Measuring Your Windows For Custom Made To Measure Blinds
In our day to day dealing with customers, we find many people are confused when it comes to measuring for a window blind. It shouldn’t be difficult if you research first!
Firstly you need to decide whether you wish to have your made to measure blind fitted inside a recess or fitted externally/ flush against a wall. If you choose to have the blind fitted in the recess, you need to measure at the top where you would hang the blind, from wall to wall. Do not make any allowances as your blind manufacturer will do this for you. If you have reduced the recess width yourself, make it clear when ordering to avoid your blinds being made too small. If you have a picture rail also measure between this as well as the wall to wall measurement above the rail, so this can be taken into account when the fabric is cut. Do this also if you have a half tiled recess. You will next need to measure the drop from top of the recess to the window sill. Again, there is no need to add-on any extra as you will receive more than you need to extend the blind fully. If you are measuring for a vertical blind or venetian blind, measure the drops on both the left and right and the centre and submit the shortest drop measurement.
If you plan on fitting your blind outside of a recess or flush to the wall, measure your overall window size including the frame and add between 1.5 and 2.5 inches either side for the fabric measurement, keeping in mind our brackets are half an inch wide each. Ideally, you will want to go a good couple of inches either side to ensure proper coverage of the window and its frame.
Many homes in the UK have bay windows of 3, 5 and more glass panels. To measure for a bay window, start at the outside edge of the first window frame and measure to where the window frame meets the next window, continue this until you finish at the outside edge of the last window. This gives us the sizes of each individual window including its frame. On angled bay windows it’s alway best to ask for the brackets in advance and blue-tac them to the window frame, adjusting where needed. Once you are happy with the brackets positioning, measure from the back of one bracket to the back of the other for side control blinds or from the inside bracket to bracket on a spring-loaded blind.
For Velux blinds/ loft roof blinds, either provide us with the GGL code which can be found on your window or measure the whole moving window part, including the frame for both the width and the drop. If you plan to side fix the brackets of a roof window blind, measure wall to wall instead. Let the blind manufacturer know your measurements are for this type of window blind so that the fabric is set on a permanently sprung roller for roller blinds and tension wires for venetian blinds.
If you are measuring for a door blind, measure from the edge of the glass to the inside of the door handle and then add this measurement to the other side and class this as your material size. This way, once your blind is hung, the fabric will roll behind the handle rather than catching on it each time you roll your blind down. Alternatively you can request for your blinds to be made with the roller blind fabric rolling over the front of the roller to clear a handle.
Always ensure you use a proper metal tape measure when measuring for your blinds as fabric tape measures are not accurate enough and always measure in what suits you best, be it inches or centimetres!
We hope this helps you when measuring for your perfectly fitted made to measure blinds but If you would like further help just ask us and we will do our best.
If you live within the London area / Essex borders we offer a blinds measuring and fitting service. Please contact us for more details.
