Contract Curtains and Voiles
for Developments, Lettings
and Hospitality Interiors

Voiles do a lot of work in apartment schemes: daytime privacy at ground and first floor, softened light on a bright elevation, and a dressed window that still lets a room photograph as light and open.

Wide-width voiles avoid vertical seams across large glazing, which matters visually on full-height windows. Weighted hems keep a voile hanging straight rather than lifting at an opened door, and flame-retardant voiles are specified where the setting requires them.

Voiles are commonly paired with a blackout curtain or blind on a separate track, giving the two functions - privacy by day, darkness by night - without asking one fabric to do both.

Contract fabrics are chosen for abrasion resistance, colour fastness to light and cleanability. A fabric that fades unevenly on a south elevation makes a whole floor look mismatched within two years.

Blackout lining is standard in bedrooms for lettings and hospitality; dim-out is often specified in living spaces. Thermal linings are used where glazing performance is poor and heating costs are the landlord's concern.

Headings for contract use favour robustness: pencil pleat and wave headings on tracks are typically preferred over decorative goblet pleats, since they survive being pulled by the fabric rather than by a hand at the leading edge.

Tracks are usually specified over poles in volume work: they are quieter, take corded or motorised operation, can be ceiling-fixed where a wall fixing is not available, and are less likely to be damaged in a move-in.

Fixing method is verified against actual construction - masonry, metal stud, timber stud, or plasterboard with or without noggins - because a fixing that works in one block type fails in another, and it is not a detail that can be assumed from drawings.

Installation is sequenced against your programme: hardware ahead of decoration touch-ups where possible, fabric last to avoid damage, and access, parking and lift arrangements confirmed in advance so a floor is completed in one visit rather than three.

Private clients buy a considered, individual result and hand-finished detail. Contract clients buy repeatability, durability and programme certainty. Both are made properly; the specification priorities are simply different.

Where a scheme includes a show home, we usually specify it slightly above the standard unit, richer fabric or interlining, while keeping the same colour language, so the marketing suite sells the scheme without misrepresenting what a buyer receives.

The contract work in our area falls into a few recognisable shapes. Apartment schemes and conversions around Rickmansworth, Pinner and Northwood usually need two or three window types repeated across many units, with blackout in bedrooms, dim-out or voiles in living spaces and tracks specified for durability over appearance. Larger houses and new-build plots in Chalfont bring more window types per unit but fewer units.

Central London work in Kensington, Chelsea, Belgravia, Hampstead and Primrose Hill is more often high-specification refurbishment, prime lettings and small hospitality interiors, where the fabric standard is higher, access is tighter and installation has to be scheduled around building management, lifts and parking restrictions. Those logistics are confirmed in writing before the first delivery, because a wasted installation day on a restricted site is expensive for everyone.

What you keep at the end is as important as what is fitted. Each project is handed over with a window-type schedule recording fabric and reference, heading, fullness, lining, hardware, fitting position and finished drop per type, plus which unit received which type. That record is what makes a single damaged replacement a straightforward reorder, lets a later phase match the show home exactly, and gives your maintenance team cleaning guidance per fabric rather than a guess.