Custom Drapery

Lebanon Custom Drapery

Panels sewn to the room, hemmed after they hang

Call (317) 863-9966Get Free Quote
Quick Answer

If you're deciding whether this is the right product for a particular room, these answers should settle it. Where it isn't the right choice, the questions below say so and point at what is.

  • Service: Custom Drapery for Lebanon homeowners
  • Service area: Lebanon, IN and surrounding areas
    • Getting somebody out to measure is the easy part and happens on a normal schedule. After that the fabricator needs roughly two to five weeks. We give you a specific window when we write the order.
  • Insured and bonded
  • Serving Lebanon, IN since 2008
Custom Drapery Services

Expert Custom Drapery for Lebanon Homes

Drapery is the treatment that answers a room rather than an opening, and Lebanon's best rooms for it are old. A Ulen period revival house from the 1924 to 1963 district carries 20 to 30 openings with tall proportions and generous wall space beside them, which is what pleated panels need to stack back onto without covering glass. The pre-1940 houses running off the square have the ceiling height for a rod set well above the head trim. Elmwood, at $850,000 to $1,500,000, is where full length panels on a traverse rod look like the point of the room instead of an addition to it.

Yardage is what you're paying for. Fullness of two to two and a half times the finished width is what makes a pleat look like a pleat, and every increase multiplies the fabric and the labor along with it. National figures for custom drapery run about $300 to $4,000 per window. We also hem after the panels have hung, usually a couple of weeks later, because fabric drops as it relaxes on the rod and a hem cut at install will be wrong by the time it settles. Dye lots move between runs, so a panel added to a Ulen room in 2028 is unlikely to match one cut in 2026.

When to Call

Signs You Need Custom Drapery

If you notice any of these in your Lebanon home, it is worth booking a measure. None of it is urgent, and none of it fixes itself either.

Panels hang over a register and have discolored

Voices carry and ring in a room with bare glass

A bedroom needs softness that a shade alone can't give

Sun has faded the leading edge of a panel

The fabric you loved has been discontinued since

Hems break unevenly across one wall

A cord loop hangs free in a toddler's room

Closed drapery still lets a stripe of light through

Ready-made panels stop short of the floor

Linen hems drag on the floor every August

Our Process

How Lebanon Window Treatments Handles Custom Drapery

Every job follows the same five-step process. Transparent, thorough, and done right the first time.

1

Widths per panel calculated

2

Folds dressed and tied to train

3

Rod projection checked against the shade

4

Stationary or drawing panels decided

5

Written contract per IC 24-5-11

Real Project Photos

Custom Drapery in Lebanon

Photographs from real custom drapery jobs completed by our crew in Lebanon and surrounding areas.

Custom shades measured and installed in LebanonPlantation shutters fitted to a Lebanon windowCellular shades in a Lebanon living room
Scope of Work

What Custom Drapery Includes

Every Lebanon job is documented item by item. Here is what the crew covers.

Rod height and rod width set first, since where the hardware goes decides how the room reads

Finished length measured from the ring or hook down to the floor, at both ends and the center

Floor checked for level across the opening, because an out-of-level floor shows in the hem

Fullness chosen against the fabric and the look, commonly between two and two and a half times the rod width

Widths per panel calculated from fullness, fabric width and the seam allowance, then written on the order

Pattern repeat measured and yardage figured so motifs land at the same height on every panel

Pleat style specified per room, with a sample photo attached to the order so nothing is assumed

Buckram weight selected so the heading stands up instead of collapsing over the rings

Lining specified per elevation, plain, blackout or none, and stated in writing

Interlining added where the fabric needs body or where the room wants weight and quiet

Return depth and overlap at the center dimensioned so panels close without a gap down the middle

Stack back allowed for on the wall so open panels clear the glass instead of covering it

Rod, rings, brackets and finials selected as one set with the panel weight in mind

Mounting substrate found before install day so brackets land in framing or in an anchor rated for the load

Extra brackets added on long rods so the rod can't bow under a full set of lined panels

Hems weighted and corners squared so panels hang straight rather than kicking out

Panels steamed on site to drop fabric memory from folding and shipping

Panels dressed and tied for a few days so the folds train and each panel breaks the same way

Pricing

What Custom Drapery Costs in Lebanon

Published national figures for custom drapery run roughly $300 to $4,000 per window. That's a national range for the category, not a quote for anything in Lebanon, and drapery has the widest spread of anything we sell for a reason. Fabric is the largest single variable and it's priced by the yard, so fullness and panel count multiply whatever you choose. A large pattern repeat adds yardage before a single panel is cut. After fabric it's construction: lining, interlining, pleat style and hand finishing. Then hardware, which on a long span with heavy panels stops being decorative and starts being structural. Two windows of the same size in Boone County can land at opposite ends of that range purely on cloth.

By Product

How Custom Drapery Differs by Product

Every product in this trade behaves differently in a room. Here is what that means for this work.

Pinch pleat: The traditional three-finger heading, hand-tacked and stiffened with buckram. It carries formal fabrics well and holds a deep, consistent fold. Specify it in dining rooms and primary bedrooms where the drapery is meant to look tailored.

Euro pleat: A two-finger pleat tacked at the top of the heading rather than the bottom, so the fold opens as it falls. It reads cleaner and more current than a pinch pleat while keeping the same structure behind it.

Goblet pleat: A rounded, stuffed pleat that stands proud of the heading. It's a decorative choice for tall rooms with real ceiling height, and it wants a fabric with enough body to hold the shape without slumping.

Ripplefold: Snap carriers on a track hold the fabric in a continuous S-wave with no pleats at all. It stacks tightly, it draws easily on wide spans, and it's the heading we reach for on a modern room or a long wall of glass.

Flat panel and rod pocket: The simplest headings. A flat panel on rings suits a stationary decorative panel, and a rod pocket suits a light fabric on a rod nobody plans to draw. Neither is built for daily operation.

Cotton sateen lining: The standard lining. It protects the face fabric from sun, gives the panel body so it hangs straight, and presents a consistent white or ivory face to the street from every window in the house.

Blackout lining: A dense multi-layer lining that stops light through the cloth. It adds real weight, which the rod and brackets have to carry, and it makes a bedroom noticeably darker even though light still comes around the panel edges.

Interlining: A soft flannel layer sewn between face fabric and lining. It adds drape, softens the fold, quiets the room a little and helps at a cold window in January. It's the difference between a nice panel and a luxurious one.

Decorative rod with rings: A visible rod, rings and finials, drawn by hand or with a baton. It puts the hardware into the design of the room. Panel weight decides diameter, material and how many brackets the span needs.

Traverse rod: A mechanical rod with carriers and a cord or baton draw, often concealed behind a heading or a valance. It's what you want when panels get closed every night and the hardware is meant to disappear.

Common Questions

Custom Drapery FAQ

Questions we hear most often from Lebanon homeowners considering custom drapery.

Because fabric moves. Panels stretch under their own weight over the first days on the rod, and lined and interlined ones move more than unlined. If we cut the hem at installation, a break that looked right on day one becomes a puddle by the end of the month, or the panel hangs short of the floor and reads like a mistake. We hang, leave it, then come back and hem to the actual finished length. It's an extra visit and it's the difference between drapery that looks made for the room and drapery that looks bought.
Far enough that the open panels are on wall, not glass. That distance is the return and the stack back together, and on a heavy pleated panel it can be a foot or more per side. In a Ulen room with tall openings and wall to spare, that's easy. In a 1970s Lebanon ranch where openings sit close to a corner, there may not be room, and the panels will cover part of the glass whenever they're open. We measure available wall before we quote, because that number decides whether drapery is the right product at all.
Pinch pleat, for a Ulen house. A pinch pleat is stiffened with buckram behind the heading, which is what holds the crisp vertical folds that suit Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival rooms. Ripplefold hangs in an even wave from a carrier tape and reads modern, which is right in a new Cedar Ridge great room and wrong beside 1930s woodwork. A rod pocket is the least expensive and it doesn't traverse, so it suits panels that stay put. The heading choice also changes yardage, so it isn't purely aesthetic.
More than the window measurement suggests, because fullness is a multiplier. At two to two and a half times the finished width, a pair covering a 72 inch opening is working with roughly 144 to 180 inches of fabric width before hems and returns, and that gets doubled again by the lining. Patterned fabric adds more, because the repeat has to match across every panel width. National figures put custom drapery at about $300 to $4,000 per window, and yardage is the single biggest reason a job lands high or low in that range.
It usually should. Layering is how those rooms were dressed originally: something at the glass for light control, panels outside it for the room. In a pre-1940 Lebanon house with 18 to 28 openings, dressing every one in full drapery is rarely the plan, so panels go on the principal rooms and the existing blinds keep working underneath. The one thing to check is projection. The rod has to clear the headrail and the brackets so the panels hang flat instead of bulging over hardware.
A lined and interlined panel makes a measurable difference to how a room feels, though it's comfort rather than anything we'd put a number on. Central Indiana runs a January average high of 36.1 degrees and an average low of 20.9, and a heavy panel closed over an opening slows the air movement you feel as a draft near the glass. To do real work it needs to be wide enough to overlap the wall on both sides and long enough to reach the floor. A short panel over a radiator does very little.
Fullness is how much fabric goes across the rod compared with the rod's width. At two times fullness, a 100 inch rod carries about 200 inches of cloth. Most of our work lands between two and two and a half times, because that's where a panel looks full rather than skimpy and still stacks reasonably. Sheers often want more, since thin fabric needs the extra to read as fabric at all. Below two times, panels look flat when closed, and no fabric choice rescues that.
A width is one full cut of the fabric across the bolt, usually around 54 inches before seams. Panels are built by joining widths until you reach the fullness the rod needs. So a pair on a wide opening might be two widths per side, or three, and that number is what drives yardage and cost more than anything else. We write widths per panel on the order rather than leaving it as a vague description, so there's no argument later about how full "full" was.
Because the motif has to land at the same height on every panel, and to make that happen the cutter starts each panel at the same point in the repeat. Everything between panels gets trimmed off. A large repeat can add a meaningful chunk of yardage before anyone sews. This isn't waste in the careless sense, it's the cost of a room where the pattern lines up across four windows. We calculate it during the quote so the number doesn't appear later.
Buckram is the stiffener sewn into the top of the panel behind the pleats. It's what makes a heading stand upright and hold a crisp fold instead of flopping over the rings. Weight matters: too light and a heavy fabric drags the heading into a slump, too heavy and a light fabric looks boardy. It's invisible in the finished panel, which is exactly why it gets skipped in cheap work, and why a bargain drapery panel never quite looks right.
Almost always, and how they touch is the decision. A kiss break has the hem just meeting the floor and is the cleanest look for panels that get drawn every day. A slight break, half an inch to an inch of extra length, lets the fabric relax onto the floor and looks softer. A puddle is several inches and belongs on stationary panels in a formal room, not on anything you'll walk past. Floors are rarely level, so we measure the length at three points.
The return is the short section that wraps from the front of the rod back to the wall at each end, closing off the side. The overlap is where the two leading edges cross in the middle when the panels are shut. Skip either one and you get a stripe of light and a sightline into the room. Both need dimensioning at the measure, because the return depth depends on your bracket projection and the overlap depends on the hardware.
In something that will hold the load. A pair of interlined blackout panels on a wide rod is heavy, and it hangs off the wall on a lever arm, which multiplies the pull on the fasteners. We find framing where we can, use blocking where it exists, and use anchors rated for the load where it doesn't. Long rods get extra brackets so the rod can't bow. Drywall anchors chosen by guesswork are the single most common reason drapery ends up on the floor.
Because fabric remembers. Panels arrive folded, and those creases don't fall out on their own. We steam them on site, then dress the folds by hand and tie them loosely for several days so the cloth learns the shape. Untie them after that and each fold sits where it should. Skipping this step is why some drapery hangs with a stiff wave in the wrong place for years. It costs us an hour and it's the difference between finished and installed.
You can get blackout lining, and it's worth knowing what that does and doesn't do. The lining stops light coming through the cloth, so the panel itself goes dark. Light still enters around the panel: over the top, past the return if there isn't one, and through the gap at the center if the overlap is short. The reliable way to darken a bedroom in Lebanon is blackout lined panels over a blackout shade with side channels. The drapery handles the softness and the shade handles the edges.
Rings on a decorative rod look better and are drawn by hand or with a baton. They suit panels that mostly stay open and get closed occasionally. A traverse rod has carriers and a mechanical draw, so panels that get closed every single night operate more smoothly and the fabric takes less handling. Ripplefold on a track is the third option and stacks tightest. We ask how often the panels actually move, then pick hardware that matches that answer.
More than most people plan for. Open panels have to go somewhere, and that stack is real: full fullness, multiple widths and a lining add up to a bundle of cloth several inches deep per width. If the rod stops at the edge of the opening, your open panels cover a chunk of the glass all day. We extend the rod past the trim on both sides so the stack lands on wall, which makes the window look larger and lets the daylight in.
Vacuum the face with a brush attachment a few times a year and steam out wrinkles rather than pressing them. When it needs more, use a dry cleaner who handles drapery specifically and takes panels down and rehangs them. Do not wash lined or interlined panels at home. The layers shrink at different rates and the hem goes wavy in a way that can't be fixed. Sun exposure ages fabric faster than dirt does, which is why we spec lining even on panels you'll never close.
Sometimes, and you should assume not. Fabric runs in dye lots, and a bolt woven next year can sit slightly off the one your panels came from. Two panels from different lots on the same wall will show it in daylight. If a second phase is coming, the right move is buying the yardage now, even if the sewing happens later. We'll record the fabric, the lot and the widths on your file either way, which at least gives the reorder a fighting chance.
Layering does more, and it's how most rooms end up. The shade handles the working part: glare, privacy and the edges of the window. The drapery handles softness, height and the way the room feels, and it stops a wall of hard treatments looking like an office. In a Lebanon bedroom that combination gives you darkness the drapery alone can't deliver. In a living room, stationary panels beside a solar shade can be the whole job.
Areas We Serve

Custom Drapery Across Lebanon

We measure and install in every one of these Lebanon neighborhoods. Each has its own page with the build eras, window conditions and mounting notes for that section.

Related Services

Other Window Treatment Services in Lebanon

Lebanon Window Treatments handles the full scope of window treatment work. Explore our other services below.

Faux Wood Blinds in Lebanon

Slats that ignore a Lebanon August

Learn more →

Wood Blinds in Lebanon

Basswood for the rooms with casing worth matching

Learn more →

Vertical Blinds in Lebanon

The honest answer to a wide patio door

Learn more →
Free In-Home Measure

Schedule Your Free In-Home Measure in Lebanon

Contact Information

Reach Us Directly

Our team prioritizes scheduled measures and service calls, and books in-home measures during business hours.

Office
1417 Commerce Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46201
Hours
Mon-Fri 8a-6p
Service Area
Lebanon, IN and Surrounding Areas

Ready to Book Your Measure?

Call us to set up an in-home measure, or to ask about a treatment that has stopped working. We will talk it through on the phone first.

Call (317) 863-9966
Service area

Serving Lebanon and the surrounding area

Call NowGet Quote