Dining Room Curtains in Goa

Before choosing a fabric, sit at the table at lunchtime on a clear day. Notice which window throws light onto the plates and which seat gets the sun in the eyes. In many Goan houses that is a south or west window, and it is only a problem for a couple of hours — which is why a full blackout is usually the wrong answer here.

For that window, a sheer or a light-filtering lining is enough. It drops the brightness on white crockery and glass tops without making the room gloomy for the rest of the afternoon. Windows that never light the table can have a lighter treatment, or a matching curtain mostly left open.

Turmeric stains are the classic dining-room problem: a yellow mark on a cream curtain that won't shift. Mid-tone or patterned fabrics hide small marks, and cotton or cotton-linen blends can be washed hard. Velvet and silk-look fabrics are beautiful but are a poor choice within splashing distance of a table, and they hold cooking smells.

If the dining area shares air with the kitchen, think about smoke and grease too. A lighter fabric that is washed a few times a year stays fresher than an expensive heavy drape that is cleaned rarely. Ask us for a fabric that is colourfast in washing — we can tell you which samples tolerate it.

Let the curtain finish a centimetre above the floor. Fabric that pools behind a dining chair is pushed into folds, dragged and walked on. If the table sits close to the window, consider making the curtain stack fully to one side, away from the chairs, rather than splitting in the middle where two seats back onto it.

Extend the rod or track well beyond the frame so the open curtains rest against the wall. It keeps the glass clear, keeps the fabric away from the table, and makes a small window look bigger — useful in flats where the dining area is a corner of a larger room.

Where the dining area is visible from the sitting room, the curtains are seen together. Using the same fabric throughout is safe but can feel flat. A common approach is the same colour family in a different texture — a plain linen in the hall, a small print or weave in the dining area — or the same fabric with a different heading.