What happens at a free home appointment

Colour is the first reason. Every screen shows a fabric its own way, and a shade that looked warm on a phone can look grey against a north-facing window, or a white can turn cream beside your walls. Showroom lighting has the same problem. The only light that tells you how a fabric will look in your room is the light in your room.

The window is the second reason. What suits a window depends on things you cannot see in a catalogue: how deep the reveal is, where the handles sit, whether the opening is square, what is underneath it and how the room is used. An advisor standing at the window can see all of that at once.

The third is responsibility. When our advisor measures every opening, the measurements a blind, curtain or shutter is made to are ours, not yours. If something does not fit, that is our problem to put right, rather than the result of a number you wrote down.

So instead of asking you to visit us, measure up and guess, we bring the range to your windows and do the measuring ourselves.

Each area has its own visiting days, so the soonest date depends on your postcode. When you put your postcode into the booking form, it shows you the real dates we are in your area, so you can pick one that suits you without waiting for a call back.

Appointments need at least a day's notice, so the advisor can plan the route and bring the right samples for what you have in mind.

When you book, it helps to say which rooms and what you are thinking about, even if the answer is only a rough idea. Blinds, curtains and shutters can all be quoted on the same visit, and so can a mixture of them on one window.

If you would like to narrow down colours first, you can order free fabric samples, up to five per order, posted first class. Plenty of people live with a few swatches on the windowsill for a week and then book the appointment once they have a shortlist.

You do not need to measure anything or prepare much. It is worth spending ten minutes thinking about each room, though, because the most useful thing you can bring to the appointment is a clear idea of what bothers you about each window.

Is it glare on a television or a screen? Early light in a bedroom? A street-facing room that feels on show after dark? A cold window in winter? A frame you would rather not see? Each of those points towards a different answer, and knowing which matters most in each room makes the choices much quicker.

Note anything you want to keep, such as a curtain pole you like, and anything that is about to change, such as a radiator being moved or furniture arriving. If you have already tried our online measuring tool, keep your notes to hand; they are a useful starting point, even though the advisor measures again.

Make sure each window can be reached. The advisor needs to stand at every opening, and a sofa or a cot pushed tight against a window is easier to move before the visit than during it.

Your advisor brings the full sample range: fabrics, slats, finishes and mechanisms. Rather than showing them to you across a table, they hold them against your own windows, next to your own walls and floor, in the light the room actually gets. It is the quickest way to see that a pale linen is too sheer for a street-facing room, or that a slat finish picks up the colour of the floor better than you expected.

This is also the time to see the options side by side. On a window where the fit is a real choice, your advisor can hold a blind against the recess and against the wall around it, so you see the difference between a recess fit and an exact fit before you choose. Ask about anything you are unsure of: blackout, how a blind will work with curtains, motorisation for a high or hard-to-reach window, or which options suit a room with small children.

If you are torn between two shades at the end of the visit, there is no pressure to decide there and then. Samples are free, and seeing a swatch again in the evening light can settle it.

Once you have an idea of what you want, the advisor measures. Every opening is measured on its own. The advisor never sizes one window from the one next to it, however alike they look.

They measure the width and height in more than one place, the depth of the reveal, and everything that affects the fit: handles, sills, tiles, radiators and the space either side. Out-of-square windows are normal in British housing, particularly in older homes, and made to measure means made to the opening you actually have, including reveals that taper and frames that have settled.

Some jobs take more measuring than others. Bays are measured pane by pane so the set lines through. Doors are measured with the handles and the way they open in mind. Shutters need the depth and squareness of each opening taken carefully, because a rigid panel is less forgiving than fabric.

The point of all this is simple. Because we take the measurements, the fit is our responsibility rather than yours.

Before the advisor leaves, you get a written price, itemised per window, covering the product, the fitting and the guarantee. There are no list prices, because every job is made to measure: the figure depends on the size of each opening, the product and fabric you choose, the heading or mechanism, and any motorisation. Itemising it per window means you can see exactly where the money goes, and change one window without redoing the rest.

If you find the same product, with the same measuring and fitting service, for less, our price promise is that we will match it. Seasonal offers run through the year, and your advisor applies whatever is running when they price your job. On larger orders, there are finance options, and the advisor will talk you through them.

There is nothing to pay on the day. You can take the quote away, talk it over, sleep on it and come back to us when you are ready. There is no obligation to order anything, and no charge if you decide against it.

Your order is made to the advisor's measurements and hand-finished in our West Yorkshire workshop. Nothing is cut from a standard size.

Fitting is done by our own team, and it is included in the price you were quoted. The fitter hangs everything, checks the operation with you and takes the packaging away. Blinds and curtains are usually straightforward. Shutters take longer, because each frame is fixed and set to its opening, and a typical room is a morning's work.

Every corded blind is supplied with the child-safety devices required by UK regulations, and the fitter installs them and shows you how they work. Where there are cots or small children, we usually recommend a cordless or motorised option instead, and your advisor will have talked that through on the day.

Every blind, shutter and motor we supply and fit carries a 1-year guarantee. If anything needs attention, ring the office. Parts such as chains, brackets, wands and motors can usually be replaced without remaking the blind, and because we measured, made and fitted it, there is no one else to chase.