Custom Curtains for Moira Homes

Thick walls give a Moira house deep window reveals, and the first decision is whether the curtain hangs inside that recess or in front of it. In front is nearly always right: the old shutters swing inward and need the reveal to themselves. Fix the rod into the timber lintel or the frame, never the lime plaster, which crumbles round a screw. Because the village is low and the fields flood, the base of the wall is often damp, so finish the hem a little above the floor instead of letting linen pool on it. With no salt in the air, natural linen and cotton keep well here, which suits a carefully restored house.

• Tall front windows beside the balcão: unlined linen on a wooden or iron rod above the frame, so that the shutters still open.
• Bedrooms with uneven old walls: a rod on brackets of differing depth keeps the curtain plumb where the plaster is not.
• Rooms facing the flooded fields: light cotton that dries quickly, with the hem kept above the damp line at the foot of the wall.