How to Measure Your Window for Shades

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Tim Gipson, and I'm going to talk to you about how to measure for shades. Now, in this particular application we've got blinds installed in this window. If you were going to put a shade on this window though, and it was what we call an inside dimension shade it would be hung the same way. And what we want to do if I pull these curtains out; we want to measure inside face to inside face, and in this case, we've got thirty five inches. So, what we'd want to do in choosing our shade is that we'd want to take about a half an inch dimension off that, so we would want a shade in this case that is thirty four and a half inches wide. What that allows us to do is to have at least a quarter of an inch face on each side of the shade. Now, other shades are designed where just like this curtain, they actually hang over the surface of your window. And in that case, what we want to do is we want to measure that thirty five in inch width and add at least an inch or two to each side, depending on the type of a, the shade that you want to get. And then, the last part would be to measure the length. So, if it's an inside shade we would want to measure from the sill of the window up to the top of the opening, which would be seventy and a half. And in this case on the shade; on the length of your shade, you want it to be just a little bit longer, so we'd want at least a seventy two inch shade; if not a a couple inches longer, say you know, seventy four or seventy five inches. And that makes sure that when you draw that shade all the way down that you've got enough travel to cover that. And then, on the outside it's the same thing. You would be mounting your shade at least two or three inches, so in this case you'd want to be pulling it down; maybe all the way to the floor for decorative purposes, or maybe just a couple inches. So, you can measure the distance from the floor, which in this case would be eleven inches. So, we could add fourteen inches to the length of the opening if you're doing the shade all the way to the floor, or simply add for two or three inches above and below, add six inches if you're mounting just above the window and going just below. I'm Tim Gipson, and that's for some tips for hanging a shade in your window."