Quality Bespoke or Made to Measure Soft Furnishings-which would you choose?

What do you type into Google when you're trying to find someone who makes curtains, blinds or other soft furnishings for you?

Perhaps you start with "curtains and blinds"? How about curtains and blinds in your county? Or better still your nearest city? I know some people even put in the first half of their post codes...

But a search like that will throw up all sorts of different products and services - from the cheapest possible readymades to top-end, bespoke items. So how do you choose?

Well, assuming that you are reading this blog because you are interested in a quality product, I'd like to focus on two commonly used terms: made to measure and bespoke.

As the name implies, made to measure curtains and blinds will be made to fit your windows, according to your measurements. Of course, this method of ordering has its advantages over readymade in that it can be a good solution for difficult windows where standard sizes won't suit. But the range of colours and styles in made to measure ranges are often rather limited, you rarely get a choice of lining, trimming or other details and most of them are machine stitched throughout, which means (in a nutshell) that they have been made quickly and the finished product will often not drape well and will perhaps show machine stitchlines where it needn't.

All of this can sometimes leave a client feeling disappointed if they don't understand what to look for in the first place.

If you're looking for soft furnishings such as curtains or blinds for your home and you want something made to your own specifications, the service you need is bespoke soft furnishings.

The word "bespoke" is defined in the dictonary as meaning "made to the
customers specification"

Bespoke soft furnishing makers can offer you an unlimited choice of fabrics and styles to choose from, they will usually be prepared to vary their making methods where particular situations require it and go to far more trouble to see that you are happy than most other soft furnishing services do.

As Hampshire based Bespoke soft furnishing specialists, we offer

• free initial consultations (our service covers Southampton, Portsmouth, Winchester and the rest of Hampshire, UK)




• free estimates/quotations




• free advice, based on years and years of experience making our lovely products, not just a day or two at a sales-training seminar up at head office!

We use traditional methods where necessary to create the best possible effect - so look out for hand stitched hems and vertical edges and well as hand finished pleats on our curtains. We don't shy away from the technological advances within our industry either, when we know they'll improve the product. So you can have blinds that are raised and lowered by cords and a cleat (the traditional method), or fitted to chain lift tracks that do away with the need for the cleat or even have remote controlled/timer or light activated tracks and poles! The choice is entirely yours.

Most bespoke soft furnishings specialists also offer a home visiting service - it's the best way for us to advise you, and it takes all the pressure off of you (not to mention your feet) trudging the high street, seeing the same thing again and again.

I won't pretend that a top quality, bespoke service is less expensive than the other options, but what I will say (if you come to us, anyway) is that you will get beautiful soft furnshings, that fit perfectly and are made to your exact specifications. You'll also save your precious time and money that could otherwise be wasted on those regretted purchases.

If you have any questions about this blog post, or would like to comment in any way, please don't hesitate to contact us by:

• Posting a response to this blog below




• Joining our Facebook pages www.facebook.com/pennygregoryinteriors and www.facebook.com/finesoftfurnishings and leave us a post




• Or simply email us at penny@pennygregoryinteriors.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you :-)

Penny