July 27, 2026

What Custom Drapery Costs in New York: An Honest Guide

Drapery

The Short Answer: What to Budget Per Window

For a typical New York project, plan on $1,500 to $3,500 per window for lined, pleated drapery, all in. That figure covers fabrication labor, lining, hardware, and installation, but not your fabric. For a standard prewar window with 9 foot ceilings, a pair of two width panels lands comfortably in that range. Motorized ripplefold on a wide living room opening, or a bay with a custom bent track, can run $5,000 to $10,000 or more.

The single biggest variable is fabric, which is why we quote labor separately. A designer running COM linen at $60 a yard and a designer running embroidered silk at $400 a yard will see very different totals on identical windows. Fabrication labor in a quality New York workroom typically runs $250 to $450 per width for hand finished pleated panels, and yardage adds up fast at 2.5x fullness.

What Actually Drives Fabrication Cost

Labor scales with widths, not windows. A width is roughly 54 inches of fabric, and a generous pair on a 6 foot window usually needs four to five widths. Fullness matters too. We fabricate at 2.5x fullness as a baseline because it drapes properly; a workroom quoting meaningfully less is probably cutting fullness to 2x or below, and you will see it in the finished panel.

Details add real cost and real value. Hand sewn hems and interlining add $75 to $150 per width. Pattern matching on a large repeat adds yardage and cutting time. Banding, leading edge trim, and contrast linings each add $100 to $300 per panel depending on complexity. Sheers under drapery essentially double the treatment. None of this is padding; it is where the difference between decent and beautiful lives.

Ceiling height is the quiet multiplier. Moving from 9 to 12 foot ceilings adds a yard per width, more hemming labor, and often heavier hardware. On a loft project in Tribeca or a townhouse parlor floor, budget 25 to 40 percent above the ranges here.

Hardware, Installation, and the Line Items Designers Forget

Quality traversing hardware runs $40 to $100 per foot for trade grade track and $75 to $200 per foot for decorative rods with rings, before finials and brackets. Motorization adds $600 to $1,500 per opening for battery or hardwired systems, plus electrician coordination if you are hardwiring, which is worth planning at rough in rather than after closing walls.

Installation in New York typically runs $150 to $300 per opening for standard mounts, more for concrete ceilings, plaster crown, pockets, or scaffolding heights. We measure and install with our own team out of our Long Island City workroom, which means one point of accountability from field measure to final steam. If a panel needs a hem adjustment after hanging, that is our problem to solve, not yours.

How to Get an Accurate Quote Fast

Send us window dimensions, mount heights, your fabric selections with repeat information, and the treatment style you have in mind. With that, we can turn around a detailed line item quote, usually within two business days, so you can present real numbers to your client instead of a placeholder allowance.

If you are working on a project in the city, our New York workroom handles custom window treatments, upholstery, furniture, and bedding for trade professionals. You can see our capabilities and start a quote at [valley.studio/new-york](https://valley.studio/new-york). Bring us the tricky windows. The bays, the radius walls, the 14 foot sheers. That is the work we like best.