I am often asked just how large one can make a roman shade. My answer to this is always: "As large as your workspace." The largest shade that I made was 14'-7" wide (that's 175") and 5'-8" long. A student made a shade that was 7'-2" wide and 9' long. You can see it in the Reader's Gallery. I worked on a table, she worked on the floor. Another reader (Randy Richards of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) make two large shades. He sent me great photographs of the final construction stage and photographs of the mounted shades. 

Here is one of Randy's shades spread inside-out on the living room floor. He has glued the plastic battens to the backside of the fabric and is holding them in place with magazines while the glue dries. The shade takes up almost the entire floor area, so this is the "largest" shade that Randy can make in this workspace, unless he wants to move the couch out of the room.

As you can see from these two photographs, Randy's shade pulls up perfectly. It doesn't sag in the middle and lies nice and flat against the window trim. Great job.

How heavy is a large Roman shade? Normal Roman shades are not heavy. However, as you increase the size, it can become difficult to raise. This is the real issue: how easily can I pull up a large shade. There are many things that you can do to ensure that a large shade works perfectly:

• Use lightweight fabrics, such as 100% quilting cotton, rather than heavy decorator fabrics
• Use a lightweight lining, such as Thermalsuede. Think twice before you use Blackout lining on a large shade. It weighs about 50% more than Thermalsuede.
• Use pulleys rather than screw eyes for the lift cords. This is probably the single-most important thing to do for a large shade. Pulleys make it easy to lift a very large shade.
• Use aluminum rather than steel for the weight rod. Aluminum is about half the weight of steel and cost only a little more. You definitely need a weight rod on a large shade for it to drop correctly when lowered. (The Hardware Calculator will recommend the correct type of weight rod based upon your shade dimensions.)
• Use plastic battens in the folds. They make a large shade look truly professional. You can join the 5-ft battens using rib splices.
• A cord lock pulley may not work on a large shade. If you think you definitely want one, go ahead and use it. If it doesn't work well, you can always replace it with a regular pulley at a later date (you don't even have to take the shade down). The cord locks that I carry in the Shopping Area are rated for shades up to 90-pounds in weight. I can't imagine your shade weighing even one-quarter of that! However, I do know from personal experience that I seem to replace cord locks on large shades more often than I do on "normal" sizes.
• Use Velcro to attach the shade to the mounting board. That way you can attach the board to the wall first and then add the shade when everything is level. Here comes my physics spiel: Velcro is "un-mated" by pulling out from the wall/window. It will never "un-mate" due to the downward pull of even the heaviest shade. The wider your window, the more Velcro you are using, so you should not be concerned that your shade will spontaneously fall off of its headrail.

Back to FAQ's: Professional Techniques

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Contact Information:
Terrell Designs, owned by Terrell Sundermann 
5325 Sanford Cir. E. Englewood, Colorado 80113
Phone: (303) 758-0188  Email:

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