Style and proportion: headings, heights, lengths and layers

A heading decides whether a curtain glides every day or stays put. Rod height, width past the frame and length decide how the window reads in the room. This chapter gives the makers' ranges for each and a tape test on the wall before anything is bought.

1. Headings: opened daily or left in place Understand

The heading is the top of a curtain: how the fabric is gathered or pleated and how it attaches to the rod or track. The header is the strip of fabric, usually stiffened, that the heading is formed in. The heading decides two things that matter more than its look: whether the curtain slides easily when you draw it, and how neatly it folds into its stack when open.

The Shade Store's guide to drapery styles sorts its headings into two groups. Some glide easily for windows you open every day; others are mainly decorative and best as panels that stay in place. That split is the most useful first question to ask about any heading. Product-specific

The reason is mechanical. A heading that gathers the fabric into regular folds on rings, carriers or hooks slides as a unit and folds back on itself. A rod pocket drags the whole width of fabric along the rod, and a goblet or an inverted pleat is shaped to be seen flat, not folded. The 1977 Michigan State bulletin, How to Make Curtains and Draperies, describes the same thing for its day: panel curtains with the rod in a casing hang in folds over the window and are stationary rather than drawn. Convention

The default: if the curtain will be drawn every day, choose a heading from the first group. If it will stay at the sides as a frame, any heading will do, and the look decides. Your exception: the grouping is one maker's, written for its own panels. Many ready-made panels come with grommets, and on a smooth pole a grommet panel can be pushed open and shut by hand. If that is what you are buying, draw it along a rod in the shop or at home before you keep it, and see whether it moves and stacks the way you need. Test it

Two more words come up with headings. Fullness is how much wider the flat fabric is than the width it covers; double fullness means twice the width. Different headings are made at different fullness, and fullness changes the stack. Measuring for curtains explains it and gives the figures. A traverse rod is a rod with sliding carriers and a cord or wand that draws the curtains; the heading clips or hooks onto its carriers.

Roman shade styles

A Roman shade has a style too, set by how its folds are made. The Shade Store's Roman shade styles guide names these: Product-specific

• Flat: a smooth face that folds into a neat stack at the bottom when raised; it shows patterns and stripes most cleanly, and the maker calls it its most popular style.
• Cascade: crisp, overlapping pleats held by aluminum dowels sewn into the back.
• Relaxed: a gentle curve at the hem when raised. The maker says it needs its folds adjusted by hand (dressed) every time it is raised and is not compatible with motorization, so it suits windows where the shade is mostly left in one position.
• Pleated, its name for what others call hobbled: soft folds stacked down the face, spaced 4 to 5 in apart, using more fabric. The maker calls it functional for daily use.

Names vary between makers, so compare by picture and description, not by name alone. The same guide says most of its functional styles darken a room with a blackout lining.

2. Rod height

The rod height is where the rod sits on the wall, measured from the top of the window trim (or from the floor, once you know it). It changes three things: how tall the window looks, how much wall shows between the rod and the ceiling, and, together with the length, how much fabric you buy.

Makers give a range, not a rule. SelectBlinds, a seller of its own drapery, says in How to Measure Drapery/Curtains to set the rod between 4 and 12 in above the top of the window, not counting tabs or rings, and, for grommet curtains, to keep the top of the rod at least 1 in below the ceiling so the fabric above the grommets has room. Product-specific Hunter Douglas's drapery buyer's guide says that mounting curtains a few inches above, below or beside the window frame can make a smaller window look larger and keeps more of the view. Product-specific

An older convention is useful for choosing within the range. The 1977 Michigan State bulletin says hangings should start and end in line with some structural part of the room: at the ceiling, under a cornice or valance, in line with the top of the window trim, or, for a recessed window, at the top of the sash. Convention In practice that means picking a height that lines up with something: the ceiling, the top of a door frame in the same wall, a picture rail, or the trim itself. A rod a few inches below a ceiling reads as a choice; a rod at an arbitrary height between trim and ceiling can read as an accident. Preference

What changes the measurement

• Rings and clips. A curtain hung from rings hangs below the rod. SelectBlinds says an eyelet with a clip adds 3 in of length and an eyelet alone adds 2 in, so the panel is ordered that much shorter. Product-specific The full arithmetic is in Measuring for curtains.
• The space you have. With 6 in or less between the trim and the ceiling, the range collapses: the rod goes just under the ceiling or just above the trim. The survey's "space above trim to ceiling" column in the window survey tells you which.
• A shade or blind already in the frame. A curtain rod above it has to clear the shade's headrail and stack; see Layers.
• Several windows in one wall. Rods at one height across the wall read as one line, even when the windows differ in height.

3. Width past the frame

The rod usually runs past the window on each side. The reason is the stack: an open curtain gathers into folds, and if the rod ends at the frame, those folds hang over the glass. Extending the rod lets the open curtain stack on the wall instead. SelectBlinds gives the result plainly: with the extra width, open curtains block less glass, let in more light and make the window appear larger. Product-specific

The makers' ranges differ:

• SelectBlinds recommends adding 4 to 8 in to each side of the window's width, measured across the trim, and more for the look of a wider window.
• The Shade Store's drapery measuring guide recommends extending 6 to 12 in each side where possible, and says panels that stay in place can be ordered with less coverage.

The default: for curtains that will be drawn, let the stack set the minimum width past the frame, and let the range set the look above that minimum. The stack depends on the fabric, the fullness and the rod's width, so it is worked out in Measuring for curtains and by the curtain rod calculator. The 1977 bulletin's guidance points the same way: the inside edge of an open curtain is best placed at the edge of the glass, with the rest on the wall, so the opening reads wider. Convention Your exception: curtains that stay put need only cover what you want covered, and side panels that frame a window can sit just past the trim.

What limits the width is the wall itself. The Shade Store's guide asks you to look at the surroundings first: radiators, artwork and lighting. Add a corner, a door frame, a light switch, a bookcase and an air register to that list. A rod that runs into a corner, or a stack that covers a switch, is a measuring problem to solve before buying. The survey's wall space columns record it.

4. Length

The finished length is the length of the curtain from the top of its heading to its hem, as it hangs. Choosing it means choosing where the hem ends. The common choices, with where each comes from:

Product-specific The figures in the last three rows are makers' ordering options for their own drapery, not rules for every curtain.

The default: match the length to how the curtain is used. A curtain drawn every day is easiest with about 1/2 in of clearance, which three makers give for that reason. A curtain that stays put can touch, break or puddle. SelectBlinds says a puddle is not recommended for drapes opened and closed regularly, because the hem has to be dragged across the floor and rearranged. Product-specific

Some situations decide the length for you:

• Kitchens and bathrooms. Hunter Douglas says curtains there can end just below the sill where floor length would be in the way.
• A heater or radiator under the window. A long curtain hangs in front of it. Keep the curtain short, or move it, so it is clear of the heater; Cords, children and fire gives the clearance figures.
• Darkness. A curtain that stops at the sill lets light out under the hem; one that reaches past the sill or to the floor does not. Daylight, glare and darkness covers light gaps.
• Natural fibers and uneven floors. The Shade Store says linen and wool stretch and, as natural fibers, change with humidity, so they will not reliably just graze the floor; it suggests a small break or puddle for them and for uneven floors. SelectBlinds says to measure each side of an uneven floor and give the longest figure. Fabric, linings and fading explains why linen moves.

5. Layers, top treatments and color

Layers

Two layers on one window let each do a job. The pairing in the 1971 Idaho extension sheet, Be an "Aware" Shopper, is a sheer for privacy and light by day with opaque draw draperies for privacy at night. Hunter Douglas describes side panels as the decorative choice, with drapery that closes as the functional one. The Shade Store suggests pairing its decorative inverted pleat drapery with a working roller or Roman shade. The common layers:

• A sheer behind a lined curtain, each on its own rod or on a double bracket.
• A shade or blind inside the frame, with curtains or side panels outside it.
• A valance or cornice over curtains, hiding the rod and the top of the stack.

Each outer layer has to clear the one behind it. The distance from the wall to where the curtain hangs is the projection; the strip of fabric that turns back from the face of the curtain to the wall at each end, to close that gap, is the return. Drapery Rods Direct, describing Kirsch poles in Measuring & Selecting, gives a standard return of 3 to 4 in for a single layer, about 2 in more for each layer behind, and a deeper 5 1/2 to 6 in bracket or a double bracket for a valance over drapery. Product-specific A shade mounted inside the frame takes no wall depth, so a curtain outside it needs only its own projection; a shade mounted outside the frame sits on the wall and pushes the curtain bracket out. Hardware and installing covers the brackets.

Top treatments

A valance is a cloth hanging across the top of a window that hides the tops of curtains and their hardware; the Getty's valance entry gives that definition. A cornice is a rigid box of wood, metal or board, often covered in fabric. A lambrequin is a stiff, flat valance with a shaped lower edge that often comes down the sides; the Getty's lambrequin entry lists "pelmet" as another name. The 1977 Michigan State bulletin gives their uses: covering the trim, the hardware, the draw cords or a shade's roller, framing a group of windows, and with side curtains, framing the opening. Convention

How deep a valance should be, as a share of the window or the curtain, is a question we found no maker, workroom or extension source answering with a number. Ratios circulate online without a source, and we do not repeat them. The tape test below works for a valance too: tape its bottom edge on the wall and look.

Color and pattern

A curtain's color is seen in the room's own light, which changes with the direction the window faces and the hour. Learn Color Design's Observe your light shows how to look at a color sample in your room at different times of day before choosing. Two window-specific points:

• The window is seen from both sides. The 1977 bulletin says windows in one room need not be treated alike, but should not differ so much, from inside or outside, that they attract unwanted attention. A lining gives the street a uniform face; the 1971 Idaho sheet says lining makes drapery look finished from outside. Some leases and associations say what color may show from the street; read yours and ask. Ask the authority
• Light comes through. An unlined curtain against a bright window shows its weave and any pattern from behind, and can look different against daylight than it does in lamplight. Hold a sample against the glass by day before choosing, and look at it again at night with the lamps on.

A pattern with a large repeat changes how much fabric you buy, and matching it across widths is part of making; Making them yourself in Buying, ordering or making covers it.

6. The tape test

Painter's tape on the wall shows you the rod height, the width and the length at full size, in your room, before you buy anything or make a hole. It answers the question no range can: how this window looks with this choice. Test it

1. Mark the rod line. Run a strip of painter's tape level across the wall at the rod height you are considering, extending past the frame by the width you are considering. Use a level or a tape measure from the ceiling at each end.
2. Mark the stack. Tape a vertical strip at each end of the rod line, and another where the open curtain's inside edge would fall. The space between is where the stack hangs.
3. Mark the hem. Tape a short strip on the wall or the floor where the hem would end: sill, below the sill, apron or floor.
4. Look from where you live. From the doorway, from the seat you use most and from the bed. Look again after dark with the lamps on.
5. Try the other option. Move the rod line, usually higher and wider, and look again. Leave both up for a day if you can.
6. Write the one you chose. Measure it and write it on the options sheet.

A bed sheet or a length of fabric pinned or held along the tape line shows the volume of a curtain better than tape alone. In a rental, test the tape on a hidden patch of wall first and peel it off slowly; painted walls vary.

8. See it See it

• How To Measure Drapery/Curtains, SelectBlinds: the rod height and width ranges, ring drops and floor options in one page.
• Drapery Styles, The Shade Store: photographs of each heading, with which ones glide and which stay put.
• How to Measure: Drapery, The Shade Store: width past the frame, break and puddle, and the note on linen and wool.
• Game Room Curtains, Hammond-Harwood House Museum: how a museum worked out a room's curtains for around 1800 from paintings, texts and surviving pieces.

9. Practice Practice

Minimum: one window, one heading chosen, one rod line and one hem line taped and looked at from the doorway, and the four choices written down. Time: about 30 minutes, plus five minutes after dark. Materials: a roll of painter's tape, a steel tape measure, a pencil, a level (a phone level app works), and a bed sheet if you have one spare.

1. Decide how the curtain will be used. Drawn every day, drawn sometimes, or left at the sides. Pick a heading from the matching group in Headings.
2. Measure the space. From the top of the trim to the ceiling, from each side of the trim to the nearest obstruction, and from the top of the trim to the floor. Write them in the window survey.
3. Get a starting width from the stack. Enter the window width and fullness in the curtain rod calculator and note the extension it gives each side.
4. Tape two options. One rod line low and narrow, one high and wide, each with its stack marks. Tape the hem where you think it goes.
5. Look. From the doorway, from your usual seat, and again after dark. Hold the sheet along the line if you have one.
6. Write the four choices. Heading, rod height above the trim, width past the frame each side, and the length (with its clearance) on the options sheet.

10. Your windows Your windows

This box reads your setup: whether you buy, order or sew, which room you are working on, what matters most there and whether you rent.

11. Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• The heading matches how often the curtain will be drawn, or a heading from the stationary group has been tested by drawing it.
• The rod height is written as a measurement from the top of the trim, and it lines up with something in the room.
• The width past the frame is at least what the stack needs for curtains that will be drawn.
• The length suits the use: clearance for curtains drawn daily, past the sill where darkness matters, clear of any heater.
• Any layer has the projection to clear the one behind it.
• Each choice was looked at on the wall with tape before it was written down.

Worked example

Priya's choices, checked. Heading: chosen for daily use, with a test planned if she buys grommets. Rod height: 10 in above the trim, a measurement, close under the ceiling, and chosen after looking at two taped lines. Width: set from the stack rule, about 10 in each side, with the wall space still to measure; the criterion is met once the measurement confirms it. Length: past the sill for darkness, with 1/2 in clearance for daily use; the number waits for one measurement. Layer: the inside-mount mini blinds need no extra projection. The check passes with two measurements and one permission open, and her options sheet says so.

Common mistakes

• Putting the rod at the top of the trim by default. It may be right, but tape a higher line too and compare.
• Stopping the rod at the frame. The open curtains then hang over the glass and take the daylight.
• Choosing a puddle for curtains drawn every day. Three makers give about 1/2 in of clearance for curtains that move often, and one advises against puddles for them.
• Ordering the length before the rod height and ring drop are fixed. Both change the finished length.
• Layering without projection. The front curtain catches on the shade or sheer behind it.
• Using a valance ratio from a website. No source we found supports one; tape it and look.

What is still unresolved

• The exact rod width, stack, fullness and finished length: Measuring for curtains.
• The fabric, lining and how it moves with humidity: Fabric, linings and fading.
• Which kinds of treatment are on the shortlist: Curtains, shades, blinds and shutters.
• Brackets, the wall and permission to drill: Hardware and installing, and for a renter, the landlord.
• Whether a lease or an association limits what shows from the street: the lease, the landlord or the association.

12. Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• The choices sheet has the heading, rod height, width past the frame and length for the window.
• The rod line, stack and hem taped on the wall and looked at from the doorway and after dark.
• The length checked against how often the curtain moves, darkness and any heater.
• A layering plan with the projection for each layer. (Go deeper; optional)
• Museum sources read for an older house. (Go deeper; optional)