Lining Options for Curtains: Which to Choose

Start With What Lining Actually Does

Lining is the quiet workhorse of curtain making. It sits behind your face fabric, unseen by anyone standing in the garden, yet it determines how your curtains hang, how well they keep the cold out, and how long the fabric itself survives. A good lining protects a delicate printed cotton from sunlight, gives a lightweight linen enough weight to fall in clean folds, and adds a soft layer of insulation that you notice most when the wind is rattling at the glass.

Choosing a lining is often the point where people feel overwhelmed, because there are more options than the shelf in a fabric shop suggests. The trick is to decide what you actually want from the curtain first: darkness, warmth, privacy, drape, or simply a neat finish at the window. Then match the lining to that job.

Standard Lining: The Everyday Choice

A standard lining is a plain woven fabric, usually in polycotton or a cotton-rich blend, and it is what most ready-made and bespoke curtains use. It is light — often around 80 to 120 gsm — inexpensive, easy to sew, and comes in a wide range of widths, which saves you from endless seams on large windows.

Its main jobs are practical ones:

• Protecting the face fabric from fading and from dust drawn in through an open window.
• Adding opacity to thin fabrics such as voile, cotton lawn or a light silk.
• Giving the curtain body so pencil pleats and triple pleats sit up nicely rather than collapsing.
• Hiding the back of the work — raw seams, wadding and the underside of the face fabric.

It will not darken a bedroom or noticeably warm a room. For that, you need one of the options below.

Blackout Lining: For Sleep and Shift Work

Blackout linings are woven fabrics with a coating or a separate bonded layer that blocks light almost entirely — commonly described as 99 to 100 per cent. They usually feel firmer and slightly rubbery on the reverse, and some have an acrylic coating that also resists a little heat.

Be realistic about what blackout can do. A blackout curtain still lets light creep in around the top, along the sides and underneath the hem, so pair it with a decent track that overlaps in the middle, a pelmet or a valance, and perhaps a return to the wall. A dim-out lining is a lighter version, blocking most but not all light, and it drapes more softly — useful for a nursery or a living room where you want evening screening rather than true darkness.

Two practical notes for sewing blackout: it can be stiff, so allow a generous hem and consider a larger bottom turning to help it hang; and it marks easily, so avoid unpicking unless you must.

Thermal and Insulating Linings

Thermal linings are built around a reflective or insulating layer, sometimes a metallised film, sometimes a bonded foam or wadding, sometimes a dense woven fabric with a brushed reverse. They work in two directions: in winter they reduce heat escaping through the window, and in summer they take the edge off solar gain.

Where they earn their keep:

• Single-glazed or period sash windows, where a cold draught pools behind the curtain.
• Rooms with large glass areas, such as a garden room or a bay window.
• North-facing bedrooms and studies that always seem a degree or two cooler.
• Anywhere you use the heating only in the evening, when the fabric becomes part of your insulation.

They are heavier and bulkier than standard lining, so make sure your track or pole can take the weight, and use sturdy hooks. In a very warm, south-facing room, a thermal lining plus a light-coloured face fabric will do more for comfort than a heavier decorative fabric on its own.

Interlining and Adding Body

Interlining is not a replacement for lining — it is a layer of brushed cotton, domette or similar wadding that goes between the face fabric and the lining. It is the traditional way to make curtains feel substantial and hang beautifully, and it adds both insulation and sound softening.

Interlined curtains suit wool, velvet, heavy silk and good-quality linen. They are made with a small amount of ease through the width so the layers do not pull, and the result is a curtain that holds its folds like a hotel bedroom and lasts for years. It is more work: three layers to handle, basting to keep them aligned, and a heavier finished curtain. For a treasured fabric on a statement window, it is usually worth it.

Matching the Lining to the Room

If you want one simple rule, work room by room. Bedrooms benefit from blackout or dim-out, especially where children or shift workers sleep. Living rooms and dining rooms usually want standard lining, or standard plus interlining for drape. Kitchens and bathrooms, where humidity and cooking steam are constant, are best served by a standard lining that can be washed, or a roman blind with a light lining rather than a heavy thermal one.

Cut your lining two to three centimetres narrower on each side than the face fabric so it never peeks out at the leading edge, and finish it a couple of centimetres above the hem to create a lining tuck that lets the curtain drop cleanly. Buy a little extra, too — a spare metre in the loft means you can re-hem, patch or add a matching cushion later. Get the lining right and the rest of the curtain simply behaves.