How much do curtains cost in Dubai?
The honest answer is that nobody can tell you until someone has measured your windows — and anyone who gives you a number before that is guessing. What we can do is explain exactly what moves the price, so you can read any quote you are given, from us or from anyone else, and know what you are actually looking at.
Why a per-metre quote hides the real total
Most curtain quotes in Dubai are given as a rate per metre. It sounds transparent. It is the most misleading way to price a curtain, for two reasons.
First, the rate almost always covers fabric only. Making, lining, track, brackets, wall fixings, installation and VAT are added afterwards, one by one, usually once someone is already standing in your living room. The number that got you to call was never the number you pay.
Second, a metre of fabric is not a metre of window. Curtains need fullness to hang properly — the fabric has to be considerably wider than the window, or they hang flat and look like a bedsheet. So the metres you are billed for are always more than the width you measured, and how much more depends on the heading. Two quotes with an identical per-metre rate can produce very different totals for the same window.
What actually drives the price
Fabric weight and roll width
Heavier fabrics cost more per metre, but weight also decides the track and the fixings, so it moves more than one line on the quote. Roll width matters just as much and almost nobody mentions it: if your drop is taller than the fabric's usable width, the fabric has to be railroaded or joined, and waste rises sharply. Two fabrics at the same rate can produce very different totals on the same window.
The drop
Floor-to-ceiling glass, which most new Dubai towers have, uses far more fabric than a standard window of the same width. The drop is usually the single biggest driver of cost in an apartment, and it is the one people underestimate most.
Heading style
Eyelet, pencil pleat, pinch pleat and wave each need different amounts of fabric and different amounts of labour. Pinch pleat and wave look tailored and cost more to make; eyelet is the cheapest to produce. This is a real choice, and it is one of the easier places to spend less without the room suffering for it.
Lining
Standard, thermal and blackout lining are three different things at three different prices. Blackout in a Dubai bedroom is usually worth it. Blackout in a living room usually is not. A supplier who lines everything by default is selling, not advising.
Single or double track
A sheer and a blackout layer on one window means two sets of curtains and a double track, not one. In most Dubai apartments that is the right specification — a sheer alone gives almost no privacy after dark from the tower fifteen metres away — but it roughly doubles that window. Knowing which windows genuinely need both, and which do not, is where the real saving is.
The same judgement decides whether a window wants a curtain at all. On some windows a blind does the job for less, and on others it costs you the thing you were buying. We have set that out room by room in curtains or blinds: an honest answer for Dubai homes.
Drywall or concrete
Most Dubai towers have drywall around the window reveals, not solid concrete. A track fixed into drywall with the wrong anchor holds for a few months and then pulls out of the wall, taking the plasterboard with it. Correct fixings for the wall type cost more and take longer to fit. This is the cheapest thing for a supplier to skip and the most expensive thing for you to get wrong.
Motorisation
A motor adds meaningfully to a window: the motor itself, a compatible track, wiring or batteries, and programming. Wired is permanent and silent but needs power near the track, so it is usually a fit-out decision. Battery retrofits into a finished apartment in a day but needs recharging every few months. Neither is better in general — and in many homes the existing track can be replaced and your current panels re-headed rather than starting again.
The things quoted separately
Making charges, lining, track and brackets, wall fixings, delivery, installation, hand-dressing and VAT. Every one of these is a legitimate cost. The problem is not that they exist — it is that they are so often left out of the headline number and introduced later, when you are already committed.
How we do it instead
We do not publish a price list, and we do not quote before we have seen your windows.
A supervisor visits your home, free and with no obligation. We study the light in every room, measure every window twice, and bring the fabric books to you so you choose in your own light rather than under showroom lighting. Within 24 hours you receive one written price per finished window — fabric, making, lining, track, brackets, the correct fixings for your wall type, delivery, installation and hand-dressing, all inside that one number and itemised so you can see it.
Nothing is added later. If our measurement changes anything, we tell you before we cut, never after. See how our pricing works.
Seven questions to ask any supplier
- Is that rate fabric only, or the finished window installed?
- What fullness is it based on, and which heading?
- Is lining included — and which lining?
- Is the track included, with brackets and fixings?
- Is my wall drywall or concrete, and what anchor will you use?
- Is installation included, and is VAT included?
- Will this number change after you measure?
If the answers are vague, the number will change. That is the whole test.
Book a free home visit — 45 minutes, no obligation, with fabric books brought to you. Free supervisor visit, free measurement, free written quotation and free installation.