A review of the company Curtains2go.
When it came to designing the nursery, which you can read about here, I was designing it as much for me as I was for the baby. This was because; a) babies don’t care about interior design, and b) we were going to be roomies.
As the (unofficial) husband has early starts and long commutes, we agreed that I should sleep in the nursery so he could sleep through the chaos and function normally. So for me, full-length, blackout curtains were a must. I can’t sleep with any light at all. Hotels are a nightmare for me. I have to follow a ritual of turning off all power sockets, creatively covering up ceiling-mounted alarms with whatever I can lay my hands on, and building a wall pillows along the bottom of the door to stop the light coming in. I was also told by everyone that blackouts were a necessity for baby. So I felt perfectly justified in spending the money on made-to-measure curtains. Because let’s face it, they can be eye-wateringly expensive.
I had always previously used local suppliers that would come and survey and charge you a small fortune for measuring and fitting. But I’m always a believer that you get what you pay for. I’d also always been so delighted with the quality that it seemed too risky to seek out cheaper options. But faced with the inevitability of these curtains eventually being trashed by a tiny human, I thought this was the occasion to experiment.
You only have to google curtains or blinds for a few seconds to come across a company called blinds2go, or curtains2go which are one and the same company. They are all about affordable quality and great customer service and claim to have over 100,000 ‘great’ reviews. They are purely online and reckon they have covered over 5 million windows in the UK. They are kind of like the Ikea of the soft furnishing world. Just like you have to pick your own Billy bookcase from the warehouse, drive it home and build it yourself, here you have to take your own measurements and fit your curtains and blinds yourself. But if you are prepared to do this you can get a quality product at a fantastic price.
They offer step-by-step guides on how to do all the measuring and fitting. So, unless detail really isn’t your thing, you should be able to get through the process simply without making any costly mistakes.
I decided to try them out and ordered some samples which arrived unbelievably quickly. One thing I was struck with when browsing the fabrics was that if you apply relevant filters, like colour or material, you actually end up with a sensible amount of fabrics to choose from. The thing my clients often complain about is too much choice from retailers. Being limited is sometimes a good thing.
The fabric I was pretty set on arrived and looked exactly as I’d hoped. I have a personal preference for blending curtains with the walls and this fabric was a beautiful match. I don’t like making a decorative feature of curtains with bold patterns and contrasting colours because I actually think the draping and texture of the fabric are enough to look really pretty. It also creates a cosy enveloping look when they are pulled at night because they become part of the wall.
So I took my measurements. It was a curved bay window I was dealing with but still very straightforward. I placed my order. When they arrived they were stunning. The stitching was totally on point and they hung beautifully. The lining and fabric were of excellent quality and all the hooks were already in place ready for me to hang. I was actually amazed at how great they looked for the price.
My only issue was that the postage marks on the huge box they arrived in were from Vietnam. I must admit I hadn’t done my research and I wrongly assumed they would have been manufactured in the UK or in Europe. I started wondering if that’s why they were such good value. I had horrible images of half-blind children in appalling factory conditions making my curtains for pittance. I couldn’t find any details about their manufacturing online so called them, but the girl I spoke to didn’t understand my concerns. She kept reassuring me they carry out quality control checks when what I wanted to know was do they carry out working conditions checks. As I was getting nowhere I emailed them and got nothing back. So I followed up a week later and after a bit of chasing I was directed to a chap called Ian Rowell who was the Head of Product Development.
Finally, I got the information I wanted and he was totally reassuring. He took the time to talk through each of the locations they work with across the world and advised he personally visits each site at least once a year, so could personally testify for the conditions. As for the Vietnamese factory where my order was made, he told me they work from 7.30 to 6 pm, which is the national standard. The workers are provided with a free lunch every day and are paid double for any additional hours. They have an official closure twice a year when the workers and their families are taken to a holiday resort! They even closed early one day this year when the national football team reached the semi-finals of the Asia Cup, just so the workers could all watch the match! Sadly they lost 1-0 to Japan (I checked).
Phew, what a relief. My images of neglected children were replaced with images of Vietnamese workers riding rollercoasters and drinking beer.
So needless to say I was really impressed not only with the product but the customer service and their efforts to reassure me of my concerns. I will definitely be recommending them to my clients. In fact I already have one client and her new blinds look beautiful in her sunroom.
So if you are in the market for some curtains or blinds why not give them a go and let me know what your experience is?
Disclaimer: I do not affiliate with curtains2go, this is not a paid advert, I have not received any incentive to produce this content. This is one hundred percent my own opinion of the brand and their products.
