A Lebanon Homeowner's Guide to Custom Drapery for 2008

Lebanon Window Treatments

Most houses we walk into already have shades on the windows, so the drapery question is really a layering question: how much fullness the room needs, and whether the panels should draw at all or just sit there and look good. Get that backward in a Lebanon home and you end up buying more fabric and more hardware than the room actually needed. Here is how to get it right.

Pleat Styles and Fullness

Everything about a custom drapery panel gets locked in before the fabric is cut, starting with the pleat. Pinch pleat is what most people picture: a stiff buckram header, pleats tacked by hand, hanging on rings or a traverse track, formal enough to hold its shape for decades. A two finger version uses a little less fabric and falls softer, which fits a more relaxed Lebanon room just fine. Goblet pleat is rounded and stuffed to hold its shape, gorgeous on a panel that never moves and rough on one you draw daily, since the shape gives out fast. Ripplefold skips pleats entirely, riding evenly spaced carriers on its own track, and it is what we reach for on a wide run of glass or anything that needs to be motorized.

Fullness is flat fabric width divided by how much rod width the panel ends up covering. Two times fullness on a 50 inch span means roughly 100 inches of fabric goes into that one panel before hems and returns. Most pleated drapery lands at 2 to 2.5 times, and anything under that starts looking pinched and thin. Ripplefold gets talked about in percentages instead, usually 80 or 100 percent.

Hardware, Stack Back and Floor Break

Stack back, the chunk of wall a fully open panel takes up, climbs with fullness, fabric weight, lining and pleat style, and it explains why so many drapery panels sit on top of the glass instead of beside it all day. Mounting the rod wider than the window and higher than the trim gives the panels wall to stack onto instead. A one way draw, pulling entirely to whichever side has room, is the answer when the wall runs out on one side.

A return carries the panel back to the wall at the end of the rod, and without one, a thin line of light runs down that outside edge. An overlap lets the two panels cross in the center so closing them does not leave a gap. The bracket has to bite into real framing or a rated anchor, and a rod running any real distance needs a center support. Float, roughly half an inch up, holds up daily use and pets. Kiss just grazes the floor, elegant when level and unforgiving when not. Break folds softly with an extra inch or two of length. Puddle piles three inches or more and only makes sense on a stationary panel. Take the floor measurement at several points, since plenty of Lebanon homes have a floor that shifts.

Choosing Drapery Room by Room

Shades control light. Drapery does something a shade cannot: it softens a room's sound and gives a window visual weight against the wall.

• Living rooms: highest return in the house. Mount high and wide. Stationary panels work well over a shade that handles the actual light control.
• Dining rooms: formal pleats, pinch or goblet, with interlining if the budget allows. Used mostly at night, so closed panels fit the room's purpose.
• Primary bedrooms: blackout lined panels over a room darkening shade, with full overlap and proper returns, for genuine darkness.
• Home offices: stationary panels beside a solar shade, reducing both glare and echo in a room with hard surfaces.
• Kitchens and bathrooms: mostly skip full length panels, since grease and steam favor something wipeable instead.

In Lebanon, the drapery installations that hold up best share two traits: the hardware went up wider and higher than expected, and the fabric decision came after the mounting plan, not before.

A good drapery panel is mostly decided before the fabric ever gets cut: the pleat, the fullness, the lining, and the length that actually reaches your floor. Lebanon Window Treatments treats the measure as the real work and the sewing as the part that follows it. Call (317) 999-5154, and we'll come measure your Lebanon windows in person.

Lining Choices and Fabric Behavior

Unlined drapery is soft and lets real light through, but the face fabric fades faster with nothing between it and the sun. Standard lining, a sateen backing, gives the panel body and reduces and slows fading on the face fabric, though it never stops it outright.

Blackout lining stops light through the cloth itself, but light still slips around the panel unless overlap and returns are generous, and needle holes at the tacks can show as small points of light. Interlining adds a soft flannel layer between face and lining. It is the most expensive option, adding weight for a deeper fold and softening sound a little in a hard room. Linen moves with humidity, so a panel that brushed the floor in a damp month can drag in a dry one, which is why it usually gets floated rather than kissed. Velvet needs real hardware behind it, and sheers need more fullness than anything else to avoid looking thin.

What Custom Drapery Costs

Fabric is the only part of a drapery quote most people can see, which is why it confuses buyers. Yardage usually moves the number the most: multiply the width covered by the fullness ratio, add returns and hems, divide by the usable fabric width for the number of cuts, then multiply by the finished length. A pattern repeat adds to that yardage fast, and a bold repeat on a tall Lebanon window can waste real fabric.

Nationally, custom drapery measured and installed runs roughly $250 to $2,600 a window, usually landing toward the top of that range since yardage and construction labor both run higher than on most shades. A pinch pleated panel with interlining and mitered hems takes real time to sew by hand. Hardware tends to be quoted as a separate line, so confirm whether it is even included. Ask every company for the same list: fullness ratio, pleat style, lining type, whether hardware is included, and lead time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does a patterned fabric cost so much more?

Because of the repeat. Every panel has to be cut so the pattern lands in the same place, which turns the fabric between usable cuts into waste. The bigger the repeat, the more yardage you're paying for without ever hanging it on the window. On a tall window, a large repeat can add a noticeable amount of fabric to the order. Ask what the repeat measures before you fall for a fabric, and ask whether it can be railroaded, meaning turned sideways to avoid seams on a wide treatment.

How do I clean custom drapery?

Vacuum with a brush attachment on low suction a few times a year and most panels stay in good shape for a long time. When they need more than that, use dry cleaning or an in place cleaning service. Never put a lined panel through a home washing machine, since the face fabric and the lining shrink at different rates and the panel will never hang correctly again afterward. If a panel gets rumpled, a steamer used from the back usually settles the folds.

Should drapery panels actually draw, or is it fine to leave them stationary?

Depends on what the shade underneath is doing. If a shade or blind already handles the light and the privacy, stationary panels are usually the smarter buy, since they use less fullness and less hardware while giving you the same finished look on the wall. Functioning drapery makes more sense in a room with no shade at all, or in a primary bedroom, where the extra layer of fabric closing over a shade is what actually gets the room dark. Ask whether anyone will actually pull the panels shut on a normal night before paying for hardware that lets them do it.