How To Determin The Width Of A Decorative Drapery Panel

The width of drapery side panels can make or break a window. In that location's zippo worse than a mantle that doesn't accept enough fullness. A drapery that has so much fullness and fabric, that it overwhelms a window isn't a skilful thing, either.

But how exercise you cull the correct width for your side panels? As a general dominion, the flat width of a mantle should be about two to two and 3 and a half times as wide as its dressed (or stacked back) width. At that place are some adjustments that must be made depending on the blazon of fabric, lining, and header fashion chosen. A drapery that needs to exist functional rather than decorative volition also have unlike width requirements.

Let's clarify and simplify this to help you figure out the width y'all need.

Stackback and Apartment (or Pleated) Width

A flat, or pleated width is the width that a drapery can stretch to the furthest when hung. For rod pocket drapes, this is simply the width of the cloth when laid flat. In other words, if the drapery is 50 inches broad at the bottom hem, it will likewise exist l inches wide on top. Pleated draperies are unlike. They may exist l inches wide at the bottom hem, yet by the time the pleats are created on top, the header usually is about half of that (roughly 25 inches in this instance).

We refer to this equally the pleated width. Use the analogy below to help y'all with the types of headers you may observe.

Regardless of whether the drapery is a rod pocket, pleated, or whatsoever other type of fashion, what actually matters is the stackback. This is how the drapery will naturally hang on the window.

And so, standing with the thought of a l-inch mantle, you lot may find that a rod pocket drapery has a stackback of near 24 to 28 inches, while a pleated drapery has a stackback of about 15 to 21 inches. Say you have a forty-inch window and choose a pair of pinch pleat draperies that have a 15-inch stackback each. That means that the rod needs to be about 64 inches wide if each mantle is to cover about 3 inches of the window on each side (40 + 15 + 15 – 3 – 3).

(In case all this sounds too disruptive, we have a convenient drapery width calculator and worksheet that you tin can use by going to this guide.)

Are the Draperies Functional or Decorative?

The purpose of the draperies is very of import. A popular design fob is to let the draperies frame the window rather than encompass it. This creates the illusion of pinnacle and makes the window announced wider than it really is.

It'due south a bang-up idea if the draperies are decorative merely, meaning that they're stationary and won't need to be closed shut. But if they demand to exist functional and you'd like to be able to fully shut the drapes in the evening or when you need privacy, you'll need to make certain your draperies don't come too short when yous endeavour to pull them across the rod. Let's use the example to a higher place. To recap, the window is xl inches broad and the rod is 63 inches wide.

The two compression pleat draperies have a full stackback of 30 inches (15 x 2), which means that the pleated elevation header is l inches wide (25 x 2) when stretched as much as possible. Clearly, you lot won't be able to make 50 inches of pleated drapes work on a 63-inch rod, and so these draperies can just be decorative. A logical solution is to switch to rod pocket drapes instead, merely rod pocket draperies are a hassle to pull beyond a rod on a daily basis.

The ameliorate solution is to become up in fullness. Find a fabric that drapes well and isn't too heavy. This is why silks and faux silks are and so popular for draperies – they drape well and naturally require more fullness due to their light weight. Increase the size of the stackback a bit, let the drapery overlap the window a chip more, and you'll realize that you'll be able to depict the draperies close.

Permit's take a await at another example, using the same xl-inch window. Now, we'll cull a 25-inch stackback instead of the 15-inch stackback we chose in the first instance. Each drapery will cover about 10 inches of the window on each side this time.

Doing the math, the rod width comes out to 70 inches wide (twoscore + 25 + 25 – 10 – 10). To go a 25-inch stackback, each pinch pleat drapery should exist almost 37 inches wide at the acme header (which translates to a width-and-a-one-half, or 75 inches at the bottom hem). For a pair, this comes out to 74 inches of coverage at the pleated header when the drapes are fatigued shut.

Now, this will work on a lxx-inch wide rod!

Summary

Measuring for draperies isn't exactly a walk in the park. Yous may accept to get back to the information above again to review, and don't forget to apply our guide and estimator. To summarize the information, the idea is that for decorative draperies, yous want to make the rod as broad as possible to make a window announced wider and larger than it really is.

But for functional draperies (meaning they must be closed close), at that place has to be more overlap with the window, the rod can't be as wide, and yous may accept to add together more fullness to make sure the drapes accept plenty coverage.