Curtain Fitting in Dubai: What It Costs and How to Avoid a Bad Job

What a fair price actually looks like

Fitting-only jobs, where you already own the curtains and just need someone to hang a track or rod on existing holes, run AED 100 to 150 per window. That's the low end of the market and it's what most Karama and Dragon Mart-based fitters quote for a straightforward job with a ladder, a drill, and no surprises.

Supply-and-fit is where most people actually land. A standard curtain in a mid-range fabric, track included, for a typical bedroom or living room window in an apartment, sits between AED 350 and 600 per window. Blackout fabric, which most Dubai bedrooms want given the light and heat from March through October, pushes that to AED 500-900 per window because the fabric is heavier and often needs a stronger track and lining. A common Dubai combination – sheer curtain on one track, blackout on a second track behind it – comes to AED 800-1,400 per window once you include both tracks and both fabrics.

For a full villa fit-out, eight to ten windows with a mix of living areas and bedrooms, expect AED 8,000 to 15,000 for mid-range supply and fit. That figure moves a lot depending on fabric choice, whether you want pelmets to hide the track, and whether any windows are oversized (floor-to-ceiling glass in newer villas in Arabian Ranches or Damac Hills adds cost per metre of track, not per window).

Motorised tracks are common now, and the price gap is wide

Motorised curtains have moved from a luxury add-on to a fairly standard request in new-build villas and higher-end apartments in Business Bay and Dubai Marina. Expect AED 1,800 to 3,500 per window for motor, track and fitting combined. The spread is almost entirely down to the motor brand: a recognised brand like Somfy sits at the top of that range and usually comes with a proper warranty and spare parts support; generic Chinese motors sold through smaller curtain shops are cheaper but replacement parts can be hard to source two years later, which matters if you want it integrated with a smart home system. If you're already running Alexa or Google Home in the villa, ask specifically whether the motor is compatible before you commit, because retrofitting a different motor later means re-fitting the whole track.

Questions that expose someone who isn't qualified for the job

Ask what the track is rated to carry. Blackout and lined curtains are heavy, and a track rated for light voile will sag or pull out of the wall within months under a heavier fabric. A competent fitter answers this without hesitation and adjusts the bracket spacing accordingly – usually every 40-50cm for heavier curtains rather than the wider spacing used for light fabric.

Ask how they're fixing into your specific wall. This is the single most useful question you can ask in Dubai, because it separates people who've fitted a handful of curtains from people who do it professionally.

Why the wall type matters more here than almost anywhere else

Most Dubai apartments, especially in towers built since the mid-2000s, use gypsum board partition walls rather than solid block or concrete for internal divisions. A screw driven straight into gypsum board with a standard wall plug will hold for a few weeks and then pull out under the weight of a curtain track, taking a chunk of the wall with it. A proper fitter uses specific gypsum anchors or, better, locates the metal stud behind the board and fixes into that. If someone shows up with only standard rawl plugs and no stud finder, that's a fair signal to look elsewhere. Exterior and structural walls tend to be solid concrete block, which is far more forgiving, but ceilings in many apartments are suspended gypsum ceilings hiding services above, and drilling into those without checking for cabling or AC ducting is how call-outs turn into repair bills.

Get permission before anyone drills, especially if you rent

If you're a tenant, your Ejari contract typically restricts structural alterations, and drilling new fixing points for curtain tracks counts. Most landlords don't mind reasonable curtain installation, but it's worth a two-line message confirming it before the fitter arrives, particularly if you're adding a second track for blackout curtains or fitting a pelmet that needs additional brackets. Landlords who weren't asked sometimes deduct from the security deposit at move-out for unauthorised holes, even small ones, and it's a much easier conversation to have before the drill comes out than after.

If you live in a tower with building management – common across JLT, Business Bay and Dubai Marina – check whether large deliveries (curtain rods over 3 metres, boxed motorised tracks) need to go through the service lift rather than the passenger lift, and whether that needs booking in advance. Some premium towers in Downtown and DIFC also have facade uniformity rules restricting what's visible from outside, which occasionally rules out certain blackout linings or coloured backings on street-facing units. It's a rare snag but an expensive one to discover after the curtains are made.

Where Dubai's curtain trade actually operates from

Al Quoz Industrial Area has the highest concentration of curtain and upholstery workshops in the city, and most of the mid-range to higher-end made-to-measure work is produced there even if the showroom you visited was in Business Bay or Al Barsha. Karama has a cluster of smaller curtain and fabric shops that tend to be cheaper and faster for straightforward, non-motorised work. Dragon Mart is the budget option for ready-made curtains and basic tracks, but fitting is usually a separate arrangement and the tracks sold there are generally not rated for heavy blackout fabric.

What a proper quote should contain

A written quote worth trusting itemises fabric cost per metre, track or rod cost, motor cost if applicable, and labour separately, rather than one lump figure. It should state who's supplying the fabric (if you're bringing your own, some shops charge a small handling markup to fit third-party fabric, which is fair and should be disclosed upfront). It should name a completion timeframe – custom-made curtains typically take 5 to 10 working days to produce once fabric is chosen, longer in the run-up to Ramadan and Eid when workshops are busiest with home refreshes. And it should come from a business with a trade licence and the ability to issue a proper tax invoice showing a TRN, not a cash-only arrangement through a WhatsApp number. That last point matters less for a AED 150 fitting job and matters a great deal for a AED 12,000 villa order, because it's the difference between having recourse if a motor fails in month four and simply not being able to find the person again.