It has been a year since Mr Salty installed the blackout curtains for his 4-room HDB resale flat. Sticking to his principle of “spend, but not spendthrift”, as he did for his decision to use IKEA Kitchen Planner and IKEA Vittsbo Shelving Units, the curtains that he got was also a bargain. So, are the cheap curtains still hanging well on his bedroom windows?
In this post, Mr Salty will go through his needs. He will also share the tips on choosing the right curtain, as taught by the curtain vendors he spoke to, before talking about the installation process. Finally, he will talk about what he thinks about the blackout curtains that he got for his bedroom windows.
What Are The Needs?
If Mr Salty was a normal person, he would have gone on to say he needed curtains for the whole house. But he’s not!
Mr Salty only wanted to install curtains in the rooms where he sleeps, and where he will be watching TV. As for the living room and Bedroom 2 (which is used as a study), he opted for no curtains, since the windows left by the previous owner was with frosted glass.
Additionally, he wanted blackout curtains, since he doesn’t like to see sunlight. Especially on days when he would be sleeping in till 10am!
And since he did not want the sunlight to disturb his sleep, the curtains must not only cover the window, but must reach the floor, so that there won’t be sunlight “seeping in” from the bottom. Similarly, the sunlight cannot “seep in” from the top, where the curtains hung.
Selection Process
Mr Salty’s Interior Designer referred him to the ID’s affiliated curtain vendor when Mr Salty asked about this. Since his ID sort of gave him the free rein to settle the curtains, Mr Salty also decided to search online for possible vendors.
All in all, Mr Salty met up with 2 vendors, one recommended by his ID (Let’s just call him “B”) and another from Direct Curtain.
Both of them fixed a date and arrived at Mr Salty’s house for the appointment on time. They also brought cases of their samples for Mr Salty to have a look and feel of the curtains they have. However, the representative from Direct Curtain had a slightly better edge. B came on a motorbike, so he only brought 1 suitcase of samples, whereas Direct Curtain went back to his car and brought a second suitcase of samples when Mr Salty wasn’t satisfied with what he was shown.
How to Pick A Curtain Vendor
Much of what Mr Salty knows about choosing curtain (and curtain vendors) were from the conversations that Mr Salty had with the vendors.
Don’t Engage One Via Interior Designer
This is one advice given by B. He said that one of the reasons why Mr Salty’s ID asked him to contact B directly, was because of the middleman fees. Usually, the ID would mark up the price if they were the ones managing the selection of curtains for the client.
Similarly, for such cases, the options the client can choose will also be limited. If a client contacts the curtain vendor directly, the vendor can showcase their full wares. If needed, the client can also pop down to their shops.
But why would a client want to engage a curtain vendor via the ID if that means higher costs?
Usually, this means that the client had given the ID the full power to design the house, which also means that the designs of the curtains have to match the overall design of the house. In this case, the cost of choosing the design of the curtains would already have been included in the original contract of the interior design.
As Mr Salty mentioned in his post on engaging IKEA KItchen Planner, having such a “bundled contract” with the ID also means that it is impossible to accurately isolate the cost of a single item. The bargaining for lower prices is usually done at the contract level, rather than at the item level. Therefore, the marked up aspect of the curtains would be masked by the bundled contract.
Onsite Testing of Blackout Curtains
This might sound like a no-brainer – test the curtains, even though it’s just a small piece of cloth.
The first thing to test is of course feeling the texture of the curtain. Mr Salty wasn’t that particular about texture, since to him, the curtains are just placed there to block out the sunlight. It was not as though he would be wrapping himself with the curtains everyday.
What he did look into was whether the colour matched the overall colour theme of his home. Again, it is a bit ironic, since Mr Salty’s home is basically done up in 3 colour tones. However, since the vendors came all the way to his house already, he should at least entertain them for 15 minutes, right?
The ultimate test was offered by Direct Curtain. Since Mr Salty was very particular about his blackout curtain being able to block out sunlight (the blackout curtains in his mother’s home still ended letting through sunlight because it was porous), the vendor gave him an ultimate assurance. He whipped out his handphone, turned on the LED light and covered it with his blackout curtain sample.
“Can you see the light?” he asked. He even asked Mr Salty to use his own mobile phone, so that he could be assured that the vendor didn’t use an LED light with a lower intensity. He also demonstrated it on the other lower grades of blackout curtain to explain how Mr Salty’s mum ended up with a “blackout curtain” that was technically a blackout curtain, just that it was not of the best grade on the market.
True enough, the blackout curtain the vendor offered passed the test and Mr Salty also ended up selecting Direct Curtain to install the curtains in his house.
What Curtains Mr Salty Got
Mr Salty finalised the details of the curtains on the spot:
Master Bedroom
Floor to Ceiling curtains (with Blackout and day shades)
Dimensions: 116H x 88W
Model: 6001#7
Roller Blind (for the small window opening to the aircon ledge)
Dimensions: (34H x 53W)
Model: Cmbo 219
Bedroom 1
Floor to Ceiling curtains (with Blackout and day shades)
Dimensions: 104H x 88W
Model: 6001#7
Total Cost: $600.00
The deposit was also paid on the spot, but unfortunately, they didn’t accept credit cards. The remaining payment was on the day after the curtains were installed.
Installation
2 young men appeared on the day of installation, which was fixed at 2 weeks after the meeting.They were punctual and set off to work immediately. They were out of the house in a matter of 30 minutes. If Mr Salty had wanted to install curtains for the whole house, they should be done within an hour.
Pros
What Mr Salty liked about Direct Curtain was that it was cheap, fast and efficient. The blackout curtains were also what they claimed it to be. Mr Salty loved how his bedroom felt like night whenever he draws the curtain in the day.
In case you didn’t realise, another advantage of a good blackout curtain is that it helps save on aircon costs. With zero sunlight coming into the house, it also means the heat being transferred indoors is greatly reduced.
Cons
It is also true that the cheap curtains didn’t come at a cost. If one were to look close enough, he would notice that the material was coarse. However, as mentioned earlier, since Mr Salty isn’t rubbing his face with the curtain, he didn’t really care whether the material felt rough or low class.
The curtain track also lacked a stationary curtain ring in the middle. This means that when the curtains are open, Mr Salty could not create the draping effect. Again, since Mr Salty usually keeps his curtains closed (because he really hates sunlight), this was a non issue too.
There was also no double track for the curtains, so the curtains can’t “overlap” in the middle. However, with some skill, it is still possible to draw the curtains tight so that no sunlight escapes indoors. Therefore, this is also a feature that Mr Salty didn’t mind giving up for a lower cost.
Conclusion
It has been a year since Mr Salty installed the curtains from Direct Curtain. He was glad to have saved some bucks without compromising on the essential requirements he had. That is, full blackout curtains.
The curtains have not collapsed or degraded after a year of use. This debunks the myth that paying for cheap curtains also means suffering in the long run.
If you are interested, you can contact Direct Curtain with the information Mr Salty includes below. Remember to Like and Share this post if you found it useful! Follow Hello Mr Salty for more of his sharing of his experience doing up his 4-room HDB resale flat.
Remember, salty is life!
Direct Curtain
11 Woodlands Close
#09-47, Woodlands 11
Singapore 737853
+65 9277 8570
directcurtain.com