h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Mrs Quotes and I have a friendly dispute about the best thing to hang curtains from. One of us prefers the sort which are operated by a cord on the side, pulling both curtains at once; the other favours a pole, because it is simpler and doesn't end up with a yucky greasy cord. However, the other person points out that if only the cord gets dirty, it saves anyone touching the curtains themselves...and it halves the operating time. Oh, and I believe poles are trendy right now.

Which is best?

Any toddlers about the place? I'm just asking as there have been a number of instances recently of toddlers strangling themselves with curtain cords. Still not exactly what you'd call a common occurance, but worth bearing in mind perhaps.

Good point KB
Go for a pole as eventually the little dear will swing on the curtain a plastic track will simply collapse.

There are many kinds of track - plastic, aluminium, steel, corded etc. They provide a simple, effective and durable solution to hanging curtains.Unlike poles, they never clash with the decor necessitating changing the whole kit & caboodle. Possibly the best (imo) uncorded track is Harrison Drape White Drape which has been around since the 50s. For corded tracks I'd recommend the Silentgliss 3000. However, to avoid the problem of grubby cords, you could use uncorded track with draw rods to open and close the curtains.

As for poles, again you have a choice and these are very much fashion conscious, especially given the popularity of eyelet curtains at the moment. British interior designers traditionally favoured quite chunky poles - from 28 - 50mm in wood and metal but the popularity of Scandinavian style through Ikea & the like means many people favoured 18-19mm poles for a while. These are starting to fade now but remain popular in kitchens and bathrooms.

Wood poles are available in a number of styles, grained and painted. As with the metal poles, most are sourced from China and you may wish to look for the FSC symbol meaning they have been harvested from sustainable sources. They tend to be made from pine in the main, with the finials often made from compressed sawdust and the rings made from eucalyptus.

Metal poles are available in many different shades and a huge variety of finial styles. In the UK, the most popular colours are Stainless Steel or Antique Brass and a simple ball finial.

Corded poles are available, some using tension cords (like the Swish Polaris) meaning there is no loop to create a choking hazard and no chance of a grubby cord as a weighted pull is used.

Recent changes to legislation means that all corded poles and tracks must be supplied with cords of only 1m in length and with a device to fix the free end to the wall. Realistically, the industry is moving away from looped cords towards cordless or tensioned systems.

I was going to say that, but you beat me to it.

The little darlings are perfectly capable of wrecking poles just as successfully as tracks .

We use Swish tracks and close the curtains by hand. But we have a pole for the curtain over the front door, and a pole for the curtain in the living room. Not sure why.

My mum has tracks with cords and I always forget about the cords and close her curtains by hand (please don't tell her).

I'd rather have grubby curtains than grubby cords, simply because curtains need cleaning regularly anyway, and I suspect they are easier to clean than cords.

Mol

We have some curtains on poles because that suits our old house. Some are simple tracks but none have cord pull. Depends a bit where you can mount the track/pole & what sort of header you want on the curtain.
The advantage of curtains that you can pull by hand is pulling just one part way eg to block sun. Always seems easier to swish a curtain across by hand rather than pull cords - by the time you've sorted out where the cord is, which to pull to close etc.
Grubby cords are so yuk - like light pulls in bathroom.

Curtains are extremely important in screwball comedies. Someone is always supposed to be in a room where they're not supposed to be, and they hide behind the curtains when the owners come in.

So, take your curtains very seriously, my friends. You never know when a screwball comedy might suddenly erupt in your house.

get some remote control curtains no cords

Remote controls could make for some very funny scenes!

In my fantasy house, I have curtains controlled by a timer switch

Mol

There's a guy in the US has his house hard wired so he can use his mobile to control lights, curtains, heating etc when he's not at home.
It can be done!

Generally for household fittings (like many other things) I favour a 'Keep It Simple, Stupid!' approach.

The more intricate any mechanism, the more there is to go wrong with it, and the more expensive it is, too. Plus, as Teasswill points out, there are advantages to being able to open or close each curtain independently.

The only advantage for pull-cords seems to be a notion of labour saving, but let's be honest - it takes less than a second for an able-bodied person to pull over a curtain, so it probably takes more labour and time to operate the pull-cord, if anything.

I would advocate metal hooks & runners though - the plastic ones do seem to deteriorate. Annoying to have to keep replacing them.
Went to stay with my Mum recently, used the spare room - which gets the sun. Tried to pull the curtain - not realising it had a cord - and all the hooks broke. Had to loop the curtain over the track to screen the window! We've now replaced all the hooks with metal ones...

I agree with KB on he ease of pulling curtains over.

Depends on the drop and the weight of the curtains. Also, if you have a bay window it's not always practicable to close them by hand.

My bay window is smaller since I lost some weight. Wait, that's not the kind of bay window you meant, is it?

>>The only advantage for pull-cords seems to be a notion of labour saving/

Sometimes curtains are in a position where it is difficult to pull them individually.

That's true. It's also true of pull cords. I got fed up of climbing up on my desk whenever we needed to adjust the blind at work, so I've extended the the pull cord and hooked it around my monitor stand. One of life's little victories.

Mol