Custom Curtains in Caranzalem

Flats in Caranzalem are family homes lived in the whole year, and the curtain budget usually goes to one room: the living room, with blinds doing the work in the bedrooms. That is a sensible split. For the living room, choose a polyester or polyester-blend fabric that can go in the washing machine, because the sea breeze through the casuarinas carries enough salt to stiffen cloth and rust plain steel hooks. Aluminium tracks with nylon gliders avoid that. A sheer and a heavier curtain on a double track give privacy from the next block. Where the balcony door faces west, keep the hem off the floor and clear of the opening, since monsoon rain blows in.

• Living rooms in mid-rise complexes: a washable polyester-blend curtain with a sheer, on an aluminium double track that salt will not rust.
• West-facing balcony doors: a curtain hung to stop short of the floor, drawn back clear of the door when it stands open.
• Bedrooms with an air conditioner above the window: a ceiling-fixed track, so the fabric hangs clear of the unit and its airflow.