White curtains or very pale grey will keep the light levels high in your room and make a nice backdrop to your furnishings. I think patterned curtains are more casual and with the amount of windows you have, they would make a huge statement in the room. Darker curtains will reduce the light and can make the room look dingy. If you felt you don't want perfectly plain fabric, look for a slub fabric or something with some interest or texture in the weave. You could even have a self stripe which can look very elegant. I have just finished new curtains through my house and did the double track where I could and used a thermal lining that I can pull across to keep the cold out and it worked very well and is also working well now in the heat keeping the rooms cooler - in fact it is amazing some days the amount of heat trapped between the curtains and the windows and kept out of the room. In my bedroom I used a heavy sheer curtain to be able to enjoy the view of the garden while still maintaining privacy and the thermal lining gives me full privacy at night. I'm thinking this could be nice for your room when you have such a lovely outlook too and you do need something to keep the sun off your furniture and furnishings. There are also thermal roller blinds you could use instead of curtain linings, these do darken the room but they work very well. If you use the linings though, there are different weights, I used one pass in my bedroom and other rooms, and it does not darken the room very much at all. In my lounge room where I really needed heat blockout in summer, it was a bit of trial and error - I used triple pass and it does significantly darken the room to the point of totally gloomy - I really don't think I would use it again.

Hi Karly, This is a lovely look, you will need to consider a couple of things when you hire a builder or plasterer to do the work. What configuration of curtains are you thinking of having? One layer or two layers? There needs to be enough space between the wall and the mock wall for the curtains to move easily. Are you planning on fitting the tracks to the ceiling? If so you will need at least 200mm in front of the existing cornice for two curtain tracks, more if you want 2 layers of S-fold curtains. This could intrude into the room quite a long way. I would recommend calling a specialty curtain retailer as well as a tradie, and I would definately recommend thinking about what your budget is going to be. Have fun! Jenny

yes. stallion looks like it is in a sample hanger with all or most of the various colours available. your other photo with the 6 or so swatches looks like all warwick samples. The Bleecker pleat does look interesting. I haven't seen it in Australia. Just remember any 'different' headings will substantially increase your making cost. Making cost is usually not unreasonable in Australia in my opinion as we have regulated wages etc. so making will change depending on how much labour will be involved. the most 'flexible' cost with curtains is your fabric as fabric cost can have a very wide range as you have no doubt discovered. but the making cost is the same whether the fabric cost $25 per metre or $250. the labour is the same.

The only reason it may be difficult to do a full length curtain, from ceiling, is the lack of anchor points for curtain brackets. There is hardly an angle, so the curtains are not going to slide down a slope. In your situation the top windows are a third of the total window space. In my opinion doing curtains on the other two thirds may look odd. With mid century homes with a top window space of maybe a quarter or eighth of total window, that looks fine with lower curtains, your window configuration is different. Get a curtain company in to quote on angled curtains, and look into where anchor points could be positioned.