Keep Your Curtains in Tip-Top Shape

Curtains are popular style of window dressing that adds just the right amount of atmosphere, warmth and style to a room, coming in an assortment of styles, colours and practicalities. Curtains blend into the background while providing essential privacy, decoration and overall comfort. However, despite their ability to simply become a “piece of the furniture” alongside everything else you own, curtains too require care and maintenance in order to preserve their longevity and keep them looking good.

But maintaining them can be tricky. There are many questions to ask, such as how often should you clean your curtains or drapes? How do you protect delicate sheer styles? Can you clean your curtains in a washing machine? Is there a generic curtain drape and upholstery cleaning method that covers most styles, or do you need to customise it according to make and or fabric?

Curtain cleaning is more complicated than you might think, so here are Drytron’s tips and tricks you can apply to your own curtains to give them some TLC regardless of your chosen style and design.

Shake it Up

Did you know one of the simplest and easiest techniques you can use to refresh your curtains at the end of each day, is to gently shake them from the bottom up? Imagine you’re fluffing out your duvet cover, but a much more delicate version than the one on your bed. Dust and fluff that collects over time can be gently removed by a rolling motion, holding the curtain with both hands at the seams and fluffing the material upwards. As it rolls and expands, dust and surface dirt will lift, and the curtain will be instantly refreshed.

Roll with a Lint Roller

For weekly care and dirt removal, lint rollers are a fantastic way of removing surface dirt. For lightweight curtains, an occasional shake is more practical to protect delicate fabric, but for heavier styles such as a box pleat, a lint roller will effectively wipe free any build up and loose fluff. As you’re brushing the roller from the top downwards, also look out for stains or areas that need more in-depth attention, to pass this information onto your curtain cleaning expert. The tops of the curtains along the rod are especially susceptible to dust accumulation as it settles near the pleats and becomes compacted over time.

Machine Washing

It goes without saying, but check the care label first! If you’re in doubt about machine washing your curtains go straight to the tip on Dry Cleaning below. If the care label says machine washing is OK, try spot testing a corner with a mix of water and a small amount of liquid laundry detergent or liquid dish soap. Most washable curtains need to be washed in cold water with a small amount of laundry detergent, and make sure you remove all hardware from your curtains before washing. Delicate lace and sheer curtains may benefit from hand washing or being placed inside a mesh wash bag. In a pinch, you can wash delicate curtains inside an old pillowcase that is tied shut tightly to prevent fraying and damage.

Spot Clean and Dry to 95%

If the care label allows, gentle fabric stain removers can be a great spot-cleaning method, especially when you can remove the entire curtain and hang it out to dry. Diluting some stain remover in warm water and gently dabbing the stained area can instantly treat mould, mildew or other everyday dirt marks. Once clean, line drying or using a low setting on a clothes dryer will both work for washable curtains. With clothes dryers, the trick is to remove the curtains from the dryer before they are 100% dry. Over drying will set wrinkles and create lasting fabric marks but removing the curtains while they’re still slightly damp will allow them to naturally flatten out again without permanent fold marks.

Dry Cleaning – Drytron Cleaning

Some curtains may have a label that reads dry clean only, meaning any other form of cleaning could seriously damage them. Some fabrics may bleed and fade if they aren’t properly dry cleaned, and others may shrink or pill on the fabric surface. If you’re passionate about preserving your dry-clean-only curtains in top condition, call Drytron, the curtain drape and upholstery cleaning professionals, to provide you with an excellent and second-to-none curtain cleaning service. Our cleaning process is designed to maintain and restore the original curtain fibres while never failing to effectively remove surface debris, bacteria and allergens that can attach to your window coverings and drapery.

Drytron uses a tried and tested six-step cleaning process that helps to restore and refresh your curtains, bringing instant life back to their appearance and making them look as good as the day you hung them!

With Halloween around the corner, it’s time to get creative and make some spooky decorations for your house and garden. Halloween may be a little different in areas with COVID restrictions in place, but that shouldn’t stop you from having a fang-tastic time by making your house as spooky as possible! We’ve put together some DIY decorations you can make at home – a perfect opportunity to have some fun with the kids.

Pumpkins

Pumpkins are traditionally carved into spooky faces at Halloween, but don’t restrict yourself to tradition. There are lots of other ways you can decorate a pumpkin, so let your imagination go wild.

• Painting pumpkins is great fun, and your children can choose their favourite colours. Once they’ve dried, splatter them with paint that has been thinned down slightly with water. Then coat a paintbrush or old toothbrush with the paint mixture and tap it repeatedly over the painted pumpkin to create a fabulous look.
• Kids can also have fun decorating their painted pumpkins with pompoms and other decorations stuck on with craft glue. They also look gorgeous with glittery stems, so dip those pumpkin stems into runny glue and sprinkle glitter all over them. You may need to have a look at our tips for removing those craft stains, in case the kids get a little over-excited and something ends up on the carpet (it happens!).
• Another option is to cover a pumpkin with Halloween-themed duct tape. Look for tape with spiders or webs and then stick googly eyes onto the pumpkin for the finishing touch.
  

Lolly boxes

This is a fun one to make in preparation for Halloween. You can either create one large box for the lollies at home, or you can create individual bags for when your kiddies, (sorry, your little witches and wizards) do their trick or treating rounds of the neighbourhood.

• For your home lolly bowl, paint an empty box, then stick decorations on it once it’s dry. For example, to create a black cat bowl, paint the empty box black, then paint 4 toilet roll cores to use as the legs. Next, cut a tail shape out of cardboard, then cut out cat-shaped eyes and ears. Paint these black, and once it’s dry, stick it all together. You can paint a little white nose and some whiskers too, or use white or silver pipe cleaners for the whiskers. Then fill your new sweet bowl with your favourite lollies and wait for the doorbell to ring!
• If you want to do individual boxes or bags, then buy what’s called ‘lolly/treat boxes’ or little paper bags, and decorate them. Make the box into a haunted house, using ghost figures and dark windows and a door. Or create a scary paper bag monster. Start by painting the bag whatever colour you want your monster to be, then find some paper or cardboards and cut out large teeth and 3 eyes, a long tongue and some pointy ears. When the paint is dry, stick on all the accessories.

Decorations

Garlands and table decorations are a nice easy way to give your house and garden some festive Halloween spirit.

• Light-up ‘cats eyes garland’. Start by helping your kids cut out purr-fect cat faces. Use a hole puncher to punch out holes in each shape for the eyes, then slide string lights into the holes and hang them where they can be plugged into the wall. (If you don’t have string lights, you can thread shapes on string, such as black cats, spiders, ghosts, bats, and anything spooky.)
• Leaf ghosts. Send the kids outside to hunt for fallen leaves, then get them to paint them white. Once these are dry they can either paint, or use a black marker and draw on little black eyes. These can be scattered onto the table or string them together for a spooktacular garland.

Treats

There are so many fun Halloween-themed cooking activities, and so much fun to be had in the kitchen. A word to the wise though: don’t get started too early in the week, as your kids will want to eat all their goodies and there’ll be nothing left for Halloween.

• Spider biscuits. Use Oreos as the body, pretzel pieces as the 8 legs, white mini marshmallows as the eyes, and chocolate chips for the middle. Make some ‘glue’ by mixing icing sugar with a little water and let the kids get creative!
• Spooky lollypops. Use round, wrapped lollypops (such as Chupa Chups) and cover them with a square of white fabric or tissues. If you use tissues, you may need a few, so the colour of the wrapper doesn’t show through. Bunch up the white fabric over the lollypop and place a little elastic band over it to keep in on. Use a black marker to make the little eyes and then tie some orange and black ribbon over the elastic band and tie it into a bow around the ‘neck’ of the ghost.
• Halloween shaped biscuits. What will it be? Ghosts? Bats? Pumpkins? Baking and icing different shaped biscuits is so much fun for all ages. And they’ll be a hit with the neighbourhood kids (and much appreciated by any grown up neighbours too no doubt.)

There are a million different ideas out there for Halloween decorations and baking, and we’re sure your children will have lots of ideas too! Halloween is so much fun. That is, of course, except for the inevitable chocolate hangover, and perhaps a few chocolate stains on the carpet. On that note, here are some stain removal tips for chocolate that may come in handy afterwards.

Enjoy!

A FIVE-STEP GUIDE FOR HELP WITH TREATING CARPET SPILLS AND STAINS AT HOME.
While there are various stain-resistant carpets on the market these days, no carpet is 100% stain-proof. If your carpet has suffered a recent accident, it can often be cleaned easily if it’s treated right away, as it may have only formed a colour on the surface of the carpet fibres. For longer term stains however, once the spill has seeped into the carpet fibres, the colour of the carpet can be forever changed. To prevent this from happening, have a look at our carpet cleaning process here.

DIFFICULT STAINS TO REMOVE
Any coloured liquid is potentially a stain that may prove too difficult to get out. Seven stains are common among carpets and relatively difficult to remove, even with recommended carpet stain removal techniques.

Read on to learn more about the 7 deadly carpet stains:

1. COFFEE & TEA
   These beverages are mortal enemies for carpets. If you can’t find carpet cleaner particularly made for them, or coffee remover, the carpet stain may be there to stay. You are really best calling in the carpet cleaning specialists for this one.
2. NAIL POLISH
   This hardly ever comes out of your carpets when it spills. Nail polish removal on carpet requires tough and thorough jobs with solvent and rinsing, and is best left to the professionals.
3. COOKING OIL
   This is a nasty carpet stain that easily attracts other dirt and generally gets worse over time. However, it can be removed with a good enzyme and hot water extraction.
4. GREEN TEA
   This beverage contains a green dye that is usually impossible to remove, making it a frustrating stain to get off. On rare occasions, dye removers may have some success.
5. COLOURED DRINKS
   Red wine and coloured sodas have some food colour in them that rarely comes out with steam cleaning alone. There are different carpet cleaning services available that will give it your best shot.
6. YELLOW MUSTARD
   This is one tough stain to get out. Try as much as possible to keep that hot dog away from your carpet for its chance of removal is close to zero. You may need to give Drytron, the professional carpet cleaners, a call for advice on this one.
7. PET STAINS
   Pet urine contains strong acid that can bleach carpet if left for too long. It can only be removed with urine spotters or good carpet cleaning products.
8. BLOOD STAINS
   Blot the stained area of the carpet with a paper towel to absorb as much of the stain as possible. Spot with cold water or an enzyme based cleaner to break down the protein. 

HELP FOR CARPET SPILLS AND STAINS
Below are Drytron’s step-by-step carpet stain removal tips to follow.

Wallpapers can instantly transform a room in your home, making it feel brighter, warmer, or cosier. But with a dizzying range of colours, styles, patterns and even textures of wallpapers to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when choosing wallpaper, so we’ve put together these style tips to make the decision making process less daunting.

1. Style

If you already have a design theme or style in a room, use that as your guide. By sticking to your existing theme when it comes to the wallpaper, the room design will flow naturally and cohesively.

Casual: If the room you’re decorating has fairly casual styling, the existing décor can really be enhanced with different wallpaper patterns and textures. For example, if your furniture is fairly plain, you can really stand to make a bolder choice for your wallpaper, such as floral, plants, and textured prints.

Formal: For a formal look, choose an elegant wallpaper design, such as a lacy damask design or hand-painted print. You could also go for large-scale patterns for a dramatic look.

Rustic: To add a warm, rustic feel to the room, select a textured wallpaper, a distressed timber effect, or brick-effect wallpaper.

Playful: This is great for a child’s room where you can add bright or themed wallpaper, such as a jungle, woodland, space or safari theme. Use your child’s interests as your guide! Alternatively, choose a wallpaper with small repeated motifs, such as polka dots.

2. Pattern and Texture

It’s important to be open-minded when choosing wallpaper. Don’t hesitate to get advice, as often that gorgeous print that you’re worried might be too bold, is often the very thing that will deliver the transformation you are looking for!

Size of the room: Just because you have a large room, it doesn’t mean that you need to have large scale patterns, or vice versa. Think of how dramatic a small bathroom will look with a large print of ‘delicious monster’ leaves.

If you have a room where the walls are ‘busy’ with windows or built-in furniture, a small-patterned wallpaper can look great, as it creates a really interesting visual, with hints of colours and patterns catching the eye. As a general rule, use large-scale patterns with bright colours if you want to make an emptier room look fuller.

Texture: Textured wallpaper will create design depth, drama, and a warming dimensional effect. Textured wallpaper can also hide or camouflage wall imperfections. Notably, different textures can be used to instead of colour if you already have a colourful statement piece in a room.

There are wallpaper options with tactile surfaces which include grass, string cloth, silk, foil and fabric. There are also non-tactile textured wallpapers, such as marble, wood, brick, leather and even animal skins. Metallic wallpapers are great for rooms with poor, natural light. The metallic shine can reflect light deeper into a room.

3. Colour

When selecting a colour for your wallpaper, you’ll need to start by considering the colour of your furniture and flooring. Remember that you want everything in the room to flow, and that colour can set the mood of a room. Have a look at how colour in your home can affect your moods.

If you choose a bold colour, then it’s a good idea to choose one that has a pattern on it which is lighter, which then ‘tones down’ the colour overall. Choose colours that you have already used in your décor.

As with choosing paint colours, consider the size of the room. If you have a smaller room, opt for lighter colours, as darker colours will make the room seem smaller. If redecorating a small area, then have a look at our tips for small spaces.

You can go bolder and brighter depending on the mood you want to create in a room. We suggest something tranquil for a bedroom or nursery, while you can choose something with more ‘personality’ for a lounge, bathroom or entertainment area.

There are so many fabulous wallpaper designs out there to choose from, and it should be a really fun experience as you play around with colours, patterns and textures. Don’t be discouraged to go beyond your comfort zone and try something new.