kept in the dark

Light sunny mornings sound great, but not if you are waking at 5 or 6am every morning. Its time to blackout. Just by adding a decent quality blackout lining to a curtain will virtually keep the light out just long enough to get a goodnight sleep. Blackout linings http://www.linen4less.co.uk/prodpage.asp?productid=
are available in a variety of sizes and believe it or not, qualities, there is 2 pass, 3 pass, acrylic coated and so on. We only use and sell a 3 pass lining in a neutral colour so they will blend in with all colour schemes. Without getting too technical and anorak like, acrylic linings will do the job, but it has been known for the backing to peel away after time, 3 pass is inherent in the fabric giving maximum blackout and are longer lasting. Right, enough of the techno blurb, how do they work, well basically the blackout linings attach to the back of your existing curtains by simply using small hooks (we call number 9 hooks due to the shape) they attach through the the heading tape of the lining and then attached either to the curtain track hooks or onto the heading tape of the existing curtain. A quick tip, if you window drop is say 50" but you have your curtains draped to the floor, you don't necessarily need the full length lining, so long as the window space is covered it should be ok. Remember the School holidays start soon, get prepared, get your sleep !

what's your style

A recent newspaper article quoted ' if the eyes are the windows of the soul, then the windows of a house reveal the secrets of the owner, which basically means, a bad choice of curtains will reflect in you and give the wrong impression. As I mentioned in earlier blogs, net curtains are fast becoming a fanastic cheap way to dress and style your main windows, once over they were just used for stopping the nosey neighbours from seeing what you have or haven't got, but thats in days gone by, now fabric designers are actually spending a lot of time and effort on lace and net curtain designs, it is big business, recently we stocked a new net design http://www.linen4less.co.uk/prodpage.asp?productid=908 and from the moment we hung this design in our shop it started selling, needless to say once online it had the same affect. Net curtains Have definately been reinvented

vat increase

the vat increase has finally arrived as expected, so the big question is what changes will it make to retailers and their customers, well at present nothing as the increase won't come into effect until January 2011, but when it does will things cost more, the answer is yes and no, OK I'm starting to sound like a politician, bigger purchases will see the more of a price rise, but items like curtains and home furnishings shouldn't see too much of a price hike, say for instance a pair of curtains costing £35.99 today http://www.linen4less.co.uk/prodpage.asp?productid=343 with the new vat rate the price could jump to £36.62 which is an increasse of 0.63p, not that much really, so its now down to the retailer to see whether the price increase is passed on or absorbed, we, as we have in previous vat rises, will absorb the extra cost and choose not to pass it on to the customer.