Nursery curtains in Pakenham.

Cord safety comes first.

In Australia, corded internal window coverings are covered by a mandatory consumer product safety standard administered by the ACCC. It exists because loose or looped cords and chains within a child's reach are a strangulation hazard, and it sets requirements for how cords are secured and how installations must be made.

A compliant corded blind, installed correctly with its cleats or tensioners fitted as intended, meets that standard. But the simplest way to remove the hazard from a nursery altogether is not to have a cord in the room. Cordless operation, a wand, or a motorised blind eliminates the loop entirely, and it also means the safety of the room does not depend on a cleat being used correctly every single time by every person who walks in. For a cot room we specify cordless or motorised as the default, not as an upgrade.

Curtains help here too. A curtain on a track operated by hand or by a wand has no cord at all, which is one practical reason curtains suit nurseries. If you do use a tieback, keep it short and well above reach, because a looped tieback is a cord by another name.

Where the cot goes.

Away from the window, and out of reach of anything that hangs. Australian product safety guidance is consistent on keeping cots, beds, change tables and any climbable furniture well clear of window covering cords, because a child standing on furniture can reach much higher than you expect. It is also worth thinking about the curtain hem itself: a standing toddler can grab a floor-length curtain and pull, so the track and its fixings need to be into something solid, and the cot is better placed on another wall.

Getting a nursery genuinely dark.

The test we use is simple. At midday with the curtains closed, you should not be able to comfortably read a book. Most nurseries that fall short have perfectly good blockout fabric and three open edges, because light gets around a curtain far more easily than through it.

• Top. Seal it with a pelmet at $180 to $600, or fix the track hard to the ceiling or an existing bulkhead for nothing extra. An open gap above the rod lights the ceiling and the ceiling lights the room.
• Sides. Return the track to the wall at both ends so the curtain physically meets it. Low morning sun in Pakenham arrives nearly horizontally in summer and drives straight past an open edge.
• Centre. An overlap arm so the two curtains cross by 50 to 100 millimetres instead of butting together.
• Floor. A floor-length drop, which also closes the cold air path at the bottom in winter.

The same four points, with more detail on why each one leaks, are in bedroom blockout curtains.

Pakenham gives you a specific reason to bother. Midsummer sunrise here is before half past five, and in the newer estates around Officer there are no mature trees to soften it, so an east-facing nursery is fully lit at an hour when nobody in the house wants to be awake.

Washability and practical fabric choices.

Nurseries produce marks, spills and sticky hands, and almost all of it lands in the bottom third of the curtain. Choose on that basis. A washable blockout or a triple weave that tolerates gentle laundering is more useful in this room than a beautiful fabric you have to send out to be cleaned.

Coated thermal linings are less tolerant of washing than a standard blockout lining or a triple weave, because the coating is the working part of the fabric. If warmth matters in the room, ask us to weigh the coated lining against a washable blockout plus a properly sealed top, since the seal delivers a large share of the thermal benefit anyway. The options are compared in the lining guide.

One more practical note. Newer estate homes hold moisture, and a heavily sealed curtain makes the glass behind it run colder overnight, which can raise condensation on the pane and the reveal. In a nursery that is worth managing actively: open the curtains during the day so the window dries, and keep some air moving in the room.

What a nursery window costs.

A triple weave blockout curtain runs $300 to $750 per window and a lined blockout $350 to $900. Add a fabric-covered pelmet at $180 to $450 if there is no bulkhead. A cordless blockout roller behind the curtain, which gives you a partial-dark setting during play time, brings the combination to roughly $400 to $1,100 as set out in curtains and blinds together. Full workings are in the 2026 cost guide. Lead time is three to five weeks, so it is worth ordering well before a due date.

Frequently asked questions.