Custom Made Panels -vs- Ready Made Panels...What's the difference?

Customers often say, why should I purchase custom when I can but panels in the stores for cheaper?

It has been my experience, as a professional drapery installer, that custom made products are far superior to anything you can find in a local store.  The most important fact about custom made products is that you can get exactly what you want to achieve the look you are going for.  If you are contemporary or traditional or somewhere in between, you can not easily find drapery to fit every style.  Also, especially in Texas, the window sizes are not standard, so ready made panels come in 3 sizes...84", 96" and 108" if you are lucky .
Everything is bigger in Texas and that includes the 20 ft ceilings and the large widths of windows.  With custom drapery, your designer can order the exact fit to cover your window.  With ready made panels, you have to purchase enough panels to cover the window.  Who wants to buy 6 widths of panels to cover a 108" wide window and then have to pull each panel separately to open and close. I also notice that folks never purchase enough panels to properly fit the window.  The other difficulty with ready made panels is that they do not have good linings on them, if they even have any linings! In this picture you can see the window panes through the panels.  This see through panel is not protected and will fade very quickly.  You should get 12 to 20 years out of custom made drapery!                                                                   

 With the sun here in Texas, ready made panels fade very quickly or discolor. They sometimes even dry rot which looks like shredded fabric...or like someone shot a BB gun into the fabric! Here is a great example of fabric that has dry rot.                                                                                          

 A good custom made drapery panel has all the widths sewn together with the proper linings installed to the back side.  Standard lining will protect most fabrics from quickly fading, while a thermal lining will protect the room from too much heat or cold air.  Blackout lining will darken the room for good sleeping and will also have insulation properties. One other issue I come across often is that when more than 1 panel is needed in the room, often times each panel is a different length even though the packages are identical.  I have actually had a customer purchase 12 packages of the same panels at 96" long and the panels actually ranged from 94" to 112".  I had to rip out all the hems and re-sew them to identical lengths.  Ready made panels usually have a rod pocket top and the hems tend to bow like a frowny face!  Rod pocket top panels are very difficult to open and close on a pole.  When they are opened, they tend to travel back towards the closed position.  Also, there is no stiffener in the top of ready made panels which makes in impossible to use drapery hooks to hook onto rings. So the only option is to use ring clips and then you get the sloppy look at the top between the rings.  I find that many clients HATE the ring clips!                      
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Custom drapery is affordable!  If you think about how long you can keep your drapery and divide the total cost per year, custom drapery is affordable! Yes custom window coverings cost more, but they are an investment that will give you a great return on your money!  With ready made panels, you need more of them to get  close to the look of custom made drapery.  You also should expect  to replace store bought panels much sooner than you will with custom made. You can  take great pride in your window coverings when you can achieve the perfect look for your home. The look that no one else has!  And your friends and family will feel very comfortable in your space when the design is balanced proportionally to the size of the window and to the size of the room.

Exciting Windows by Stacey Hudson can help make your decorating dreams come true!  We listen to what you want and what your needs are!  We work within your family's budget, never pushing our agenda but making sure your vision is realized!  We love what we do and we do it very well!  Our customers are always satisfied and we want to make you a happy customer too!  Call Stacey Hudson from Exciting Windows  today at 512-299-4052! We're waiting to get excited with you about the new look for your home!