Side Panels for a wedding venue

This stunning venue is set within Chateau d’Hallines, which is an incredibly beautiful Chateau in France. It is popular for its luxurious and elegant rooms, picturesque gardens and surroundings, and ample onsite activities. Their waterproof side panels (which we manufactured for them) are used frequently within their renovated stables which has a very clever secret; That when all curtains are rolled up and not in use, all the support legs are completely removable! This allows the venue complete freedom to either quickly roll up and clip up all side panels, or roll down to fully enclose their seated area for comfort from the elements.

Remotely confirmed from start to finish

This is a great example of a project where we designed and manufactured the side panels completely remotely. In the first instance we were supplied with lots of imagery, some brief measurements, and were told that the aim was to have side panels. Knowing that the span was over several metres of course posts were needed for support, but these needed to be completely removable as the customer expressed the importance of keeping the opening post-free in summer.

So whilst we did not carry out measuring or installation, we were able to help guide the customer through-out, and came up with the best design suited for their use and needs, and they did an awesome job of following our guidance to measure up as well as install. The below image shows the opening before anything was added, and this was the image which was first provided to us along with the project-aim to a provide strong clear side curtain easily able to roll up and down, as well as completely removable.

The below image is after the installation of the waterproof side panels.

The Design

Because the opening is very tall as well as wide it would not have been a good idea to manufacture 1 extremely large curtain. As one large curtain it would not have been user-friendly, would be at risk to the wind bellowing it, and risk of causing damaging pressure upon the structure. This is why we manufactured three waterproof side panels, each with a large clear window to ensure lots of light and vision through to the gorgeous grounds. It is very important that each side panel is properly secured, which is why there is strong aluminium housing running along the top inside of the opening (secured properly to the current structural beam). Each support leg is bolted to the top via a fabricated special bracket, and drops into a countersunk ground socket.

All of these side panels feature strong keder beading along the top (which allows them to be installed via sliding into the aluminium housing track). The middle side panel features similar keder beading down each edge sitting within the mouth of the tracks on each removable support post, hence a zip is placed very close to the edges of the curtain, allowing the middle curtain to be completely unzipped from the posts and rolled up.

Installation

A very important part of their installation was ensuring that ‘body’ was allowed within the middle curtain- which is why they fitted the ground sockets for the legs/and support legs only after the curtain was hanging in place. This is because this design (with the keder/zips each side) means the curtain is permanently fixed between the support posts, and so there is no tolerance for movement of the middle side panel or posts. You will notice the 2 outer waterproof side panels connect to the legs in the same way, but also feature cleats/shock cord on the outer edge; This means there is room for tolerance and movement, and means a lot of the pressure and stress can be taken also within the robust elasticated shock cord each outer side.

Since each outer edge has shock cord/cleats, we also put a ‘buffer edging’ in front of the eyelets so that whilst the side panels could be tensioned properly, the edges also extended to touch the walls for complete enclosure. This method of security was also ideal as the opening was not 100% square/true.

All aspects of this project was carefully thought about, designed and custom made. You will notice that the clips at the very tops of the side panels may require a step-up or ladder to reach- However in stormy conditions it is important that they are all able to be fully rolled up and clipped up. This is why we put a second clip and strap at a reachable height which allowed the curtains to be more user-friendly.