With a wide range of options available, each pleat style not only serves functional purposes but also significantly influences the overall ambiance of your room—whether you prefer a traditional or modern look.
Transform your interior with custom-made curtains that add impact, privacy, and comfort. The first step is selecting the right fabric based on aesthetics, performance, and budget. As part of this process, determining the appropriate heading style is crucial, as it directly affects the way the fabric drapes and functions.
Explore the 4 most popular heading styles and find the perfect match for your preferences:
Reverse Pleat (Inverted):
Achieve a tailored and elegant look with deeply inverted pleats. Ideal for most fabrics, however, caution is advised with highly patterned designs as the pleating may interfere with the pattern alignment. This style features inverted pleats spanning the top of the curtain, resulting in a nice flat heading. The reverse pleat, with its relaxed folds, is well-suited for most fabrics and is especially advantageous when using standard width fabric, as any seams can be discreetly concealed within the pleat’s fold, effectively minimising the visibility of unappealing seams.
Wave Pleat (S-Fold):
Embrace a modern and contemporary style with a clean, symmetrical wave formation. Perfect for solid, patterned, and sheer fabrics. The wave curtain heading style effortlessly establishes a sleek and uncluttered appearance that complements a variety of fabrics—whether solid, patterned, or sheer. This effect is achieved through the application of a structured buckram tape affixed to the rear of the header, ensuring an even distribution of fabric in a symmetrical wave formation. Opting for wide width fabrics proves to be a strategic choice, facilitating a seamless and continuous line across windows without the need for joins or seams. This not only enhances the visual appeal but also streamlines manufacturing processes, requiring less stitching. For an optimal outcome, synthetic fabrics are particularly well-suited to the wave heading style. Their inherent stability ensures a consistent formation, especially beneficial for covering expansive windows. In contrast, certain natural fibres may exhibit a more relaxed drape, making synthetic fabrics the preferred choice for maintaining the desired structured look. The perfect pleat choice when it comes to a recessed ceiling mounted track.
Pinch Pleat (Single, Dutch, French):
Crafting a timeless aesthetic, the pinch pleat is renowned for its classic appeal. These pleats are formed through folded creases in the stiff buckram material inserted within the header. Subsequently, the perfect heading style when it comes to patterned fabrics as the pattern does not get lost in the folds. The pinch pleat offers versatility with three distinct varieties—single, double (Dutch), or triple (French)—each characterised by the number of folds/creases at the top. These variations also differ in terms of fullness, stack back, and overall appearance, providing options to suit diverse preferences and styles.
Pencil Pleat (Gathered):
As the name implies, the pencil pleat curtain heading style features petite, pencil-sized pleats that result in a tightly gathered header. Offering a straightforward heading option, the nature of the heading tape allows you to gather the fabric to your desired fullness. The extent of fullness in the pencil pleat can be adjusted by manipulating the pull cords. While this style enables substantial fullness, it’s advisable to steer clear of excessively heavy or bulky fabrics. Such materials may disrupt the even distribution of the gathering, compromising the intended aesthetic of the pencil pleat heading style. The pencil pleat offers a beautifully relaxed curtain style.
