News & Articles

Window treatments, including drapes, are an excellent way to increase privacy within your home while also adding visual interest to your rooms, but the wide variety of options available to homeowners can make the task of choosing the right drapery feel daunting. To help you make the right choice for your home, we’ve outlined a few key types of drapery, and the differences between them, below. 

What’s the Difference Between Drapes, Curtains, and Blinds?

While the purpose of all three types of window treatments is to offer privacy, block light, and increase your home’s visual interest, there are a few important differences to keep in mind. Blinds lift up and down with a cord or other mechanism, like some other types of window treatments, but they are made of wood, vinyl, or aluminum slats that can tilt open or closed to let in light; they are not made of one piece of material. 

Different from blinds, drapes, and curtains are made of large, single-length pieces of fabric that either raise up and down or open in the middle to let in light instead of individual slats. The key difference between curtains and drapes is drapes are often lined with heavier fabrics to block all outside light from entering your rooms. Compared with shades, drapes can even help your home retain its desired temperature thanks to the thicker fabric used to create them, making them a better choice for insulation and privacy.

Understanding the Common Styles of Drapes

Drapery options are virtually endless. Thanks to the wide array of styles and fabrics available today, having so many different types at your fingertips can be daunting! To simplify the decision-making process for you, we’ve outlined the features and differences of a few of the most popular styles of drapes.

Pleated Drapery

This type of drapery is a great way to add elegance to your home thanks to its unique pinched, pleated look that brings a formal feel to your rooms. However, using different fabrics and pleat styles can also give your pleat drapery a more modern, casual feel if that’s what you’re looking for. Different pleat types, including cartridge pleats, box pleats, tuxedo pleats, goblet pleats, and pencil pleats, allow you to customize this style of drapery to closely align with your design preferences.

Rod Pocket Drapery

Rod pocket drapery is one of the most commonly used drapery options in homes. They feature a casing sewn across the top of the drape that allows the fabric to conceal the drapery rod, but this makes it challenging to slide the drapes along the rod. Because of this, rod pocket draperies are used as stationary panels, and most homeowners choose to use tie-backs with these drapes, allowing light into the room and adding an additional decorative touch.

Grommet Drapery

Grommet drapery features large grommet rings used as eyelets within the fabric itself, which allows smooth opening and closing. This type of drapery allows for total control over your drapes and is a popular choice because of this window treatment’s ease of use and the airy, lightweight fabrics it’s typically made from. The deep folds of the fabric when grommet drapes are opened also give them a casual feel and appearance.

Tab Top Curtains

Tab top draperies are curtains with loops of fabric at their top. These loops help them to be easily pulled along the rod. Unlike most other drapes, this drapery style is casual and informal, and any kind of fabric can be used to make the curtain. And, as with grommet draperies, most of the curtain rod is exposed when using tab top curtains.

Which Styles of Drapes Are Right for Me?

Choosing a style of drapes for your home is an important decision, and the type that will work best for your home is entirely up to you and your tastes. 

While ready-made drapes come in a variety of styles, you can also have drapes custom made. Here at Window Trends, we provide our clients with a wide range of drapery options, including custom drapes, because although premade drapery is readily available for purchase and more inexpensive, it can’t be customized to meet your exact needs. By contrast, custom drapery may seem expensive, but the flexibility it provides you lets you design exactly what you want so you can enjoy it for years to come. Additionally, custom drapery designs are also more durable thanks to the higher-quality fabrics and hardware used to create them.

The overall cost of custom drapery depends on many factors, including fabric, lining, hardware, and more. These factors don’t just play a part in ordering the product; some fabrics may be easier or harder to work with, which can increase or decrease your overall cost. With this in mind, if you’re considering custom drapery, it’s essential to visit a store and select a fabric before you measure.

Ready to Learn More?

If you’re ready to learn more about drapery from Window Trends or have any questions, we’re here to help! Give us a call at (973) 401-9048 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, or fill out our online contact form for a complimentary at-home consultation.