Measuring Instructions to Determine Length for Custom Drapes and What to Consider
When your Drapery Hardware is installed, with a metal measuring tape, measure from the floor to the bottom of the larger Drapery Ring where it meets the smaller eyelet ring below. When the drapery hooks are inserted into the smaller ring, the top of the drapes will hit near the bottom of the larger ring. (See picture below of drapery rod with rings. Red line indicates the measuring point)
This measurement will be the length of your drapes if you want them to just touch the floor like the White linen drapes with Samuel & Sons Milo Embroidered Border in Marine below. (These are 1 ½ Width Drapes on a 67” long French Rod and are decorative only).
If you would like your drapes to pool or puddle on the floor you can add 1” – 2” inches to that measurement depending on how much you want the drapes to puddle. The drapes below added 1 ½” to the floor measurement. These are double width drapes in Schumacher Brighton Pavillion Multi with Samuel & Sons Sloane Striped Border Blush extra full on a 60” long rod.
If you would prefer your drapes to hover slightly above the floor to prevent the bottom getting dirty or if you have area rugs, you can substract ½” from the floor measurement.
If you do not have drapery hardware installed yet, measure from the floor to the crown molding or ceiling and from the top of the window casing to the crown molding or ceiling (see below pictures)
The most popular mounting is just below the crown molding, or just below the ceiling. This creates height in the room, drawing the eye upward making the room feel taller. If you don’t have hardware installed yet, you can deduct 3” or 4” from floor to ceiling measurement as an estimate so a Quote can be prepared. It is usually best to install the drapery hardware first, then take the final measurement for the length of the drapes before we make the drapes. If you don’t want to wait to install the hardware and want to order the drapes, you can deduct 4”-5” from the floor to ceiling measurement. You would then install the drapery hardware so the drape length coordinates with the bottom of the drapery ring. How much to deduct depends on the diameter of your drapery rods. These rods were 7/8” diameter, so I deducted 3” from the floor to ceiling measurement.
If you have a lot of room above the window, you can mount the rod ¾” of the way up the wall.
These two pictures of drapes featured below have drapery hardware mounted halfway between the top of the window and the bottom of crown molding or the ceiling.
You can mount the rod right above the window. In the below picture, there is only about 6 inches of wall space above the window, so these rods were installed just above the window casing. If there is at least 8” of wall space above the window, it looks best to mount the rod higher above the window, either ½ way, ¾ of the way or just below ceiling or crown molding.
Free PDF of our drapery length guide, available for download here.