- 1). Determine your desired mounting location for your Roman shades: inside or outside the window frame. While most people think of inside mounted shades when they consider Roman shades, outside mounted shades have the advantage of not blocking as much of the natural sunlight coming through the window when the shade is pulled up.
- 2). Decide how much of the window you want to show when the shade is up. If the windows are very tall, you're using an outside mount, or if your shades will be ornamental, you may want to show more of them, up to 18 inches. Smaller windows, shades with inside mounts, and darker rooms that benefit from as much natural light as possible should consider smaller stackages, no more than 8 to 12 inches.
- 3). Measure the height of the window to determine the total length of your shade. Remember to measure outside of the window frame if you plan on an outside mount, and from the top to the bottom of the window for an inside mount.
- 4). Calculate the height of the individual Roman shade folds as follows: subtract the stackage height from the total shade length. Subtract an additional 8 inches for the lowest portion of the shade, which falls behind the rest of the folds. Divide this number by the number of flaps you desire, approximately 4 to 8. This will give you the total length of each flap of the shade. Each flap is made up of 2 folded segments. Divide this number by 2 to get the height of each individual fold. For example, if your total shade length is 60 inches, your desired stackage is 12 inches, and you want 4 flaps, your fold height will be 5 inches.
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