Curtain Poles and Tracks,
Cut to Length and Fitted
to Carry Real Weight

A pole is chosen when the hardware is meant to be seen: timber, painted, brass, nickel or blackened steel, with finials as part of the room's detail. It suits eyelet, pencil, pinch pleat and goblet headings on spans a bracket run can support comfortably.

A track is chosen when the hardware should disappear or when the mechanics matter more than the look: very wide spans, wave headings, ceiling fixing, bay curves, corded or motorised operation, or a curtain that must sit tight under a cornice. Tracks can be face-fixed, ceiling-fixed or set into a pelmet board.

Some rooms need both: a track for a sheer or voile layer behind, and a pole for the main curtains in front, which gives daytime privacy and full night-time cover on the same window.

Diameter is a load decision first and an aesthetic one second. Slim poles suit light cottons and short drops; heavier interlined curtains on wide spans need a larger diameter and more brackets, and a centre support bracket is often the difference between a straight pole and a sagging one.

Timber poles can be painted or stained to match joinery, which works well in period rooms where a metal finish would sit oddly against the woodwork. Metal poles in brass, antique brass, nickel, chrome and matt black carry more weight in a smaller diameter and suit contemporary and industrial schemes.

Rings, gliders and runners are matched to the heading and the material so the curtain does not catch. Cording sets are specified where a curtain should never be handled directly: pale fabrics, high drops or a heading that would be pulled out of shape by hand.

Bay windows need bends formed to the measured angles, and a decision about whether the curtain passes the bends on a corded system or sits as separate pairs at each facet. Corners and returns need enough clearance that rings can pass without binding.

Long unsupported spans across bi-folds and picture windows need intermediate support without blocking the draw, which usually means a track with ceiling fixings rather than a pole with wall brackets.

Recessed and corniced ceilings limit the height available above the window; the fix is often ceiling fixing or a pelmet board rather than trying to squeeze a bracket under a cornice. Shutter boxes, deep reveals, radiators under sills and window seats all change the projection required, and each of those is measured rather than assumed.

In private homes the hardware is part of the room's detail, so finish, finial and pole diameter are chosen alongside the fabric and the joinery.

In lettings, developments and hospitality interiors the priorities are robustness and repeatability: tracks that survive heavy use, fixings that hold up under turnover, and identical specifications across many identical openings. That work sits with our contract curtains and voiles service.

Fixing substrate varies enormously between the areas we work in, and it is the detail that most often decides how a pole performs. Victorian and Edwardian houses in Pinner, Northwood and Rickmansworth typically have solid masonry above the window with lath and plaster elsewhere, so bracket positions are set by where the masonry actually is rather than by even spacing on a drawing.

Period townhouses and mansion flats in Kensington, Chelsea, Belgravia, Hampstead and Primrose Hill add cornices, shutter boxes and panelling. Where a cornice leaves no room for a wall bracket, the honest answer is a ceiling-fixed track or a pelmet board rather than forcing a bracket into a compromised position. Newer houses and extensions in Chalfont often have plasterboard on metal or timber stud, which needs noggins or load-rated fixings identified before the pole is ordered.

Maintenance afterwards is minimal but worth knowing. Metal poles need nothing beyond an occasional dust; timber poles should be kept out of persistent damp. Corded track systems benefit from having the cord tension checked once a year, and gliders can be replaced individually rather than changing a whole track. If a curtain begins to feel heavier to draw, it is usually a glide or a bracket that has moved rather than the pole itself, and that is a short visit rather than a replacement.