Curtains for Bunyip homes.

Bunyip is a working township rather than a commuter estate, and the housing reflects it. A lot of weatherboard, some solid post-war brick, a scattering of newer builds and rural properties on the edges. The windows are generally older, single glazed and modestly sized, and many homes still heat with a wood fire in the main living room. That combination produces a very specific curtain brief: make the warm room hold its heat, make the cold rooms less miserable, and do it with something that suits an older house rather than fighting it.

Wood heat plus single glazing is a leaky combination.

A wood fire will push a Bunyip lounge room to a very comfortable temperature. What happens next is the problem. All that heat finds the coldest surface in the room, which is the glass, and the convection loop running down the face of the window carries it outside all evening. A floor-length curtain in a substantial fabric with a thermal lining, closed off at the top by a pelmet and at the sides by a return bent back to the wall, interrupts that loop properly. It is the difference between a room that is still pleasant at 10pm and one that has gone cold an hour after the fire dies down.

Practical notes for a wood-heated room.

Keep fabric well clear of the firebox and the flue, and be realistic about cleaning. Wood heating puts fine particulate into the air that settles into any textile in the room, so a fabric that can be dry cleaned or gently washed is a better long-term choice than something delicate. Mid-weight textured polyester and linen-look blends handle it better than a pure linen or a light sheer. The fabric guide goes through washability and durability family by family.

Making narrow windows look right.

Older Bunyip houses tend to have windows that are narrower and lower than anything built in the last twenty years, and hanging a curtain tight to the reveal makes both the window and the room look smaller. The fix is standard and it costs almost nothing: run the track 15cm to 25cm past the reveal on each side so the open curtain stacks off the glass, and mount it above the architrave rather than inside it. The window reads wider, the room reads taller, and you keep the daylight. Details are in our measuring guide.

Heading and hardware for an older house.

Pinch pleat on a track or a rod is the usual pick in Bunyip. It suits the age of the housing, it holds its shape in a heavier fabric, and it works on the sort of modest spans these windows have. S-fold needs a compatible track and a fair bit of stack width to look right, so it tends to belong in the newer builds rather than a 1950s weatherboard. If you want the hardware to be part of the look, a rod and finial set runs $120 to $450; if you want it invisible, a standard track is $90 to $220. The tracks versus rods guide and the heading comparison cover both decisions.

Budget and staging.

Because Bunyip windows are smaller, per-window pricing sits at the friendlier end: roughly $350 to $900 for a lined blockout pinch pleat, $300 to $750 for a triple weave blockout, and $280 to $700 for sheers if you want a soft daytime layer in the front room. Most households here stage the work, doing the living room and the main bedroom first and the rest over the following year. Where you already own curtains that fit the windows, re-lining or re-hemming them is often much better value than replacing, which we cover in alterations and re-hems. Lead time on new curtains is 3 to 5 weeks from approval.

Booking a measure in Bunyip.

Bunyip is on our regular Cardinia run with Garfield, Tynong, Iona and Longwarry. No travel charge, no obligation, written quote itemised per window. Call (03) 9962 4152 or book online.

Bunyip questions we get asked.