Exchanging traditional curtains for a set of Tartan Roman Blinds can transform the look of a room. To ensure you are delighted with your new decor we want you to feel confident that you are measuring correctly and accurately. So we have created this guide to provide you with all the advice you could need to measure for your Roman Blinds, even which tartan fabrics work best.
Blinds can sit either inside or outside a window recess. It is important to decide which you want before taking your measurements.
- Always use a metal tape measure, as a cloth or plastic tape may stretch
- Please supply measurements in full centimetres. Where your measurement falls in-between two whole centimetres, always round down to the nearest centimetre (e.g., for a measurement of 100.5 cm, record 100 cm). If you are measuring in inches please measure to the nearest quarter inch and round down.
- Please note that blinds wider than 150 cm / 59 inches contain visible seams, although these are of course perfectly matched with the stripe in your chosen tartan.
- Measure the length from the top to the bottom of the recess
- Measure the width at the top of the window recess, where the blind is to be fitted
- Measure the width at two other points of the recess, i.e. in the middle and at the bottom. Record the lowest measurement of the three taken to ensure the blind does not sag when being lowered.
Decide where the batten that will support the blind will be fixed above the window recess.
- To obtain the length, measure from the required position above the window down to the required finished length.
- To obtain the required width, you have three options:
1. If the window has an architrave surround measure the width of the architrave at its widest point.
2. If there is a window sill measure the width of the window sill.
3. If there is no architrave measure the width of the opening at its widest point. Add 12cms to give the finished blind a 6cm overlap each side.
- Establish the depth of the blind to be used, including the mechanism. Allow 6 cm for brackets.
- At each angle within the bay, mark the blind depth on the ceiling or sill (using a tiny pencil or chalk mark).
- The point where the two marks meet is where the blinds will butt up alongside each other.
- Once these points have been marked around the bay, measure between them to work out the width of the blind.
- Always measure the central blind first.
- Lengths must be measured in the usual way, but, for widths, remember that the blinds cannot fit close together because of difficulties in raising and lowering them.