Drape or drapery, a curtain is a piece of cloth made to obscure the light. Curtains are also known as draperies. Curtains are coming in a large variety of materials, sizes, shapes, colors and patterns. Some shops are completely dedicated to selling curtains or draperies. With an appropriate curtain you will improve the décor of your living room, dinner room or bed room; a shower curtain can be spectacular and change in a dramatically your bathroom.

The blinds or wooden shutters that are fixed to the outside of the building to provide privacy and keep the building cool inside. The effect of draperies is best seen in daylight, but it can look attractive even at night. Usually, the curtains can be made from vary thickness of fabric; there is a large scale of degrees of light absorption because the fabrics are also very different. The heat insulating qualities are depending of the fabric thickness and quality. Sheer curtain is made from translucent fabric, such as cotton lace or loosely woven polyester voile. The light is transmitted through the fabric, with the fabric level weave providing a basic level of UV protection whilst retaining maximum visibility through the curtain.

Uncoated fabrics provide the next level of heat insulation and light absorption; uncoated fabrics consist of the vast majority of fabrics used in curtains, and are composed of a tightly woven fabric, most typically a cotton/ polyester blend, which is mostly opaque when viewed in ambient light. Uncoated fabrics provide a reasonable level of heat insulation due to their tight weave of the fabric; however the fabric itself is typically not thick enough to completely absorb the strong light sources.

Coated fabrics consist of a standard uncoated fabric with an opaque rubber backing applied to the rear of the fabric to provide improved light absorption. To create coated fabric a liquefied rubber polymer is applied in a single coat to an uncoated fabric and subsequently fused dry by means of a heater roller. Coated fabrics absorb 50 – 75 % of a direct light source. To improve the light absorption of a fabric it is possible to re-coat a fabric up to a maximum three pass coated, which is considered sufficient to block out 100% of a direct light source, hence such fabrics are referred as a block out coated.

You can create maximum light absorption and heat insulation in a curtain through a line curtain, which typically consists of an uncoated fabric at the front to provide the look and feel of the curtain, with a separate coated fabric attached at the rear to provide the isolative qualities. The coated fabric is typically referred as a lining, which simply refers to a coated fabric that does not have any particular color or pattern.

Casement curtains work well on windows that are not opened and closed frequently. Casement curtains are a good form of decorative curtain, or a curtain that is used just to add color and texture to a room and is not required to be functional. French pleats are often sewn at the base of the pleat on the face of the fabric to hold the pleat in place. Tab top curtains are best not used where they will be drawn frequently as they don’t move easily over the poles and will wear quickly.