How to Choose Fabric for Custom Drapery

When choosing fabric, start with how you want the finished drapery to look and function.

We usually consider:

• Weight
• Weave
• Softness and hand
• Texture
• Color
• Pattern and pattern repeat
• Opacity
• Sun exposure
• Wrinkle behavior
• Drapery heading
• Lining or interlining
• Window height and width
• How often the drapery will open and close
• Maintenance

You don't have to understand every technical detail yourself.

But these details explain why two beautiful fabrics can produce very different results at the window.

One of the biggest mistakes is choosing fabric simply because the label says linen, silk, velvet or polyester.

Fiber content matters, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

Two fabrics labeled 100% linen can have completely different weights, weaves and finishes. One may be soft and relaxed. Another may be crisp and structured.

The same is true of many other textiles.

This is why designers often talk about the hand of a fabric. Hand simply means how the textile feels and behaves. Is it soft? Crisp? Fluid? Stiff? Heavy? Light?

That behavior matters enormously once several yards of fabric are hanging from ceiling to floor.

Linen is one of the most versatile fabrics for custom drapery, but not all linen looks casual.

A soft or washed linen can create relaxed folds and natural movement. A tighter, crisper linen can feel much more tailored and architectural.

Linen also has a natural texture that can bring warmth to a room without needing a strong pattern.

We look at:

• Weight
• Weave
• Softness
• Texture
• Color
• Transparency
• Wrinkle character
• Whether it will be lined

The right linen can work beautifully in modern, contemporary, transitional and traditional interiors.

The important thing is choosing the linen for the treatment, not simply choosing “linen” as a category.

Sheer drapery can completely change the feeling of a room.

It can soften strong daylight, add movement to large windows and create a layer between the interior and the outside without making the room feel closed off.

Some sheers are extremely transparent. Others have more texture, density or color.

That affects both privacy and appearance.

A very lightweight sheer may benefit from more fullness because additional layers create visual depth. A heavier or textured sheer may already have enough presence with less.

This is why we consider sheer fabric and fullness together.

For large windows and walls of glass, we also think about how the sheer looks in both daylight and evening light.

Velvet already has visual weight.

Its pile gives the surface depth and can make color appear especially rich. It can work beautifully when the room calls for something more substantial or dramatic.

But more velvet is not automatically better.

Because the fabric already has body, excessive fullness can make some treatments feel bulky. The weight of the finished panels also matters for the hardware and operation.

Velvet can work in more than traditional rooms. Depending on the color, construction and surrounding interior, it can feel classic, glamorous, contemporary or quietly luxurious.

The key is proportion.

Silk can create beautiful color, movement and depth, but it requires thoughtful specification.

Direct sunlight can be particularly hard on some natural textiles, including silk. For that reason, the window orientation, exposure and lining strategy matter.

Silk can also behave very differently depending on its weight, weave and finish.

When silk is appropriate, we consider the entire construction rather than treating the face fabric as an isolated decorative layer.

A beautiful textile isn't a good choice if the environment isn't right for it.

There is a common idea that natural fiber automatically means luxury and synthetic fiber automatically means inexpensive.

It is not that simple.

High-quality polyester and blended fabrics can perform beautifully in custom drapery.

Depending on the textile, they may offer:

• Better dimensional stability
• Wrinkle resistance
• Easier maintenance
• Consistent color
• Durability
• Useful performance characteristics

Blends can also combine qualities from different fibers.

What matters is the actual fabric.

We judge a textile by how it looks, feels and performs, not by whether one word on the fiber label sounds more luxurious than another.

Fabric weight affects the way folds form from top to bottom.

A lightweight fabric can feel airy and move easily. A heavier fabric can create deeper, more substantial folds.

Neither is automatically better.

The choice depends on the design.

If we want something soft and almost weightless, a heavy textile would work against that goal. If the room needs visual depth and structure, an extremely lightweight fabric may not give us enough presence.

The height of the treatment matters too.

A small fabric sample doesn't show you what that textile will do when it becomes a 10-, 12- or 14-foot drapery panel.

Scale changes everything.

You shouldn't choose the fabric and fullness as two unrelated decisions.

They affect each other.

A lightweight sheer can often carry generous fullness without becoming bulky. A heavier velvet may create plenty of volume with less.

Ripple fold is a good example.

At House of Drapery, we often work around 1.8× fullness for ripple fold when we want a clean, controlled wave. But the actual textile still matters.

A soft sheer at 1.8× will not behave exactly like linen at 1.8×.

The number may be the same. The result can be completely different.

The heading is the way the drapery is constructed at the top.

That construction affects how the fabric falls below it.

French pleats, inverted pleats, ripple fold and other headings each handle fabric differently.

A crisp textile may create beautifully defined tailored pleats. A softer fabric can make those same pleats feel more relaxed.

For ripple fold, we look at how easily the textile forms and maintains the repeating wave.

This is why we prefer to choose the fabric, fullness and heading as one design decision.

The fabric you see from inside the room is only one part of many custom drapery treatments.

Lining can change the way a face fabric hangs.

Depending on the construction, lining can add:

• Body
• Privacy
• Light control
• Fold definition
• Protection for the face fabric
• A more finished appearance from outside

Interlining adds another layer between the face fabric and lining. It can create additional body and softness when appropriate for the treatment.

A fabric that feels relatively light in your hand may become much more substantial once the complete treatment is fabricated.

That's why we don't judge drapery from the face fabric alone.

If you need a dark bedroom, choosing a dark-colored fabric is not the same as specifying blackout drapery.

Light control depends on the entire treatment.

That can include the face fabric, lining, construction, hardware placement, returns, overlap and how the treatment meets the surrounding architecture.

Even excellent blackout material can't stop light that is entering around the sides or top of an incorrectly designed treatment.

For bedrooms, nurseries, media rooms and other light-sensitive spaces, we think about the whole window, not just the fabric.

Los Angeles and Southern California interiors can receive intense sunlight.

That matters.

Strong UV exposure can affect textiles over time. The amount of exposure also changes depending on the direction the window faces and whether the glass is protected by an overhang, exterior shading or other architecture.

We consider:

• Window orientation
• Amount of direct sun
• Face fabric
• Color
• Lining
• How frequently the drapery remains closed
• The expected use of the room

This is particularly important when selecting delicate or deeply colored textiles.

The most beautiful sample isn't necessarily the best long-term choice for a highly exposed window.

A fabric can look very different as a small sample than it does across a large drapery panel.

With patterned textiles, we look at both pattern scale and pattern repeat.

A large floral, stripe or geometric design will move in and out of the folds. The heading and fullness determine how much of that pattern remains visible.

Pattern repeat also affects fabrication.

When several fabric widths are joined, the design may need to match from one width to the next. That can increase the yardage required.

For this reason, pattern is both a design decision and a fabrication decision.

Drapery fabric is sold in different widths.

If a window treatment is wider than the fabric, multiple widths may need to be joined to create each panel.

That affects:

• Number of seams
• Fabric yardage
• Pattern matching
• Panel construction
• Labor

Some sheers and other textiles are available in wider widths, which can change how a large treatment is fabricated.

This is another reason we don't calculate custom drapery yardage from window width alone.

Most people choose fabric while imagining the drapery closed.

We also think about it open.

When drapery opens, the fabric stacks at the sides. This is called stack-back.

A thick, heavy textile may create a larger stack than a lightweight fabric. Fullness also affects how much material needs to move away from the glass.

This matters on:

• Sliding doors
• Wide windows
• Walls of glass
• Rooms with important views
• Spaces where maximum daylight matters

If you have a beautiful ocean, garden or city view, the drapery should work with it rather than unnecessarily cover it.

There isn't a single “modern drapery fabric.”

Modern interiors can work beautifully with linen, sheers, textured blends, velvet and many other textiles.

What makes the treatment feel modern is often the combination of decisions:

• Fabric
• Color
• Texture
• Fullness
• Heading
• Hardware
• Length
• Scale

The same principle applies to classic and traditional interiors.

A fabric doesn't belong to only one design style.

How we use it matters.

Some of the most common mistakes happen when fabric is selected without considering the finished treatment.

Watch for:

• Choosing from color alone
• Assuming all linen behaves the same
• Thinking natural fiber always means better
• Ignoring sun exposure
• Forgetting lining
• Choosing fabric without considering the heading
• Ignoring fullness
• Forgetting stack-back
• Ignoring pattern repeat
• Ordering yardage from window width alone
• Choosing from a tiny sample without thinking about scale
• Treating fabric and fabrication as separate decisions

A beautiful textile can still become the wrong drapery if the rest of the specification doesn't support it.

At House of Drapery, fabric selection starts with the interior.

We look at the architecture, furniture, finishes, color, light and the feeling we want the room to have.

Then we look at the window.

How large is it? How much sun does it receive? Is privacy important? Do we need blackout? Should the drapery disappear quietly into the room or become an important design element?

Then we look at the textile itself.

We consider its weight, weave, hand, texture, pattern, color and behavior, along with the heading, fullness, lining, hardware and fabrication.

This is where being a designer-led drapery studio matters.

We don't see fabric as something chosen after the window treatment has already been designed.

The fabric is part of the design from the beginning.