Curtains in Berwick.

Berwick is an established suburb, and the difference between a home near the Village and a home in one of the larger estates off Clyde Road is enormous. The older houses have tall single-glazed windows, deeper reveals, sometimes a picture rail to work around, and openings that are rarely perfectly square. The newer family homes have generous but standard openings, a formal front lounge, a bay to the dining or the master, and very often a double-height void window over the entry or stairs.

Both types benefit from the same principle but arrive at it differently. The job of a curtain in winter is to stop the convection loop at a cold window, where warm room air touches the glass, cools, sinks and drags more warm air across the ceiling to replace it. That loop runs all night and quietly empties a heated room. A curtain only interrupts it if it is sealed at the top, closed at the sides and long enough at the bottom. We explain the mechanism in full in the thermal curtains guide.

Interlining earns its keep here.

Berwick is the suburb where we specify interlined curtains more than anywhere else in the shire. Interlining, often called bump, is a soft flannel layer sewn between the face fabric and the lining. It adds insulating bulk, it deadens road noise from Clyde Road and the highway, and it gives a heavy, expensive drape that hangs in deep even folds. It costs more, $600 to $1,400 per window, and it is heavier so the track and brackets have to be specified to suit. On a formal front room with a large single-glazed window it is the single biggest comfort upgrade available. The lining guide compares it against the cheaper options honestly.

Bay windows and formal rooms.

A large share of Berwick enquiries involve a bay. Bays are not priced per window, they are priced by the total length of bent track and the number of sections, usually three to five, plus the stack space each section needs when the curtain is open. Get the stack wrong and you lose the view you paid for the bay to have. Expect $900 to $2,600 supplied and installed. Our bay window guide walks through section counts, corner joins and what to do when a bay is too tight to take a bend.

Pelmets suit the Berwick look.

A pelmet is the piece that stops warm air escaping over the top of the curtain, and in a Berwick home it also finishes the window in a way that matches the architecture. Fabric-covered pelmets run $180 to $450 per window and timber or MDF pelmets $200 to $600. In a period frontage a painted timber pelmet reads as original. In a newer home a slim fabric pelmet in the curtain fabric disappears into the treatment. Either way it is doing thermal work, not just decorative work. See pelmets explained.

What a Berwick job typically costs.

• Lined pinch pleat blockout to bedrooms, $350 to $900 per window
• Interlined curtains to a formal living room, $600 to $1,400 per window
• Bay window with bent track, three to five sections, $900 to $2,600
• Timber or MDF pelmet, $200 to $600 per window
• Adding a lining to existing curtains you already like, $150 to $400 per pair

A whole three or four bedroom Berwick home with bedroom and living blockouts sits between $3,800 and $9,500 supplied and installed, with the interlined and bay work pushing toward the upper end. Lead time is three to five weeks.

The free in-home measure.

We bring samples to your Berwick home, measure every opening, check squareness on the older houses, work out fixing points around picture rails and bulkheads, and tell you where a pelmet is worth it and where a close ceiling fix does the same job for less. The quote is written, itemised by room, and free.