- 20+ Years of Design Experience — Olga Rechdouni, ASID
- ASID Professional Member
- Custom Design · Fabrication · Installation
- Luxury Homes Throughout Los Angeles
The Library · Glossary
A working glossary of custom drapery.
The terminology the studio uses every day — drawn from our specifications, our workroom notes, and the conversations we have with interior designers, architects, and homeowners across Los Angeles.
- Custom Drapery
- Drapery specified, fabricated, and installed to the dimensions, architecture, and use of a specific room — measured on site, hand-tacked in the workroom, lined and interlined, and finished with a weighted hem.
- French Pleat
- A hand-tacked three-finger pleat — the most architecturally disciplined heading in residential drapery.
- Euro Pleat
- A two-finger pinch pleat tacked at the very top of the heading — quieter than a French pleat, more tailored than a ripple fold.
- Ripple Fold
- A continuous S-shaped fold on a recessed track — the studio's default in contemporary architecture.
- Wave Fold
- A softer, hand-finished variant of ripple fold typical of European hardware systems.
- Goblet Pleat
- A decorative cup-shaped pleat reserved for formal dining rooms and libraries.
- Cartridge Pleat
- A rounded cylindrical pleat softer than a French pleat — preferred on silk and silk-blend drapery.
- Fullness
- The ratio of fabric width to finished panel width. 2.5x–3x is the studio's default; less is skimped, more is compressed.
- Stack-back
- The horizontal distance the panel occupies when fully open. A specification, not an accident — it must clear operable glass.
- Lining
- The sewn-in back layer that protects the face fabric from UV, gives the panel uniformity from the back, and holds shape over time.
- Interlining
- A soft middle layer between face and lining that gives the panel weight, body, fall, and acoustic and thermal performance.
- Hem
- The finished bottom edge of a drapery panel. Specified to the fabric — not duplicated from a default — because hem construction governs how the panel hangs, ages, and reads in raking light.
- Double-Fold Hem
- The studio's standard hem for most floor-length drapery: a 4-inch hem doubled back on itself, built from roughly 8 inches of fabric allowance at the bottom of the panel.
- Euro Hem
- A fine rolled hem used on lightweight sheers — organza, fine voile, and performance sheers — where a doubled hem would distort the fabric.
- Blind Stitch
- A near-invisible hand or machine stitch used inside a hem where the face fabric must show no stitch line under raking light.
- Bottom Weight Chain
- A continuous chain weight sewn inside the hem allowance, concealed behind the lining. Encourages the panel to hang plumb and protects the hem line over years of use.
- Header
- The finished top of a drapery panel. Approximately 4 inches for most pleated drapery; deeper headers (around 6 inches) are specified on tall panels where architectural proportion calls for more body at the top.
- Three-Pass Blackout
- A blackout fabric with three layers of pigmented coating, fully opaque, with virtually no light penetration through the fabric itself.
- Side Channels
- Slim vertical tracks at the wall edge that eliminate side light around a blackout panel — required for sleep-quality blackout.
- Sheer Layering
- A two-track specification pairing a performance sheer with an over-drapery so the room can handle day, evening, and full closure independently.
- IFR
- Inherently Fire-Retardant — fabric whose fire resistance is built into the fiber rather than applied as a topical treatment. Required on every commercial drapery installation.
- NFPA 701
- The national fire-code standard governing fabric in commercial installations across the United States.
- Motorized Drapery
- Drapery operated by a concealed DC motor along a recessed track, integrated with the home's keypad ecosystem and addressable in scenes.
- Hardwired DC
- Direct-current motor specification powered by a low-voltage hardwired run from a transformer — the studio's default over battery.
- Lutron Sivoia
- Lutron's hardwired DC motorized drapery and shade system — the studio's most-specified motorization platform.
- Somfy Sonesse
- Somfy's quiet DC motor line for residential drapery and shades — compatible with multiple integration ecosystems.
- Crestron
- A whole-home control ecosystem common in estate-grade Los Angeles residences; the studio integrates motorized drapery directly.
- Recessed Ceiling Pocket
- A drywall pocket framed into the ceiling to conceal the drapery track. Specified before drywall close-in; not retrofitted.
- Outside Mount
- Drapery hardware mounted on the wall or ceiling above and outside the window frame — the studio's default specification in most residential rooms.
- Inside Mount
- Drapery or shade hardware mounted within the window frame itself. Reserved for shades; rarely correct for drapery.
- Kiss-to-Floor
- The studio's default drapery length — the panel meets the floor cleanly without pooling.
- Puddle
- A drapery length specification in which the panel extends beyond the floor, gathering in a soft pool. Reserved for formal romantic interiors.
- Trade Program
- The studio's pricing and process structure for interior designers, architects, and builders working with their own clients.
- Pattern Repeat
- The vertical (and sometimes horizontal) distance at which a woven or printed motif repeats across a fabric width. Large repeats increase yardage and cost because panels must be cut to align at seams and at the tops of adjacent windows — a specification decision, not a fabric flaw.
- Yardage
- The total linear yards of face fabric and lining required to fabricate a specific opening. Yardage is calculated only after finished height, finished width, fullness, pattern repeat, seam and waste allowance, and lining have been specified.
- Return
- The portion of the drapery that wraps from the face of the rod or track back to the wall or ceiling. Returns eliminate side-light gaps and finish the panel architecturally.
- Leading Edge
- The vertical inner edge of a drapery panel — the edge that meets its partner panel or the wall at close. Weight, hem stitching, and lining detail at the leading edge determine how the panel reads at rest.
- Weight Chain
- A continuous fabric-wrapped chain or lead-shot cord sewn into the hem allowance, concealed behind the lining. Encourages the panel to hang plumb, resists uplift from HVAC air movement, and protects the hem line over years of use.
- Concealed Track
- A drapery track mounted inside a ceiling pocket or behind a fascia so the mechanism is invisible from the room. Preferred for ripple fold and motorized drapery in contemporary architecture.
- Decorative Hardware
- Rods, brackets, finials, rings, and holdbacks specified as visible architectural elements. Material (hand-forged bronze, iron, brass, or wood), diameter, and finial style are chosen with the room, not from a catalog.
- Fabrication
- The workroom process of cutting, matching, seaming, lining, interlining, pleating, hemming, and finishing a drapery panel. Two workrooms building the same specification can produce materially different results because construction is not universal.
- Cornice Box
- An upholstered or fabric-covered wooden top treatment mounted above the window that conceals the drapery header and hardware. A decorative and architectural element rather than a functional one.
- Specification
- The written definition of a drapery project — fabric, fullness, lining, interlining, header, hem, hardware, motorization, and installation — completed before fabrication. In the studio, the specification is the contract; there are no allowances.
From Vocabulary to Specification
Translate terminology into your room.
A studio consultation turns the language above into a written drapery specification for your home — pleat, fullness, hardware, and motorization decided before fabric.
- Complimentary initial consultation
- Olga personally reviews every project
- Design, fabrication & installation guided in-house
- No obligation