Curtain fullness & gather guide
Curtain fullness is the amount of fabric (or fabric widths) in your curtains used to create the pleats. More fabric gives more pleats and often looks better, less fabric although more economical it gives a flatter appearance when your curtains are closed.
Less fullness
Most others typical fullness!
Our normal fullness
More fullness
For a bit of luxury
We offer three choices of fullness; less, normal and more - based on our tried and tested fullness ratings over many years of experience. Even with the less or more fullness options we set limits to ensure the curtains we make we'll always be proud to put our name against.
It's always worth you comparing the fullness or how many widths curtains have before purchasing as this can make a substantial difference to the overall effect once they are hanging.
Although it is personal opinion, it's generally accepted that more fullness in a curtain looks better. If you have too little fullness your curtains may look skimpy and even struggle to close ‐ although we'll never let that happen when you order with us.
We would always recommend at least our normal fullness for any room that you are likely to be using frequently or more fullness for extra luxury which offers better sound and insulation too.
Less fullness is better suited for infrequently used rooms or where budget is tighter. Our less fullness is often fuller than many others normal fullness as we don't like to compromise on the quality of the curtains.
Below are our tried and tested curtain & voile fullness ratings from years of experience. In nearly all circumstances they are the minimum ratios we use unless you choose less fullness.
| Curtain heading (not voile) | Our normal fullness |
|---|---|
| Pencil, Eyelet | 2x (also known as double fullness or 100%) |
| Double pinch, Cartridge, Goblet | 2.2x |
| Deep Pencil, Triple Pinch | 2.5x |
| Tab top | 1.5x |
The above fullnesses are for our curtains only and differ for voiles which are below.
| Voile heading | Our normal fullness |
|---|---|
| Pencil, gathered, slot top | 2.5x |
Fullness ratings are the ratio of overall width of fabric to the track/pole length. Some headings require different ratios as they gather differently.
To calculate the curtain fullness
| Fullness = | Total widths of fabric x Width of fabric |
| Curtain track or pole length |
Example fullness calculation
For example, if you have a pole of 280cm (excluding finials) and a pair of curtains with 2 widths in each curtain that are 140cm per width then it's calculated like below:
| 4 widths x 140cm per width | = 2x Fullness |
| 280cm pole |
Last Updated: 17-Jul-2021
Last Reviewed: 17-Jul-2021