Height of Hemmed Drapes Over Heating Registers

The length of your drapes can affect air circulation.

The length of your drapes can affect air circulation.

In addition to adding elegance to a room, floor-length drapes control light and privacy and offer some energy benefits. But if you hang the drapes near a heat register and block the air flow, these benefits may be lost. Hemming up the drapes and hanging them with proper clearance solves this issue but may also change the room’s ambiance. If you want to keep your floor-length drapes, consider alternative installation and treatment options.

What Registers Are

If you have a forced-air heating system, it has ductwork running from the furnace throughout the house to deliver warm air to each room. At the ends of the ductwork are the heat registers, which cover the holes where the ductwork ends and the air flows into the room. Registers are usually located in the wall, floor or against the baseboard, can be decorative and are made of different materials, including wood, brass and cast iron. Some styles are designed with adjustable louvers, which allow you to control the amount and direction of the air flow through the register or to completely close off the air to unused rooms.

Wall Register Clearance

The wall registers that supply warm air to a room are typically located on the lower part of a wall, near the floor, or on the floor itself. Drapes hung in front of a register trap the air and prevent it from entering the room. If the register is below a window, this can cause condensation on the inside of your windows. When the air flows through the register, the drapes will have a tendency to billow and not hang properly. To prevent this from happening and to promote good air circulation, hemmed drapes should be a minimum of 4 inches above a wall register.

Floor Register Clearance

Floor-length drapes are usually hemmed to allow for a 1/2-inch clearance above the carpet or floor, including floor registers. Because floor registers come in many styles and profiles, a 1-inch floor clearance may be required to allow for proper air flow and circulation. Air flowing up through a floor register will affect lightweight drapes, causing them to blow. To prevent this, an air deflector can be safely attached to the register to force the air out into the room instead of straight up toward the ceiling.

Baseboard Register Clearance

Triangular in shape, baseboard heat registers sit over the hole in the floor where the ductwork ends. The back of the register is attached to the existing baseboard, which allows the air to be delivered from the wall area without cutting into the wall. Just as with wall registers, drapes that hang in front of baseboard registers trap the heat and block the flow of the air. To prevent this from happening, drapes should be hemmed so that they hang a minimum of 4 inches above the register.

Alternatives and Options

Hanging short, hemmed-up drapes allows for proper air circulation but may not provide the look you want. An alternative is to hang floor-length drapes and keep them permanently held open with decorative tiebacks. With this option, the heating register will be more exposed and have a better chance of doing its job. For more privacy, functional shades such as Roman or cellular shades can be installed within the window casing to complement the pulled-back drapes.

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