THE TRUTH ABOUT EYELET CURTAINS
Social media has made some window coverings trends skyrocket. As a result, we’ve received a lot of enquiries about eyelet curtains. They sure do look great in those images on Pinterest, but do they work well on Australian windows?
Eyelet curtains are the most common style of ready-made curtain. They can be easily purchased from a number of furniture stores and are usually pretty inexpensive. They’re simple to use, and pretty hard to get wrong. Though as with all ready-made curtains, you’ll need to organise installation yourself.
Customers come to us for custom eyelet curtains when they can’t find the correct sizes in the ready-made format. We cringe inwardly every time for two reasons: Bespoke prices can’t compete with ready-made, and the windows are likely unsuitable for eyelets.
SIZE RESTRICTIONS
Eyelets can be a great option on narrow windows as they have a minimal stack back, ie: they don’t take up much room when in the open position. But Aussie windows are often large, with expanses of glass to be covered. Due to the nature of the heading, they cannot pass a bracket. So if your window is quite wide, it will require more than just one centre bracket, meaning your curtains will never be fully functional.
COST
While ready-made eyelet curtains are cheaply produced in bulk by automated machines, they are very expensive to reproduce as a custom heading. Bespoke workrooms perform the process by hand and the effort of pressing a grommet into fabric is difficult and labour intensive. That labour is charged for accordingly. You also have the added cost of the eyelets themselves, which can be up to $6 each (you need 8 per drop of curtain)!
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Delicate fabrics don’t fare well in the production process of eyelet curtains. The grommets place pressure on the fabric, and may eventually cause the fabric to sag from the puncture point.
ALTERNATIVES
If you love the way eyelet curtains drape, a fantastic (and cheaper) alternative is an s-fold. An s-fold curtain will fall in the same shaped pleat, and is compatible with larger windows.