Do you really need to spend a 4-digit on curtains? Find out for yourself! 
We opted for curtains rather than blinds for the look, and there were mainly 2 options—one was getting a local curtain vendor which they would handle everything from measurements to installation, and the second being curtains from Taobao. I went for Taobao eventually due to the price point as I refused to spend a 4-digit sum just on curtains; it was just something that wasn’t that significant to justify ~$2k expenses among the many other things we had to purchase for a house. While I was initially very skeptical of getting them from Taobao, it ended up being one of the best decisions. No doubt it was abit of work, but I was confident in my choice, planning and measurement skills given my work background! I had gone with the same day curtains for all rooms, and the same shade of block out curtains for 3 rooms (different colour for our sleeping room). Here is the cost breakdown: 4x sets of double curtain tracks: $104 4x sets of day/ sheer curtains: $98 4x sets of block out curtains: $287 Total: $489 (excluding 3PF shipping) 
We had single panel curtains for two of the rooms with weird layouts—these are rooms with just 2 windows which aren’t even center aligned + weird protruding beams, which would be extremely off to do the usual 2 panelled curtains. It was quite a small area to cover as well, and we decided to a full width single curtain for these exceptions. 
The bedroom which was in a lighter shade curtain, although it’s hard to tell in the photo. Main decision for picking a lighter colour for this room was simply to better match the overall colours, as we had a darker wall paint in this room. 
Double pinch pleat designs for both the day and block out curtains; I was originally planning on triple pinch pleat but thought it might not have that much visible impact given how small BTO rooms are, and that nobody ever goes to inspect up close how pretty your curtain pleats are going to be! 😂 
Opted for the beige/ khaki linen sheer curtains, which we really love! It’s something a little different than the usual white plain looking ones, and it gave a really chill vibe in the day time if you’re into the moody aesthetic. I find that it’s pretty decent in terms of privacy too. Aesthetic: 9/10 Functionality: 8/10 
The block out curtains are in a milk tea shade, I love that it’s a “cool” beige brown and not in the yellow-ish warm brown which sometimes give off a very gross tint of green. What surpassed my expectations was the material, it was really solid and velvety looking with a bit of weight (I imagine it would be quite annoying if it did not have much weight). 
Our curtain tracks are from Taobao too—these are ceiling mounted double track sets so it was just a one off mounting job. We also preferred the look of this over having 2 single tracks; it looks cleaner overall. I got a handyman to fix up the tracks for us, and most of the track dimensions were fitting with the exception of one room (might be due to the walls being slanted). He still managed to fix it up for us despite that, since we could saw the longer track to fit the shorter ceiling. 
Fun fact, you can request for curtain samples from Taobao sellers—some of these are free and you would simply need to pay only the shipping cost, or for a small amount <$10. I got several samples prior to buying, and tested them onsite alongside our selected wall paint colours. 
My orders to the Taobao sellers would include a mockup of how I wanted it to look like (ceiling mounted/ 2 panels center drawn or single panel side drawn), actual room reference with dimensions, selected design and colour. This really helps too if you’re a visual person ;) 
This is how the curtains would look like when shipped, what I did was asking the seller to pack all the sets (each room’s) separately with clear labels on it. I would classify them like: 房 A (living room): 2740 x 2580 房 B (bedroom2) : 2440 x 2580 This would really make things easier when receiving & assembling them yourself! 
The curtains would come in ready to hang “korean style hooks” which are adjustable in terms of curtain height (so you can always fabricate slightly longer and adjust them shorter when hanging to be safe). All we had to do after that was simply hanging it + give it a light steam to reduce all the creases. And that is how we managed to get our curtains and tracks done for less than S$500!
7 November
