Curtains put in shade by shutters and blinds
Traditional window drapes now account for less than half of sales thanks to home furnishings shows
Curtains could soon be a thing of the past as more expensive shutters and blinds are increasingly replacing drapes. Ready-made curtains now account for less than half the
£1.4 billion “window coverings” market in the UK, down from almost two thirds at the start of the century. Sales of shutters have risen in popularity in the same period, from just 1 per cent of the market to account for 10 per cent of its value, and blinds are also proving popular with buyers.
IT COULD be curtains for curtains, after a trend for Scandinavian-style home design has seen more expensive shutters and blinds increasingly replacing drapes.
Curtains now account for less than half the £1.4 billion “window coverings” market, down from almost two thirds at the start of the century.
Sales of shutters, meanwhile, have risen five-fold in the same period, from just 1 per cent of the market to account for 10 per cent of its total value.
Blinds are also proving more popular – up from just over a quarter of the market in 2002 to nearly a third in 2018, with such items inspired by television programmes.
Plantation-style shutters – which typically are made-to-measure and are expensive – have replaced net curtains in the living rooms of affluent homes, according to a definitive market report from AMA Research, which provides specialist research for the building industry.
Jane Tarver, the report’s author, said curtains were “likely to face further share erosion as the market evolves”. “Shutters do have potential for further significant growth due to the aspirational nature of the product and the need for consumers to maintain privacy,” she said.
She added: “Blinds and shutters have benefited from the decline in the lightweight curtain sector – particularly net and lace curtains – since they both provide the privacy aspect while also letting in light.”
The popularity of shutters has been fuelled by house design and self-build programmes, not least Grand Designs, the Channel 4 programme that has been running for almost 20 years.
The programme has typically promoted “clean lines” of modernist concrete and glass structures where curtains are out of place.
The AMA Domestic Windows Market report suggests the decline in department stores and curtain departments with them have fuelled their decline and the switch to blinds and shutters. But the window coverings market is expected to be worth £1.6billion by 2022 – a 15per cent rise in four years, fuelled by more expensive shutters, “customised blinds” and made-tomeasure curtains. Richard Hawkes, director of Hawkes Architecture and a regular guest speaker at Grand Designs Live, said external blinds “get many more jobs done than curtains”.
“External blinds keep the sun out in the summer to help keep the house cool (with internal blinds or curtains the sun and heat have already got in the building by the time the sun hits the blinds),” he said.
“They help reduce heat loss, keeping the space between window and blind slightly warmer and keeping the wind off the glass helps to reduce heat loss through the window.”
Mr Hawkes added that they provided “enhanced security – a further deterrent to the would-be burglar” and were “great for sensitive open countryside locations and as well as all that they stop people looking in – just like curtains”.