Window treatments: How to select and hang curtains

Don't know your pleats from your pelmets? Kya deLongchamps shows you how to dress your windows to impress

Tied up on string, French doors wear curtains while the windows of this coastal home carry traditional striped blinds. Quirky and cheerful, the Cromer Embroidery fabric from Sanderson Home was inspired by the annual Crab and Lobster Festival in Cromer, Norfolk. From €77 per metre, suppliers include thedraperyshop.ie (Cork).

Always a draw, curtains offer a decorative flourish that can set the stage for a whole scheme, plus thermal performance, and a centimetre-by-centimetre light control. If you don’t know your pleats from your pelmets, here’s my simple-to-follow introduction for finding or making something swish.

PLEATS, PLEASE