Now, onto the story ...

You’ve selected floor plan, bricks, tiles …done a bit of colour co-ordination; selected paint colours, kitchen laminates, carpet, combined textures and finishes. You’re pretty pleased with yourself.

Time to think about window furnishings. You’ve been noticing curtains and blinds in TV advertisements / catalogues / Sunday paper supplements. Wow, are they ugly. They belong with the cheap furniture you see advertised in the same places; no place in the stylish home you’ve already part created. At least you know what you don’t want.

So it’s going to be custom made, to do justice to your sense of style. Let’s look at some fabrics. In you go, to one of the big name curtain shops/soft furnishings departments. “My walls are lemon …” you tell the assistant. Soon you are leafing through fabric swatches, and so is the assistant, diligently.  So many patterns, textures, styles; looking for that lemon. No that’s not quite it, it has a bit more green.

What are you going to do when you find it? What kind of treatment do you have in mind?  Perhaps you thought that question might answer itself the instant you find that magical fabric with the lemon in it.  More likely you will never find that fabric because then you will have to face the fact you don’t really have any ideas about what you are going to do with it. The whole process is so daunting you are scared to find the right fabric. And so is the assistant.

Well, curtains then, OK.  “What heading do you want?” the assistant says. “Tracks, wood poles or decorator rods?  Top treatment?  Do you want ties with that?”  The assistant has more questions than the person behind the McDonald’s counter, and about as much interest.  What you want, you realize amidst the rising panic, is answers not questions.

You stumble out of there, in soft furnishings shock. If you were unfortunate enough to have your partner (the unenthusiastic one) with you, it’s the last time you’ll get him (or her?) to finger a fabric swatch. So what kind of treatments are we going to have? You start to notice the interiors magazines, maybe go back to the display homes with a focused view. Your partner likes the look of those blinds, and considers the whole problem solved. You know some of those blinds might be OK for some areas, and then the room will be only half finished. The magazines are full of interesting looking treatments and trimmings and accessories. That picture is just the effect you like. I wonder if there is a fabric like that which would go with the lemon. But how would you handle the half-bay window area or those two funny little windows off the entrance?

Round about this time, if you are lucky, you discover Andersons Window Furnishings. A friend or relative may have mentioned us. Most of our business comes that way. The bad news is there are ten times more fabrics than anywhere you are likely to have looked before. The good news is our consultants. Yes, they are qualified and very experienced decorators, but working for Andersons they specialise in window furnishings and the associated soft furnishings items that are crucial to the finished effects of a room. For the sale of these items, which we manufacture and install, their services are available to you at no charge.  Consultancy only services, for overall concept design, or to assist in the selection of colours, finishes, fittings, carpet, furniture and accessories etc are also available on a fee basis from our designer. For window furnishings our consultants will guide you through the whole process to provide solutions which are individual and practical, and to any budget.  Our sample library contains fabrics in all price ranges.

We are very different from the typical ‘curtain shop’ or ‘soft furnishings department’ which you may have experienced, as described above. But we are also very different from the snazzy little ‘interior decorator shop’, which you may have visited in your desperate attempts to get real help with your project.  Our sample range is a ‘library’ covering all price points. Many decorators carry a limited and selective range of fabrics, usually expensive and ‘name brand’.  Unfortunately the over-riding factor tends to be exclusivity for the sake of exclusivity.  Andersons stock samples from all the big ‘designer’ names, and we have access to those we don’t stock. Often for the customer with exclusive tastes, there is simply no substitute, no compromise.  We cater for that. But the desire for quality and style in fabrics, does not have to take your budget off the planet.

The other major point of difference is, our consultants are backed up by Andersons’ 29 years of experience and expertise in the design, manufacture and installation of all types of window furnishing products. They have a team of people behind them. Some interior decorators are excellent, but they carry the burden of responsibility for absolutely every aspect of the project on their shoulders. Results can be patchy, depending upon the abilities of the various contractors they use. There is no system backing up the technical design and management of the job. A great deal of technical expertise lies behind those beautiful soft furnishings effects in the decorating magazines.  A glorious picture alone is not sufficient guidance for those without experience. Custom window furnishings/soft furnishings, well done in quality fabrics, are a very satisfying personal touch for those who appreciate individual design in their homes.

We appreciate that our customers who invest in quality and individuality are entitled to be happy with every detail of the finished product. We have the experience and the expertise in a very demanding area of home furnishings, where there are many pretenders, and much poor workmanship, to know what the finished job can and should look like. We are not satisfied until we know the job is completed to the best it can be. But where do you start?

Click on Products to go to the page that explains all.