Keeping the heat in and the light out!
I’ve been spending a lot of time smartening up my house recently and one thing I have found that has made a big impact is changing the curtains. Apart from a couple of rooms most of the curtains in our home had been bought for previous homes and gone with previous decor. They were functional, but not beautiful. I have been very lucky with finding ‘new’ curtains, having found some gorgeous animal print curtains for YS’s room, some lovely dinosaur curtains for OS’s room, and some beautiful beige patterned curtains for our bedroom (all in charity shops at a combined cost of £33).
I just had one room left that I wanted to change the curtains in – our kitchen/ family room. The Natural Curtain Company must have been reading my mind (or maybe just my blog 🙂 ) because they got in touch and offered to send me some of their thermal black out lined curtains from their ready made curtain range. I chose a lovely set of blue stripy curtains as pictured above. I felt slightly guilty about getting new curtains, but I really like the company. On their about us page they say that the curtains are all made from natural fabrics (where possible) and everything is made in the UK. They are not cheap, but they are good quality and will hopefully last for years to come. They don’t just do ready made curtains they also have a made to measure range. A big bonus as well is that they sell curtains with thermal black out lining.
With all our curtains it is really important for us to have thermal black out curtains or lining behind them as they keep the heat in and the light out! The thermal images below illustrate how well thermal lined curtains keep the heat in and what a difference shutting them makes!
Top tip: Keep your curtains open when the sun is shining and as soon as it goes dark (don’t wait until you go to bed) shut the curtains.This will help to retain the heat of the day in the room and will mean your heating system has less work to do in the evening which means energy savings!
Disclaimer – this is a sponsored post.
Curtains really do make a difference in terms of heat. We moved into a somewhat draughty Victorian house last year and there were curtains missing (despite the fact the previous owner's were supposed to leave them). We didn't realise what a difference having curtains would make until December when we all got 'new' curtains (second-hand from eBay). I did look in the local charity shops but being a big house the windows are an unusual size so didn't find anything. Ah, but what a difference with them up! Plus a door curtain for the dining room as the previous owners had removed it. It used to be a test of nerves eating your dinner in that freezing dining room!
Also, the chimney pillows have made an enormous difference. They were bought after reading a post of yours. We don't have the thermostat set to more than 17*C, even in winter, but the chimney pillows make all the difference. Also, we have used the open fire places and burned 'paper logs' made with used paper and cardboard. They burn very well and are a good, lower carbon way of heating a room. A wood-burning stove would be better, though, as open fires send most of the heat up the chimney, but they cost money and we need a new roof first…
Great post, as always, and I love those blue stripy curtains. They're gorgeous!
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