Paducah Home Theater Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 So I'm trying to get professional sound absorbing blackout velour curtains in my theater room from Rose Brand. The fabric is nice and cost isn't too bad depending on what you get. However, I just received a $510 quote for sewing up a pair of curtains for ONE 6' window, and I was going to duplicate it on the other side to keep things symmetrical. Over $1,000 just to sew these things up. Are you kidding me? What's so hard or special about this? That was the easy way too, with basically just a rod pocket, no grommets or individual loops. I'm just kind of shocked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 So that price is ONLY for the labor? Surely you could get a local seamstress for less. Fabric is expensive. Labor is expensive too but varies a lot. A little old lady working out of her house might do a great job for cheap. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 (edited) Have you considered "energy saving" drapes? http://www.jcpenney.com/window/shop-/curtains-drapes/energy-saving/_/N-1noxaaZ1z141lp/cat.jump?id=cat100260226&deptId=dept20022800026&cm_mmc=bing%20non-brand-_-m_home_window_energy_saving-_-m_sitelinks-_-energy+saving+drapes&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=m_home_window_energy_saving&utm_term=energy%20saving%20drapes&utm_content=m_sitelinks&cvosrc=ppc.bing.sitelinks I have them in my living room to cover a large picture window about the size of double sliding glass doors, and they are very heavy and thick. I'm not an expert in sound deadening, but I can hear a HUGE difference in my living room in sound when I have them opened all the way or closed. The "room darkening" seems to be of similar material to mine also. Edited February 5, 2015 by wvu80 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 So that price is ONLY for the labor? I'm pretty sure its labor only. However I guess I need to follow up and make sure. I was looking at expensive fabric and I'm pretty sure the material alone should have cost more than that. Maybe I don't know how to calculate yardage though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 Have you considered "energy saving" drapes? http://www.jcpenney.com/window/shop-/curtains-drapes/energy-saving/_/N-1noxaaZ1z141lp/cat.jump?id=cat100260226&deptId=dept20022800026&cm_mmc=bing%20non-brand-_-m_home_window_energy_saving-_-m_sitelinks-_-energy+saving+drapes&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=m_home_window_energy_saving&utm_term=energy%20saving%20drapes&utm_content=m_sitelinks&cvosrc=ppc.bing.sitelinks I have them in my living room to cover a large picture window, and they are very heavy. I'm not an expert in sound deadening, but I can hear a HUGE difference in my living room in sound when I have them opened all the way or closed. The "room darkening" seems to be of similar material to mine also. Maybe I need to reevaluate. The stuff I've been looking at is literally the exact same material as this, just kind of way beyond normal drapes. The stuff mentioned in the quote is even thicker and made of cotton, waiting for a sample of it. The synthetic stuff attracts lint pretty bad due to static cling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 It's been a long time, but I think our drapes were expensive too, but I couldn't put a number on it right now. I'll take a pic and ask my wife what we have, or maybe there's a tag. It is not the velvet material like you showed, I would say ours is more of a heavy cotton. Let me see what I can find out. I can see you want something more conducive to a traditional theater, but if you want sound deadening, there might be other options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 (edited) I can see you want something more conducive to a traditional theater, but if you want sound deadening, there might be other options. I like the velour because it is also light absorbing, I don't like stray light illuminating stuff in the room. Everything else is flat black and much of the other black curtains I've found have a sheen to them. This stuff is also opaque and doesn't require a backer, not to mention the sound absorption. I'm hoping the heavy weight will do a great job of sound absorption like they claim. But yeah I'm hoping to mimic the light absoption of the velvet that is on my screen frame. You can fire a projector right at it and it doesn't reflect much of anything. http://www.rosebrand.com/product1209/27-oz-Charisma-Synthetic-Velour-IFR.aspx http://www.rosebrand.com/product1210/32-oz-Magic-Velour-FR.aspx?tid=2&info=magic They actually test the Charisma. http://www.rosebrand.com/downloads/Charisma-25oz-Velour-Acoustical-Test-Results-100.pdf Edited February 5, 2015 by MetropolisLakeOutfitters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joessportster Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 If thats labor cost it looks like its time to take up sewing. In our motor home the curtains were sun dried and fell apart when washed, I priced replacements and found the price crazy I went to Jo-ann Fabric, bought upholstery material, and the white insulating backer , I bought a 99.00 brother sewing machine, and made curtains and tie backs for the whole camper. The woman at jo ann fabric told me if you can carpenter you can sew This was my first sewing experience, I learned some things along the way, and I am sure my next project will come out even better ( I actually enjoyed making them) I am very anal about things I do and I wont settle for crap, the curtains are not perfect but they look good and serve the purpose Good luck with the project, if the quote is labor only I would go to the local fabric shop and inquire for seamstress in the area. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 (edited) If thats labor cost it looks like its time to take up sewing. I just followed up plus did some math. They included material and I wasn't expecting that. Best I can tell they will charge about $400 to sew up two pairs of curtains, basically $200 per window. So, still expensive, but I freaked a little prematurely. I don't know if its worth it or not. I think I need 24 yards if I did it on my own which is about $624 at $26 a yard. Having them sew up the same thing will be $1,020 total. As for sound absorption, I guess they rated several materials, I'm not sure which would be considered the best or most desirable based on these charts. Do any of you? http://www.rosebrand.com/Downloads/Acoustical-Fabrics-Ratings-Across-Frequencies.pdf Edited February 5, 2015 by MetropolisLakeOutfitters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Go to a fabric shop and look at upholstry material. I went with a friend years ago and bought a roll of closeout upholstry material and borrowed a sewing machine from a friend. Made four 20 foot tall curtains for about $150. They look great. Bought fancy rods on Ebay and cut them down to size with a metal saw. looks really fancy and did not cost that much for everything, maybe $275 with rods and fancy drapy things (that I wired in place with aircraft bolt wire). Really easy to do. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricktate Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Sewing is easy I took upholstery in high school my chair got displayed in the show case. Been sewing jeans all my life putting patches all over my favorite jeans back in high school. Those jeans were so thick you could stand them on their own. lol Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizRotus Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 (edited) $1000 for custom darpes? You can get curtains from Bed, Bath & Beyond for much less. $15 for a pizza? You can get 3 Hot & Readys for that amount. $4,000 for Klipschorns? You can get 400 pairs of Yorx speakers for less than that. Price is not the be all and end all. A $5 Casio tells time as well as a Rolex; apples and oranges. That price is reasonable for quality custom drapes at 2 x fullnes for your windows. Edited February 6, 2015 by DizRotus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 (edited) $1000 for custom drapes? You can get curtains from Bed Bath & Beyond for much less. $15 for a pizza? You can get 3 Hot & Readys for that amount. $4,000 for Klipschorns? You can get 400 pairs of Yorx speaker for less than that. Price is not the be all and end all. A $5 Casio tells time as well as a Rolex; apples and oranges. That price is reasonable for quality custom drapes at 2 x fullnes for your windows. I still say he can get some quality velour drapes for $500, and with the extra $500 he can save, he can take his wife out to a nice dinner. Or, save even more and take her out to a nice McDonald's. (btw, I like Hot n' Ready's) Edited February 6, 2015 by wvu80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrappydue Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 i would never pay that much for some curtains. if you want velour wrap the walls in it. then hang a couple acoustic panels. get some cheap shades. and hot and ready pizzas are THE WORST LOL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 (edited) Send the curtains off shore and have some 6 year old sew them up for a few bucks, just joking. Edited February 6, 2015 by derrickdj1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OO1 Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 very nice theatre room - congratulations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) My mother in law said she would sew the room up on a commercial machine for my birthday if I just buy the material. So that's good. Can't decide what material though. This company has so many choices its ridiculous. Some absorbs light better, some absorbs sound better, some attract lint more, some last longer, aggravating. There's like 10-15 kinds of velour and velvet apparently. Hobby Lobby has some opaque black velvet in stock for $14.99 a yard though, going to go check that out soon. Edited February 9, 2015 by MetropolisLakeOutfitters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TasDom Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 I bought some black velvet from Joanne's. It was nicer than Hobby Lobby's imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maccagirl83 Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 As a theatre person, let me tell you that Rose is severely overpriced. I know other places that are better, but, you can also do it yourself for way less. I also have some drapery you could have if I have the right dimensions. PM me if you want. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) I bought some black velvet from Joanne's. It was nicer than Hobby Lobby's imo Hobby Lobby's was in fact on the thin side. It may not matter once bunched up but I held it up and could see the store lights through it. Edited February 9, 2015 by MetropolisLakeOutfitters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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