Linings for Drapery and Roman Shades: Explained (w/ pics!)
When it comes to draperies and roman shades, linings can make all the difference in the world. Whether you choose a lined window treatment depends on a number of factors:
What are your privacy objectives
What are your light blocking objectives
What sort of feel and structure do you want the treatment to have
And yes, budget
Let’s start with the basics: Lined vs. unlined draperies and roman shades
Lined: There are two main types of linings, privacy lining (often just referred to as lining) or light filtering lining, and blackout lining. Though the names are fairly self explanatory (do I want privacy or no light?!), there are other things to consider when lining a drapery, like how will the lining affect the appearance of the face fabric and how will the fabric hang once combined with the lining? Generally speaking, in most non-sheer fabric situations, including in lining is the right thing to do. It typically helps the drape hang better, provides additional structure, and also helps protect the backside of the expensive face fabric from sun damage.
Here is a look at the same exact fabric as an unlined drapery, unlined roman shade, and privacy lined drapery.
The first image is the unlined ripple fold drapery, followed by an unlined roman shade, and finally a privacy lined ripple fold drapery. As you can see, all 3 catch plenty of light, highlighting the texture of the 100% natural linen fabric. The privacy lining does dilute a bit more light, making the texture more dramatic.
Privacy vs. blackout lining
Whereas privacy lining provides structure, protects expensive face fabrics, and helps a drapery hang nicely, it does not provide any significant additional light blockage vs. if the same drape were unlined. Blackout fabric on the other hand does all of the above, but let’s no light through (assuming it is in fact a high-quality blackout fabric) - great for bedrooms, nurseries, and rooms that get intense direct sunlight at various times of day.
Below are two images of draperies partially drawn over similarl sized windows- the first is privacy lined, the second blackout lined. As you can see in the privacy lined drape, plenty of light comes through both liner and fabric, while the blackout lined drape is completely opaque.
When to not line a drapery or roman shade?
The three main factors that will dictate this are:
Fabric choice and weight - does the fabric itself look better when not lined? Sometimes, this can be the case
Design aesthetic - if you are going for a particularly whimsical, airy, casual vibe, sometimes an unlined material fits your design objectives better. This is sometimes the case in very beachy, amongst other aesthetics we help build.
Budget - creating a lined drapery adds cost - both in material and labor, so if you are pinching pennies but still want a drapery on a certain door or window, going unlined may be your solution.
Lining a sheer?
Conventional wisdom (and many large fabricators and workrooms) will say that you don’t line a sheer. Sure, this is true most of the time, but given that we do true custom work we will take, and have taken the liberty to break this rule. Recently a customer selected semi-dense, beautiful sheer weave for roman shades that will go throughout their living spaces, dining area, and kitchen. They asked if we could line it for privacy reasons, which we agreed would both work and look fine. But in doing some product testing in the work room, we decided on a middle ground alternative by lining the sheer face fabric with another sheer liner. It provided just enough of an extra layer of obstruction for added privacy, and the way the light worked through the sheer lining and face fabric created a brilliance that the heavier privacy liner lacked. We loved it and the client agreed.
When people ask about what makes Field Work different - this is just one example. A willingness (and excitement) to break rules and find solutions you simply won’t find elsewhere.
Real world product testing. The sheer discussed above, made on the right into a top-down-bottom-up roman shade with a standard privacy lining. The same exact sheer lined with a sheer-lining. The difference in the character of the fabric is marked.
Other types of lining: Interlining
Interlining is a somewhat heavy liner that goes between the face fabric and a traditional liner to add additional weight and structure to a drape. In all honesty, we don’t see it or do it much in Southern California - but we can!
Liners and cost
Making an unlined drapery and roman shade is cheaper, we’ll just put it out there. You are using less material, and it is less labor to sew the actual finished product. But generally speaking, a lined drapery is just nicer, plain and simple. Roman shades are a bit different as lining does not have quite the same effect on the shade, so there is more nuance in design there.
As with most of our fabrics, we like to source what we can in the fashion district in downtown Los Angeles, which helps keep costs entirely reasonable.
Below are just some of the liners we offer, depending on the client need and application.
One additional thought: Lining woven wood or natural grass roman shades
When it comes to lining woven wood roman shades, the same general principles discussed above apply. Though depending on your personal privacy needs, our preference is to leave grass style roman shades unlined whenever possible - of course in places like bedrooms and bathrooms, this does not fly. In our experience, this simply brings out the full character of the weave of your shade. And for this reason, be sure when selecting any woven wood or natural grass style shade to hold it up to light or tape a swatch to the window where it will be hung to get the full sense of what it will look like. A blackout lined vs. unlined woven wood style shade in the same pattern will look pretty different once hung (see below).
The wild card: single layer blackout fabrics
We also offer, and quite often use many single layer blackout fabrics where the blackout liner and face fabric are fused into one piece. We have dozen of options for this, so if you are curious, let us know! It is a good way to get the best of all worlds while helping to reduce some cost.