Why Does Fabric Matter?
Oct 26, 2022
Color and pattern are not the most important features of your drapery. The type of material you choose will have a much greater influence on your home’s overall design – and how satisfied you are with your window treatments – than details like the pleat style or embellishments. To help you clearly see the difference, we’ve broken down a few facts about drapery fabric.
The best fabric for drapery will:
Hold up to wear and tear
Durability is always a consideration, especially in family homes. The more activity and exposure your window treatments experience, the stronger the fabric needs to be. Silk curtains, for example, are susceptible to sun damage and color fading. No matter how well you care for them, silk panels simply won’t hold their sheen for the life of your home.
Your best option is 100% linen or linen blended with rayon. These are much more durable fabrics that are resistant to wrinkling and won’t fade as easily. Better yet, invest in decorator fabrics like those from Everhem, and you can rest assured your window treatments have already been treated for optimal durability. Regardless of the fabric you choose, though, you’ll want to learn how to clean drapery. Caring for your drapery will help keep it looking new for years to come.
Not weigh on you
Certain fabrics do block out more light than others, simply because of their weight. Velvet is a quintessential heavy-weight fabric. And while you may be inclined to try velvet curtain panels for that reason, this material is meant to be used as upholstery fabric. The same goes for chenille; it’s simply too heavy for drapes.
So, what’s the alternative? Light- to medium-weight fabrics can effectively block natural light, while still maintaining their billowy flow. Pure linen, for one, shades the sun but does not thwart it entirely. To adjust the level of opaqueness, you would need to add a privacy or blackout lining. Everhem specializes in customizing window treatments and can add a lining to any of its drapery fabric, except sheer curtains (that would defeat the purpose of sheers, after all).
Will stand the test of time
Like any investment piece in your home, you expect your drapery to last for as long as you live there. While we wish homeowners would purchase new drapes every year, the reality is that you pull the trigger once and never look back. We get it, which is why Everhem makes only the highest quality drapes that are sure to stand the test of time.
And we’re not just talking about their durability. (Refer to the first point on that.) Timelessness means it won’t fade with contemporary trends, but will, instead, flow seamlessly from one to the next. Luckily, Everhem offers a solid selection of linen drapery that is so classic, you’ll never worry about going out of style. Your drapes will be true to you and true to whatever is new in the moment.
The best fabric for drapery will hang neatly like these white linen curtains in a neutral bedroom
Linen has just the right weight to maintain those beautiful ribbon folds when you pull back the drapes.
Hang well
The design effect of your curtains and drapes depends on how well they hang from where they are mounted. If the fabric is too light, your window treatments may not hold their shape. Or, consider a fabric heavy in texture. It could easily create uneven folding and leave your room looking messy and unfinished. Of course, measuring your windows for drapery and hardware will ultimately determine the way the drapes hang; too long, and they’ll pool on the ground unattractively. But after those initial measurements, the flow of your drapery is largely dependent on the fabric itself.
Again, cotton is a solid choice. It’s a very strong fabric that looks soft and flowy on your windows. Or, you could go with an entirely synthetic fabric, because it’s both affordable and durable. To achieve a more natural look, the best choice is a linen or linen blend. Linen offers the perfect balance of billowy and tailored, making it the best fabric for traditional and contemporary curtains, alike.
