Bespoke Blinds & Curtains
in Kensington, Made for
Tall Sash Windows

The signature Kensington window is a tall sash, often original and often single-glazed on upper floors. Two problems follow: cold air falls down the glass all winter and spills across the floor, and the sheer drop magnifies every making error.

Interlining answers the first. It adds mass and thermal resistance, improves the way the fabric falls, and, combined with full-length drops and proper returns at each end, closes the gap at the sides where the draught actually escapes into the room.

The second is answered by measurement discipline. Floors in period rooms are rarely level across a wide window, so the drop is measured at several points and set out accordingly, otherwise one curtain breaks on the floor while the other hangs short. That check takes minutes at the visit and cannot be corrected afterwards.

Mansion flats and townhouse principal rooms frequently leave very little usable wall between the top of the window and a cornice. A wall bracket forced into that gap either sits too low, cutting into the glass, or damages the plasterwork.

The correct response is usually a ceiling-fixed track, sometimes with a fabric-covered pelmet or a fascia to conceal it. That gains height, keeps the heading level and avoids touching the cornice at all. Where shutter boxes take up the reveal, blinds are moved outside the recess and above the opening instead of being squeezed in.

Substrate is the other unknown. Lath and plaster, and old lime plaster over brick, do not hold a standard fixing under the weight of an interlined curtain. We establish what is behind the finish before specifying, which is why the hardware decision is made on site rather than from a plan.

Many Kensington rooms face directly onto a street or a communal garden, so daytime privacy has to be solved without losing the light that makes the room work. Voiles or an unlined Roman blind behind full curtains handle that: privacy by day, full cover and warmth at night.

Listed buildings and conservation areas restrict what can be altered, and managed buildings and estates often set rules about what is visible from outside: commonly the colour of the lining seen from the street. Where that applies we specify the lining accordingly, and we ask about it before ordering rather than after installation.

Access is a practical constraint in its own right. Lift dimensions, stair widths, porter access and parking or loading restrictions all affect how long curtains can be delivered and installed, so those details are confirmed when the fitting is booked.