Custom Drapes and Curtains in Taunton, MA

Tall Rooms, Long Drops

Downtown Taunton was built upward. Around the Green and through Weir Village, the Victorians and triple-deckers have high ceilings and windows that are tall and narrow to match, and a curtain that would look fine in a modern room can look short, thin and lost in one of these. That is where custom drapes in Taunton, MA come into their own. A drape made for a long drop, in a fabric that holds its shape over that length, gives a tall room the proportion it was designed for.

Drapery is the specialty at Window Works, and every order is built from the fabric up. The cloth decides how the panel will fall, and everything else follows from that. Out in East Taunton, the mid-century ranches ask for something quite different, and the larger newer colonials off Bay Street sit somewhere between the two.

• Long, well-weighted drapery made from the fabric you choose
• Ceiling heights and window drops measured at your house
• Rods fitted and panels hung by our own team

Drapery We Make for Taunton

Floor-to-ceiling panels

Drapes hung from close to the ceiling and falling to the floor, so a tall window reads at its full height.

Fabric chosen by hand

The cloth comes first. You compare weights, weaves and colours in the showroom before anything is cut.

Cushions and bedding to match

Pillows and duvet covers in a fabric that echoes the drapes, made through our fabric decor service.

Why a Long Drop Needs the Right Fabric

When a drape falls a long way, its own weight does a lot of the work. That is good news if the fabric is right and bad news if it is not. Choosing custom drapes in Taunton, MA for a Victorian parlour or a triple-decker front room is mostly about matching the cloth to the length.

Weight and body

A very light fabric over a long drop can look thin and limp, and it tends to blow about and twist. A fabric with some weight, or a lighter one given body by a lining, hangs straight and settles into even folds from top to bottom. Velvets, heavier linens and dense weaves all perform well on tall windows. Sheers can work beautifully too, but they need generous fullness so they do not look sparse over the height.

Stretch and settling

Some fabrics relax and lengthen slightly after they are hung, particularly loose weaves on very long panels. Our specialists know which cloths tend to do this and plan the length accordingly, so the hem ends up where you want it once the fabric has settled.

Pattern over a long drop

A large repeat that looks dramatic on a bolt becomes a run of repeated motifs on a tall panel. A smaller pattern or a vertical stripe can emphasise the height of a room, while a bold horizontal design can make it feel less lofty. We help you see how a pattern will read at full length before you choose.

Victorians around the Green

The Victorians near the Green have the tall windows and the ceiling height to carry real drapery, and they are where custom drapes in Taunton, MA can be at their most generous. A few decisions make the difference between drapes that suit the room and drapes that fight it.

Where to mount

On a high wall, mounting the rod just above the window leaves a band of bare wall between the heading and the ceiling, and the window looks shorter than it is. Raising the rod toward the ceiling or the crown moulding lets the drapes start where the room starts, and the whole wall looks taller. If the room has a picture rail, the rod can sit just below it, which often looks right in a house of this age.

How wide to go

Victorian windows are tall but often narrow. Running the rod well past each side of the trim lets the open drapes rest on the wall instead of over the glass, which keeps a narrow window from losing daylight and makes it look wider. In a bay, a rod shaped to follow the angles lets the drapes frame each section.

How long to make them

In a formal room, panels that just touch the floor or break gently on it look tailored and generous. A slight pool of fabric on the floor suits a drape that is mostly left open as a frame. Where drapes are drawn every day, a hem that floats just clear of the floor is easier to live with.

Triple-Deckers through Weir Village

The triple-deckers through Weir Village repeat the same tall windows on every floor, and many of them have a porch on each level with a door leading out. That gives each flat a mix of tall sash and a glazed door, often in the same room.

For the tall sash, the same principles apply as in the Victorians: a high rod, a wide rod and a fabric with enough body for the drop. For the porch door, the drapes need to clear the door as it swings. A rod set high and wide enough that the panel can be drawn fully to the side, away from the hinges, lets the door open freely.

Because every floor of a triple-decker has the same layout, the same fabric choices tend to work up and down the building. That said, the top floor gets the most light and the bottom floor the least, so the lining on the top floor may want to be heavier, both to protect the fabric and to keep the room cooler in summer.

Radiators under tall windows are common in these houses. Fabric hung over a radiator blocks the heat from reaching the room. A rod wide enough to let floor-length panels hang beside the radiator rather than over it, or a shorter curtain stopping at the sill, solves that.

Sheers on Tall Downtown Windows

Houses near the Green and in Weir Village often stand close to the pavement, with neighbours a short way off on either side. Tall windows let in wonderful light, but they also show a lot of the room to anyone passing. A sheer layer solves much of that.

Over a long drop, a sheer needs more fabric than you might expect. A generous amount of fullness, with the cloth gathered or pleated well at the top, gives a soft, cloud-like fall that screens the room by day while the light pours through. Too little, and the sheer looks stretched and see-through. Hung on the inner rod of a double set, it can stay drawn most of the day, with heavier drapes on the outer rod for the evening.

In a tall front room, a pale sheer also bounces daylight deeper into the house, which helps the middle rooms of a long, narrow plan. For many downtown houses, this two-layer approach is the most practical way to dress custom drapes in Taunton, MA: one layer for the day, one for the night, both made to the full height of the window.

Ranches across East Taunton

East Taunton’s mid-century ranches have almost the opposite problem from the downtown houses. Ceilings are lower, windows are wider than they are tall, and rooms can feel horizontal rather than vertical. The job of the drapes is to add height.

Mounting the rod close to the ceiling, rather than just above the window, is the single biggest help. Floor-length panels hung from there stretch the wall upward and make a low room feel taller. Running the rod past the frame on each side lets the drapes clear a wide picture window and keeps the room bright.

Many of these ranches also have a slider onto a patio. Treat it as a door first and a window second: the fabric has to get completely out of the way. One wide panel stacking on the hinge side, with the rod carried a good distance beyond the opening, leaves the glass clear and the handle free. Rings or a smooth track save a daily tug of war with the fabric.

Along the bedroom side of the house, using one fabric on all the street-facing windows keeps the front tidy, and bedrooms toward the sunrise can have a darker lining hidden behind the same face cloth.

Colonials off Bay Street

The newer colonials off Bay Street bring larger rooms, generous ceilings and more glass, though usually not the soaring height of a downtown Victorian. They can carry full, floor-length drapery in the formal rooms and something more relaxed in the family spaces.

A front living room and dining room usually suit a matching treatment, so the house looks balanced from the street. The dining room is a natural place for a more formal drape, perhaps in a heavier weave with a tailored heading. The family room, often opening onto the kitchen, wants something easy to draw every day. Upstairs, bedrooms benefit from a darker lining and panels that overlap where they meet.

Many of these houses have a two-storey foyer or a tall stair window. Long fixed side panels suit those windows well, adding softness to a tall wall without needing to be drawn. Because they are seen from two floors, from the hall below and the landing above, their fabric and colour should suit both spaces. A plain or softly textured cloth in a tone that sits between the two is usually safest, and a lining keeps the panels looking the same colour from both sides of the stair when the sun is behind them.

Warmth in a High Room

Tall rooms are harder to heat, because warm air rises toward the ceiling and old windows let the cold in. Drapes can help a high-ceilinged Victorian or triple-decker room feel more comfortable in winter.

A lining adds a layer between the glass and the room, and an extra layer of soft fabric between the face and the lining adds more. Panels that overlap in the middle, reach close to the floor and return to the wall at each end leave fewer gaps for cold air to slip around. Drawing the drapes as soon as the light fades holds more of the day’s warmth in the room. In summer, the same drapes drawn across a sunny window help keep a top-floor flat cooler. On the windiest side of the house, drapes that meet the floor rather than hovering above it also stop the draught that runs along the boards beneath the window, which is often the coldest spot in an old room.

Hems, Floors and Old Houses

Floors in older downtown houses are seldom perfectly level, and in a tall room even a slight slope shows when a long panel ends a little higher at one side than the other. Getting the hem right is part of what makes custom drapes in Taunton, MA look properly made.

We check the floor line under every window when we measure, and where it runs out of level we decide with you whether the hems should follow the floor or the rod. For a drape that just kisses the floor, following the floor usually looks best. For a drape that floats a little above it, a level hem can look cleaner. Either way, each panel is cut to its own length, not to an average.

A long panel can also be finished with a weighted hem, which helps it hang straight and stops it swinging every time a door opens. On a drape that pools on the floor, the pool is shaped by hand when the drapes are dressed, so it looks deliberate rather than accidental.

The Order, Start to Finish

You will not be left wondering where things stand; we check in at every step.

1. Ring the store or fill in the form, mention the rooms, and we arrange your free quote.
2. Our specialist measures in your home: each window, the full height to the ceiling or rail, the wall either side, and any radiator or porch door in the way.
3. At the showroom you settle on a fabric, then a lining, heading and length that suit the drop.
4. We send a written quote, one room per section.
5. The workroom cuts each panel to its own measurements, allowing for how the cloth will settle once it is hanging.
6. Our installers fix the hardware, hang the panels and train the folds down their full length.

Shutters Inside, Drapes Outside

Tall downtown windows suit a two-part treatment. Shutters fitted within the frame give you control of light and privacy, louvre by louvre, and long side panels outside the frame add colour and softness and make the window look grander still. Dark wood shutters with drapes in a rich fabric suit a Victorian bedroom especially well; a shade can stand in for the shutters if you prefer.

Window Works makes both halves, so the shutters and the drapes are planned in one go and fitted to work together. The same cloth can then turn up on a bed or a sofa through custom fabric decor in Taunton.

Window Works, Swansea

Founded in 1988 and now in the second generation of the same family, Window Works has spent more than 37 years making drapes for the houses of the SouthCoast and the East Bay.

• Specialists who work with window treatments every day
• Measuring done in your home, and installation by our own people
• A fabric range on display at the showroom
• Warranties available on our products
• Regular updates from us until the last panel is hung

For more about our drapery, see the custom drapes page, and for the rest of what we offer here, the Taunton window treatments page.

Ready When You Are

Ask for a free quote whenever you are ready: the call button connects you to the Swansea store, which can also book measuring in your home and explain how installation works. Prefer writing? Send the form. And if you would like to see fabric hanging at full length before deciding, drop by the showroom; the contact page has the route. The store holds a 5.0 rating on Google.