hallway curtains to direct heat

So I'm thinking of making some simple, utilitarian curtains that will help me direct the heat in my house. The main heater here is a floor one in the central hallway of the house. All around it, there are two bedrooms and a bathroom (all with doors) but it also connects to the kitchen and living room (no doors). I'm thinking if I had curtains over the living room and kitchen entrances, I could open or close them to help direct the heat into the occupied portions of the house. That way, when we go to bed for instance, we can close off the rest of the house and open the bedroom door. Make sense? I'm not thinking of anything particularly "pretty". It doesn't have to be gorgeous, just do the job. I just don't know what the best fabric would be to use. I have some wool that might do the job, but even though it's wool it seems like it might be too thin to do the job really well (not the blanket kind, more like suit/coat liner...) Any advice on what to use? My partner works at Jo-Ann fabrics, so we have our pick of most everything!

 

I've no idea what to recommend, but it does sound like a cool idea though....

 

lol... Yeah, that's what everyone's said when I've asked advice! I've done a little research, and wool's definitely not the way to go. The way the fiber is structured will hold body heat in against your skin, but I don't think it'll work in this type of use. I guess all I can do is go down to the fabric store next time I've got some money and see what I can find... Probably end up going with some sort of home dec duck cloth.

 

Wow, that's awesome about the wind power!

Yeah, it's just the heater in the floor, no air moving at all. Fortunately, I'm a freak about fans. I can't stand still air. So whenever we have the heater running we have a fan or two going to direct the air. It seems pretty effective, but I still want to put up some sort of curtain thing to help also. Quilted fabric might be a good way to go. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

I actually did the same thing at my old house. It was a house that was over 100 years old and was pretty hard to keep all the rooms the same temperature, but I used some fairly heavy courderoy to make a doorway curtain between the kitchen and living room. Its easy enough to sew on a machine but heavy enough to keep the warm air in, the cold air out. Mine was a lovely bright orange courderoy, but if you have access to a fabric store, you will be able to find all kinds.

 

I think that your ideea is great, but why go through all that trouble by making the curtains on your own. I am suggesting you to check out this website and I am sure that you will find everything you need at cheap prices. Good luck!

http://www.creamdirectory.com/Retail_Trade/Retailers/

 

the fans are probably a good idea, heat rises, the fans direct warm air heating up the ceiling down to where its needed. maybe you should just get more heaters, fan heaters are the best i find. i like the mylar sheet idea, you can buy this stuff at camping shops.

with all this cloth around you'll need a smoke alarm fitted somewhere incase fire breaks out. i don't live in particularly cold climes any more thank god. blocking draughts under doors will help you a lot, as will putting carpet on the floor. if you live in a house maybe you could rig up some sort of solar water heating system in the garden, the water being heated by the sun can be pumped into the house heating the air in the house, fan blowing through radiator, the pump and fan could even be powered by a solar panel? look at artists impressions of castle interiors and you'll see lots of tapestries hanging on the walls any guesses why?