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Sustainability and the link to second-hand curtains

Sustainability and the link to second-hand curtains

Almost every day finds us reading about or listening to a news item about sustainability, carbon footprint and net zero. It is reaching the stage where nothing else seems to matter never mind the huge cost involved in achieving it.

Fortunately there is one way in which we can save money and contribute positively to the future of our planet!  Yes, of course, it's by buying and loving fabulous second-hand curtains! When I think of the cost of new curtains, often running into many thousands of pounds, why bother when there are some beautiful second-hand curtains around.

Recently we have taken in huge swathes of fine, often vintage, second-hand curtains and all of them want to be re-loved again. For example the five pairs of antique silk damask interlined curtains that came from a very large country estate in Northern Ireland. These all went off to a large cliff-top ex-hotel now massive house overlooking Cardigan Way in West Wales.

Then how can we forget the 5 antique red silk panels that once hung in a palace south-east of Madrid. They were looted in the latter stages of the Spanish Civil War in 1936/7. These disappeared until they turned up in the Famous El Rastro Flea Market in Madrid some 30 years ago. They were bought by clients of ours and were hanging in their Swiss house till they came to the UK.   The curtains came to us and 72 hours later they were on their way to a new life in a moated castle in southern Holland!

We have loads of clients in Scotland who have large draughty houses and buy second-hand curtains from us. Lots of the curtains they buy from us have actually come from other old draughty houses somewhere in Scotland.

Essentially the thing about sustainability and second-hand curtains is that all these beautiful curtains deserve to be re-loved again!

Antique Silk Curtain Panel from Spanish Palace - Picture 1"
Antique Silk Curtain Panel from Spanish Palace - Picture 2"
Antique Silk Curtain Panel from Spanish Palace - Picture 3"
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Understanding the ‘Best Width’ of second-hand curtains

Second-hand curtains that have either pinch pleats, goblet pleats or even taped pencil pleats have a definable fixed width. This is based on the measurements taken of the tops of each curtain and this width is not easily altered.

If you have a window that is 180 cms wide you should not be looking for a pair of curtains of the same width. This means the curtains will have to be stretched tight to be fully closed which is not a good look. Far better to have some give in the drawn curtains as they look relaxed and therefore hang much better.

In addition, most customers buying second-hand curtains would want their curtains to hang beyond the window to not take away light. This means that your track or pole should probably be at least 20 cms wider each side of the window. In the example above of the 180 cms window this means that the track or pole should be approximately 220+ cms.

The introduction of Best Width for second-hand curtains

When we advertise second-hand curtains on our site we don’t talk about window size. Instead we talk about the width of the track/pole that you would need. For curtains with pinch pleats, goblet pleats or fixed tape pencil pleats, we therefore came up with the idea of giving you a ‘best width’ for the curtains and decided on reducing the total width measurements by 15 cms less to allow for a better look. So for the example above where the width of the track or pole is 220 cms you would be looking for curtains at least 235 cms wide. This is why we give you the ‘best width’ and the total width.

This concept does not apply to normal pencil pleat curtains as we measure the ungathered bottom width of one curtain. This measurement then translates to the maximum width the pair will fit as one ungathered curtain approximately equates to two gathered curtains.

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Second-Hand Curtain Categories and their differences

Second-Hand Curtain Categories and their differences

The Divinely Vintage website contains several second-hand curtain categories and their differences are important to understand. The 3 main categories are extra-long second-hand curtains, extra-wide second-hand curtains and country house/vintage curtains.

We have customers with lots of different requirements and sourcing curtains for them sometimes takes quite a bit of time. We therefore thought we would share information about the most popular categories and their differences.

Extra Long Second-Hand Curtains 300 cms and longer

This category is for all our extra long second-hand curtains which have drops of at least 300 cms. This ties in with our well established and very popular Long Curtains WhatsApp Group. Of all our second-hand curtain categories, this one is pretty much the most popular because of the number of curtains we get in from big old country houses and estates, most of which are Georgian or older. It has to be said that most of these we sell are going off to a new life in another old country house. However some curtains do get re-modelled so their finished length is often somewhat shorter.

Extra Wide Second-Hand Curtains

This category is for all our pairs of extra-wide second-hand curtains which all have a maximum width of more than 125 ins or 325 cms. Extra wide curtains, especially extra-wide second-hand curtains, are wonderful for keeping out draughts, especially if they have interlining as well and this is a godsend in the battle against draughts. Many of these curtains will be vintage or country house standard so will also appear in that category as well.

Curtains in this category and mainly pinch/goblet pleat or pencil pleat. The difference to us is that for pinch or goblet pleat curtains we measure the top fixed header of one curtain and then double it for the pair. However we then take off 6 ins or 15 cms from the maximum width to create a Best Width which created a more relaxed look to the curtains when closed. We should make it clear that we give both the 'best width' and the maximum width the curtains will fit in all our listings.

Country House/Vintage Second-Hand Curtains

This product category is for all our second-hand curtains which have already had a fairly long life, often more than 20/30 years. If we describe them as ‘vintage’ curtains they are over 20 years old. Country House is an indication that the curtains have probably been in a large country house for many a year. They might well not be looking their best now, for instance silk curtains will often have frayed leading edges. However this can always be remedied and, like all our other second-hand curtains, they deserve another life in a new setting with customers who will love them.

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Why Are Second-Hand Curtains Popular?

One of our clients, a Consultant psychiatrist who divides her time between New York and Budapest, bought a long fabulous pair of french silk damask curtains and had them sent to Hungary, split into two and now hanging in a smart apartment in a fashionable area of Budapest

Just why are Fabulous Second-Hand Curtains so popular?

This Divinely Vintage Second-Hand Curtains Guide provides the answer to this question. We waste so much in this world and fabulous second-hand curtains regularly get 'dumped' into landfill. Great looking second-hand curtains are a fabulous inexpensive way to transform a room without spending huge sums of money. They do not deserve to be thrown away but re-used by someone who will love them in a new setting. This is also why we set up the Divinely Vintage WhatsApp group, see below.

We have clients who contact us and tell us that they just can’t bring themselves to throw them in a skip! Fortunately, such is the power of modern search engines that searching for ‘fabulous second-hand curtains’ will usually find us quite easily.

We especially love really long curtains as many of our clients live in old (draughty) country houses. They just want large extra long heavy interlined second-hand curtains to keep warm and we have a page specially for people like them!

World-wide appeal of Second-Hand Curtains

We sell curtains all over the world and I think the only major continent we have not yet sent curtains to is South America. This year alone curtains have gone to Beverley Hills in the USA, Spain, France, Germany and Australia among others. 

Many of our customers love knowing the back story of their new curtains and some of these stories are fascinating. One of our personal all-time favourites were the four antique silk panels ransacked from a palace during the latter stages of the Spanish Civil War. You can read about this great story dating back to the Spanish Civil War on our sister website here. 

Another favourite story involved the three immensely long pairs of silk second-hand curtains that we collected from Grosvenor Square in London. They ended up being sold to a lovely lady who lives in a moated castle in Southern Holland! 

So how do we help?

So if you have interesting full-length curtains in a condition that we can sell we will take them and find them a new home. They do not have to be perfect! We don't mind (some) sun fading on the linings or frayed silk. If they have seen better days don't worry.

We will call them ‘shabby chic’ or 'country house' curtains and find them a home. We even have a category in our online shop especially for Country House / Vintage Second-hand Curtains.  Just send us pictures first so we can be sure we can sell them for you. You can find how all this works by reading our section on the Selling Process.

We love what we do and we are saving our ‘stock’ from ending in landfill which would be a desecration.  The life of your curtains can be extended by many years.

The Divinely Vintage WhatsApp Group

Stock on our website changes all the time and all depend on clients sending us details of curtains they want to sell. When you visit us for the first time looking for fabulous second-hand curtains you may not find what you're looking for. That is why we set up the now very popular and successful Divinely Vintage WahtsApp Group. Members of this group get the first notification of all new stock going into the website.

We love all our second-hand curtains and it doesn't matter wherever you live in the world. Thanks for getting this far and we hope to see you soon and you can always reach us via our Contact Us page. xx