through the loop of the drawstring

And a few practical tips (from a fitter’s perspective):

chain break connectors, Moghul

Roller blind chains will typically require a chain connector. The traditional connector (left) is pretty much as strong as the chain itself, and will not break easily under pressure, whereas the safety chain break connector (right) will break apart when undue pressure is applied to the chain

Take the roller blind chain connectors pictured above. The chain break connector safety device – now supplied by many manufacturers as standard can sometimes break under adult use (a few call outs to perplexed customers bear testament to this), and how much “undue pressure” is required for the safety connector to break under a toddler’s weight? Also, chain driven headrail systems for roman blinds typically require continuous chains – because the gearing ratio in the mechanism requires the chains to make more than one revolution through the mechanism before the blind is fully raised or lowered.

So in these circumstances, the safest strategy is to keep your child’s cot as far away from harms way as possible, and where (as, let’s face it, is so often the case) you aren’t in a position to replace your blinds with chainless/ cordless alternatives, and you have no choice but to locate the cords or chains close to the bed, there are some pretty sensible steps you can take to minimise the danger.

Install child safety tensioners: for example  you should ensure any loose chains are safely tensioned by an appropriate child safety tensioner, which can be retro fitted to existing blind and curtain cords or chains:

child safety tension pulleys

Just a few of the many child safety tension pulleys on the market, from the standard, plastic pulleys that are supplied as standard with most headrail kits and roller blinds (far left and second from left), to the higher spec spring loaded metal tension pulleys (second from right and far right)

The roman blind pictured below is made safe with the standard tensioner supplied by the manufacturer. These tensioners are ideal for recess fixed blinds.

For blinds fitted outside the recess, these tensioners aren’t quite so ideal as you will typically have to twist the chain through 90 degrees to fix it and the tensioner to the wall, so consider fitting a metal spring loaded tension pulley (as pictured above), as these can be rotated in their housing to keep the chain running in line with its mechanism.

roman blind with child safety chain tensioner

The roman blind chain is safely tensioned out of harms way, using the standard tensioner supplied with the headrail system (supplied by Evans Textiles)

Make curtain cords safe too: the spring loaded pulleys pictured above are also used to keep curtain cords tensioned and out of reach.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sheer curtains – the perfect made to measure solution!

By Charlie White | Published: 30 October 2012

When I mention made to measure sheer curtains in client consultations I often get the feeling that I have somehow, Dynamo style, mystically transplanted the thought of some horrible 1970′s Brighton B&B into their mind, complete with frilly net curtains crudely strung between those horrible net wires in the downstairs windows. If the alarm bells are ringing to a similar tune in your head, turn them off, delete “net curtains” permanently from your memory and read on!

The truth is sheer or voile curtains have come a long way since the days they were cruelly locked between net wires, and we’ve found ourselves fitting them everywhere from the 5 star Westminster Corinthia Hotel (where the X Factor contestants are currently staying) to the showroom of a leading London fashion designer (he’s sworn us to secrecy, but the Duchess of Cambridge has a particular penchant for his dresses!) Back at home, they provide the perfect solution to your privacy issues, and can work on their own, or behind fully lined curtains.

bedroom sheer curtains from Moghul

Floor to ceiling pencil pleat curtains in a 300cm wide sheer fabric (wide width to minimise seams) sit behind the blackout lined curtains to soften the light and provide privacy during the day

What curtain heading should I choose for my sheer curtains? Whilst this is very much a matter of personal preference, sheer curtains tend to work best on a pencil pleat heading. Why? because sheer fabric doesn’t really need to behave (or hang in its folds) – because, being sheer, there’s a level of transparency to it. It’s a much more fluid, relaxed look, so a formal pinch pleat isn’t really necessary.

sheer curtains on a wave heading from Moghul

Whilst sheer curtains tend to have a pencil pleat heading, a wave heading creates a truly stunning, contemporary look (featured curtain hung on an Evans CKS corded klick system track with Easyfold carriers)

That said, wave headings (the best exponents of which in my view come in the form of the Forest Easyfold system) produce an absolutely stunning, contemporary effect.

An incredibly cost effective solution: sheer curtains represent great value for money. For one, you’re only paying for one layer of fabric and typically most sheer fabrics retail at between £10 and £20 per metre.

Sheers come in wide widths: They’re also available in wide widths ie 300cms wide as opposed to the more typical 140cms, which cuts down on the number of seams (the joins between each curtain fabric width).

Before…

bay window before sheer curtains

The ground floor bay window is rather exposed before the sheer curtains are fitted

After…

bay window sheer curtains from Moghul

A stunning transformation – the sheer curtains create a soft, calming presence, and the outside space is delicately diffused, affording our client valuable privacy – again featuring the Evans CKS corded klick sytem with Easyfold carriers)

 

 

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Decorex 2012 – Review

By Louise Rea | Published: 2 October 2012

Decorex Chair SculptureIt’s 2012 and Decorex is back with its 35th anniversary, making it the longest standing design and interior show during the London Design Festival.

Moghul Director Sallyanne Jones and I arrived with the doors opening on Monday morning – with over 250 exhibitors showing, there aren’t enough hours in the day to do the show justice! Every style is represented, from contemporary to traditional with bespoke furniture, lighting, floor coverings, fabrics and wall coverings, accessories and bespoke services.

Fabrics With the impending update of our own collections in mind, fabrics were our first focus of the show. Highlights included Linwood, breaking away from tradition with some fun new ranges including the eclectic Art House, with its oversize alphabet print, forest walks, made up tube maps and cups of tea!

Linwood fabrics from Moghul

Also on our radar was Swaffer, with an inspiring new collection that was in a more traditional vein, but lovely and relaxed using the increasing trend of raspberry shades.

Clarke and Clarke provided a pleasant surprise to proceedings. They’ve really upped their game with some great prints, which we will review here at a later date, but here’s a taster – very Designers Guild at an eminently reasonable price point. Clarke and Clarke fabrics

Lighting: On to Lighting, and one particular stand blew us away –  Branch Interiors featuring Luna Bella. This range includes not only the most amazingly inventive lighting, but furniture and accessories. With an on trend steam punk theme, these pieces are designed by Nicolas Trijillo and Teresa Costa who are based in Florida. Using mechanical details and distinctive materials, the pieces are completely unique and have a truly hand built feel to them, which they are!

I would say the design ethic is based in Art Nouveau but with a real modern twist. In a world of mass produced product, it is so exciting when you come across the work of artisans. The pieces are only made on a short run which means you won’t see your light in every restaurant you go into over the next ten years! Overall, a little bit bonkers, but fabulous!

Decorex lighting by Moghul

Furniture: Decorex’s furniture offering was, as ever, broad and varied, but it was great to see Aram represented with a packed stand full of their signature contemporary style. Sallyanne got very excited by a modular corner sofa with corner seats that could swivel on an axis so you could configure the seating in lots of different ways! Very cool.

modular corner sofa decorex

Colour: And finally, what colour dominated the show this year? Orange. And here’s the proof…..

orange colour Decorex

From left: Sinclair Matthews bespoke furniture – orange highlights and loving those fabric covered walls! Robert Langford furniture, and a striking stair runner from Anna V Rugs.

After all that, and much more, we felt a little treat was in order so we headed to the champagne bar designed by Rabih Hage. I would post a photo, but I forgot to take one….we were rather distracted by the pink fizz!

Watch the Decorex 2012 video highlights

Since we posted this blog, footage from the show including thoughts from Rabih Hage, Mikhail Pietrenek, Nicky Haslam and Nina Campbell has been posted on the Decorex website. You can view the video by clicking on the link below:

Decorex 2012 video highlights

Video highlights from Decorex 2012

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Dormer Window Roman Blinds

By Charlie White | Published: 24 September 2012

So last week we looked at how curtains on dormer rods can, with a bit of careful planning create the perfect dormer window treatment. However what was interesting about this Bath case study was that our client had four sets of identical dormer windows on the top floor of their house, and whilst they chose dormer rod curtains in the guest room, in the other two childrens’ bedrooms and the bathroom they opted for roman blinds.

dormer window roman blinds - Moghul

Dormer windows are notoriously difficult spaces to dress, but with a bit of careful planning roman blinds can offer the perfect solution

The best solution for your dormer window

Our job in these situations is to point out what works best in the space, and work out whether this fits in with what the client has in mind. In this case, our clients had a working example to help. They had inherited a few sets of curtains on dormer rods from the people they had recently bought the house from, and they weren’t too impressed with the way they worked – primarily because the dormer rods were badly hung and the curtains weren’t long enough. We demonstrated in our last blog how these issues can be tackled with a little careful planning – with the result that they opted for curtains on dormer rods in the guest room.

However the remaining dormer windows in the childrens’ rooms and bathroom called for a crisper more functional solution. In short, curtains were a little too twee for these spaces.

The solution

So we agreed upon roman blinds for the remaining dormer window rooms.

Dormer window roman blinds – getting it right

Minimise stack: There are just a few things to be aware of when thinking about putting roman blinds in dormer windows. Firstly, you need to liaise closely with your designer and the person making the blinds to ensure the stack (ie the folds when the blind is fully raised) are sufficiently tight that the blind doesn’t take up too much space and therefore diminish light coming into the room – as light tends to be so critical in rooms with dormer windows. The blind stack is determined by the number of roman blind rods/rod pockets that are positioned down the back of the blind. The greater the number, the tighter the stack.

Make the blind as wide as you dare! Secondly, if you’re after a blackout solution (so often the case in childrens’ rooms) but also with winter approaching, for thermal reasons, you want to make the blind as tight inside the window as possible. This is a tricky calculation for your designer to make, as typically we all like to leave at least 5mm gap between the edge of the blind and the wall to ensure it’s movement up and down the window is unimpeded.

Interlining for thermal and blackout: Thirdly, for blackout roman blinds, consider a fairly thick interlining, as this will help to minimise the pin pricks of light that you often see when the blind is lowered during the day time (an inevitable and difficult to avoid consequence of the stab stitches, which attach the face of the blind to the rod pockets at the back). Blackout lining is a great solution though, and one we tend to recommend as a default for bedrooms, particularly because the acrylic coating that gives the fabric its blackout properties doubles up as a thermal barrier to draught in the winter, and heat in the summer – thereby helping to regulate the temperature of the room all year round.

Bathroom dormer window roman blind

The roman blind fits snugly into the recess, and notice the inclusion of the child safety tension pulley, which is a good idea in any household where little ones roam.

Choice of roman blind mechanism: The two options here are the traditional cord, cord weight and cleat and the more contemporary chain operated headrail system. What’s the difference? Well clearly, the traditional mechanism will favour a period property where the window treatments and their hardware would look out of place if they were too contemporary.

However the chain driven system works on a gearing ratio, which means the blind is raised and lowered more slowly than it would be under traditional rope power. This actually helps you to maintain the folds of the blind, and will prolong the life of the blind. And the most obvious point – you don’t have to cleat the blind off every time you raise and lower it.

But wherever you’ve got toddlers or little ones, always install a child safety device. These devices come in a variety of styles and specifications, but the basic point of them is to keep the chain out of harms way. Note the device and it’s positioning in the above photograph. 

 

 

 

 

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