How to calculate a cascade Roman Blind

VIDEO INSTRUCTOR

Cindy Taylor

Cindy is the owner of Dolman & Taylor specialist curtain and blind makers. She has over 15 years of experience, curtain making, blind making, working with fabrics and making soft furnishings. In the videos she clearly explains and demonstrates the methods and techniques used in her workroom .

How to

Calculate a Cascade Roman Blind

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MAKING A CASCADE ROMAN BLIND

To make a cascade (sometimes called waterfall) blind, the whole process is the same as for an standard inline blind except the rod pockets are positioned differently to create the cascade effect.

The easiest way to calculate the rod pocket positions for your cascade design is to use our FREE online Cascading blind folds calculator to calculate the positions of the rod pockets to create the desired cascade.

When making a cascading blind if you are following our Lined, Interlined or Blackout Roman blind making core tutorials, you need to consider the cascade at the following steps of the making process.

STEP 1 : MEASURING THE WINDOW (Decide your Top Section Size)
STEP 2 : CALCULATE THE BLIND DIMENSIONS (and rod pocket positions)

When designing the cascade blind we use the following terms for different parts of the blind

TOP SECTION: Blind length in the up position.

HEADRAIL ALLOWANCE : This is the same measurement as a standard folds blind. It can be used to make the blind longer or shorter in the up position but does have a minimum limit. See Headrail Allowance Explained . It is often a bit longer than normal in a cascade blind to make the figures work.

CASCADE DEPTH: This is the depth of each cascade section.

NUMBER OF CASCADE SECTIONS: By varying the number of rod pockets(folds) we vary the number of cascade sections. There will be one more rod pocket than cascade section

BOTTOM FLAP: This is effectively the bottom cascade and quite often it is made to the same depth as the cascade increment, we call it the bottom flap though because sometimes we make it a different length to the cascade sections, eg when showing a trim etc.

TOP PLEAT: Not to be confused with the TOP SECTION the top pleat is the depth of the top fold.

A cascade blind is generally longer than an inline blind in the up position so it isn't suitable for all windows and can be a better option when you need the blind to be longer in the fully up position

It is often easier to accomodate the extra length of the cascade blind in the when up position, by hanging it outside the recess

The easiest way to calculate the rod pocket positions for your design is to use our calculator. How to use the calculator is explained on the calculator page.