Choosing curtain fabric.

The fabric families.

Linen and linen-look blends.

Real linen has a beautiful irregular texture and a soft, slightly relaxed fall that no synthetic quite copies. It is also the least practical option in a hot climate: it fades in strong sun, it creases, it moves with humidity so the hem can shift between seasons, and it shrinks if it is washed. Linen-look polyester and linen-polyester blends give you most of the texture with far better fade resistance and dimensional stability, which is why they are the most commonly specified face fabric in Pakenham homes. If you want real linen, put it in a room that does not cop the afternoon sun.

Polyester and polyester blends.

The workhorse. Modern curtain polyester is nothing like the shiny material people remember from decades ago: it comes in dense textured weaves, matte finishes and convincing linen and wool looks. It resists fading, holds its shape, is dimensionally stable, and is the most forgiving fabric to live with in a house with kids or pets. Solution-dyed variants, where the colour is in the fibre rather than applied to the surface, are the best choice for a west-facing window.

Triple weave.

A blockout fabric that stops light in the weave itself, using three layers of yarn in one cloth, rather than relying on a coating applied to the back. It drapes more softly than a coated blockout, has no coating to crack or peel over the years, and does not trap moisture against cold glass the way a foam-backed lining can. That last point makes it our default recommendation in the tightly sealed new builds around Officer where condensation is a real issue. Runs $300 to $750 per window supplied and installed.

Velvet.

Heavy, luxurious, and the best acoustic and thermal performer of the lot because of sheer mass and pile. Superb in a formal front room or a media room. The drawbacks are weight, which pushes you to heavy-duty hardware, crushing, where the pile marks if it is compressed or badly stored, and dust, since a pile fabric holds far more of it than a flat weave. It also needs to be dry cleaned. In older homes around Beaconsfield with high ceilings and long drops it can look magnificent, provided the track is specified for the load.

Textured sheers.

Sheers have moved a long way from flat white voile. Current textured sheers have slubs, linen-like irregularities and open weaves that read as a real fabric rather than a veil. Most are woven wide, often 280cm to 300cm, so they can be railroaded, which means turned on their side and run horizontally across a wide opening with no vertical seams. That is why they work so well over a four metre stacker door. Practical note: an open weave gives less privacy than a dense one, so hold the sample up against your own glass at the measure and look at it from outside.

Fade and UV: the Cardinia problem.

Summer here brings extended dry spells above 35 degrees with harsh northerly and westerly sun, and that is what destroys curtain fabric. Fading is cumulative, irreversible, and it happens to the part of the curtain that is exposed, so a curtain that is left half open all summer fades unevenly.

• Most vulnerable: silk, pure linen, and mid to dark dyed natural fibres.
• Most resistant: solution-dyed polyester, high grade polyester blends, pale neutrals.
• The lining does the heavy lifting. It takes the UV first and protects the face fabric you actually see. This is the strongest argument for never running an unlined face fabric on a sunny window.
• Two layers beat one. A sheer in front of a blockout means the blockout is shaded most of the day, which extends the life of both.

Linings, and what each one is for.

• Standard lining: the baseline. Improves drape, protects the face fabric from UV, adds modest warmth.
• Blockout lining: stops light. Bedrooms and media rooms.
• Thermal or coated lining: the winter performer, and where the real value is in older single glazed homes around Koo Wee Rup and Bunyip.
• Interlining (bump): a soft layer between face fabric and lining. Best thermal result, beautiful weight and body, highest cost.

Adding lining to curtains you already own runs $150 to $400 per pair, which is often better value than replacing them. See alterations.

Washability, honestly.

Most made-to-measure curtains should be dry cleaned or professionally cleaned, not washed at home. Polyester and polyester blends are the most forgiving and can often be gently washed cold and rehung damp so they drop back into shape. Linen shrinks and creases badly. Velvet crushes. Anything interlined or coated should never go in a machine, because the layers shrink at different rates and the curtain will never hang straight again. Nothing with a lining should be tumble dried.

Day to day, a vacuum with the upholstery brush every few months does more for the life of a curtain than any wash. In wood-heated homes that matters more, because fine particulate settles into the fabric.

Pattern repeat and your budget.

A patterned fabric costs more than its price per metre suggests. Every drop must begin at the same point in the design so the pattern lines up horizontally across the finished curtain, which means each drop is cut to the next whole repeat and the offcut is discarded. A 64cm repeat on a 2.4 metre drop wastes 16cm per drop, which on a six-drop curtain is nearly a metre of fabric you paid for and will never see. Large repeats on expensive fabric are where curtain budgets quietly blow out. The full costing mechanics are in the Pakenham cost guide.

The practical approach we recommend: plain or small-texture fabric on your biggest windows, and save the patterned fabric for one feature room where the window is modest.

Matching fabric to the room.

• West-facing living: solution-dyed or high grade polyester, lined, in a pale to mid neutral. Sheer in front if you want the view softened rather than closed.
• Bedrooms: triple weave, or a face fabric with a blockout lining. Texture over pattern, since the curtain is closed when you are looking at it.
• Formal front room: velvet or a heavy textured weave, interlined if warmth matters, on heavy-duty hardware.
• Stacker doors: a wide railroaded textured sheer, no joins across the span. See curtains for sliding doors.
• Older cold rooms: mid-weight textured fabric with a thermal lining, floor length, on a track with proper returns.

Frequently asked questions.