Plenty of places will sell you a drape online. What's nearly gone is the local version: a workroom that drives to your house, measures your actual windows, sews to those numbers a few miles away, and comes back to hang the finished panels. That's the whole business model here. It survives because it produces better drapes, and because in a city with 1920s Spanish Revival next to 1958 post-and-beam next to last year's glass box, windows are too different for anything else to work well.
What custom drapery gets you
Ready-made panels from West Elm or Pottery Barn come in three lengths and one width, sewn flat to keep shipping cheap. They're fine until you hold them next to a drape sewn at 2x fullness with a real buckram heading, corner weights, and a hem that lands exactly where you chose (a half inch float, a kiss, a 2 inch break) instead of wherever the stock length happened to stop. Custom also means the pair on the arched window matches the pair on the slider next to it, fullness for fullness, hem for hem, which is the detail that makes a room read as finished.
How the LA service works
Three visits, two of them ours. First, a free measurement: a specialist measures every window to the eighth of an inch, checks the walls, floors, and mounting depth, and talks through what you're after. It costs nothing and obligates you to nothing. Second, the design pass, which can happen in the same visit: fabric swatches you can hold in your own light, header styles shown on real installs, and a firm itemized quote. Third, three to four weeks later, installation, free anywhere in LA and Ventura counties: rods leveled, panels hung, steamed, and dressed before we leave.
Installation day deserves its own sentence or three, because it's where the money shows. The crew arrives with the panels rolled, not folded, hangs the hardware level to the room rather than to a 1940s frame, sets the returns so the fabric wraps back to the wall, and steams and dresses every fold before leaving. If a hem needs a quarter inch of adjustment against your actual floor, it happens then, at our expense, not as a discovery you make alone a week later. That last mile is exactly what you give up when a national retailer ships a box to your porch.
If you'd rather understand the measuring before we arrive, the measuring guide shows exactly what we'll be doing with the tape. And if you're an interior designer or contractor specifying drapery for a client, the trade program gets you dedicated pricing and priority lead times on the same workroom.
Fabric, chosen in your light
The workroom keeps a deep library of linens, velvets, sheers, wools, and performance blends, and we order mill fabric from Kravet, Schumacher, and Thibaut when a project calls for it. The reason we bring swatches to your house instead of pointing you at a website is simple: LA light is brutal and specific. A greige linen reads warm at 8 a.m. in a Santa Monica bungalow and goes flat gray by afternoon; a velvet that looks somber on a screen glows in a west-facing room at golden hour. Hold the fabric where it will live. It's the only honest test.
Header styles we sew
Structured rooms usually want pinch pleat, tailored pleat, or inverted pleat; relaxed ones lean ripple fold, grommet, or rod pocket. Around here the split runs by architecture as much as taste: pinch pleat suits the traditional homes of Hancock Park and Brentwood, ripple fold fits the glass-heavy contemporaries in the hills, and grommet earns its keep in casual family rooms. We'll show you each header sewn in fabric similar to yours before you choose.
Drapery for LA windows specifically
A few things we plan for that a national retailer never asks about. West and south-facing exposure without tree cover is fierce here, so we'll talk honestly about lining and interlining to protect the face fabric, and about sheers layered behind drapes so you can cut glare without losing the light. On the Westside, the marine layer adds real humidity swings, which argues for stable weaves and proper interlining on long drops so hems don't wander through the seasons. And the housing stock itself keeps things interesting: out-of-square 1920s openings, plaster walls that need the right anchors, arches worth framing instead of covering, and remodels with 14 feet of glass where the drapery is practically architecture. We've sewn for all of it.
What LA projects look like
Three builds we quote every month, to make the abstractions concrete. A Santa Monica bedroom: washed linen at 2x fullness, blackout lining, pinch pleat, floating a half inch off the original oak floor. A Beverly Hills living room with 12 foot ceilings: interlined cotton velvet, tailored pleat, sewn with a 2 inch break and hung from a reinforced track. A Calabasas great room: 16 feet of ripple fold sheer on a ceiling-mounted track, motorized, because nobody wants to hand-draw a wall of glass twice a day. Your windows will be different, which is entirely the point.
What custom drapery costs in LA
Most of the movement in a drapery quote is fabric and lining rather than labor. A practical way to think about it: the measurement visit, the design help, and the installation that other LA outfits bill separately are already in our price, so the quote you get is the number you pay. Against the national custom retailers, you're getting local sewing and free installation at prices built for whole rooms, not single showcase windows. And against ready-made, you're paying for the version that fits. For the full picture across every treatment type, see the complete LA window treatments guide.
Frequently asked questions
How much do custom drapes cost in Los Angeles?
The spread in drapery pricing comes down to fabric, lining, and size. A wide great-room wall in an interlined velvet quotes very differently than a bedroom pair in washed linen, which is why we quote against your actual windows rather than publishing a price grid that fits nobody. The measurement visit is free either way, so you'll have a real number before you've spent anything.
Do you install the drapes for me?
Yes, and it costs nothing extra anywhere in Los Angeles or Ventura counties. The same team that measured your windows hangs the finished panels: rods leveled against the room rather than a crooked frame, brackets anchored properly, hems steamed on site. You never touch a ladder, and the drapes are dressed and hanging before we leave.
How long does a custom drapery order take from measure to install?
Most orders run four to six weeks door to door: the free measurement visit first, about a week for swatches and the quote, then three to four weeks of sewing before we schedule installation. Special-order mill fabrics can add a week or two up front. If you have a hard date, a party or a move-in, tell us at the measurement and we'll be straight about whether it's makeable.
What neighborhoods do you serve for free measurement?
All of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Most of our work concentrates in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and the Westside, with regular installs in Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, West Hollywood, and the Valley from Sherman Oaks to Calabasas. If you're anywhere in the two counties, the measurement and the installation are free, full stop.
Do you work with interior designers?
Constantly, and we like the arrangement enough to have built a trade program around it. Designers get discounts on every order, a dedicated contact who knows their projects, priority lead times, and free swatches and samples. We're also comfortable sewing customer's own material when you've already specified the fabric. Details are on our designer discounts page, or just mention the trade at your first call.
What is your process for very tall windows?
Tall glass is normal work for us; LA remodels keep building 12 and 14 foot window walls, and somebody has to dress them. Long panels get extra engineering: interlining or weighted hems so the fabric hangs straight over the drop, tracks rated for the total fabric weight, and a two-person install with proper ladders. It's also the situation where professional measuring matters most, because a half inch error over 14 feet is very visible.
Do you offer motorized drapery?
Yes. We install motorized tracks from Somfy and Rollease Acmeda, controlled by remote, wall switch, or the smart home system you already run. Motorization makes the most sense on wide spans, heavy interlined drapes, and any window you'd otherwise need a ladder to reach. Ask at your consultation and we'll tell you honestly whether your windows justify it or a smooth manual track will serve.