Curtain Lengths: 63, 84, 96 and How to Choose

The question almost everyone types is some version of “do I buy 63, 84, or 96 inch curtains?” It feels like a measuring question, so it feels like it should have a measured answer. It does not, and that is the whole problem.

A curtain length is not a property of your window. It is the result of two decisions you make before you ever look at a size chart: how high the rod goes, and where you want the hem to stop. Pick those first and the number falls out. Pick the number first, as most people do, and you have quietly let a size chart decide the other two for you.

Here is how the choice actually works, and why the answer is sometimes a standard size off the shelf and sometimes not a standard size at all. It is one part of measuring, hanging and installing a window properly.

The ready-made ladder is priced by the rung

Off-the-shelf curtain lengths come in fixed steps because a finished panel cannot be cut down to your window without losing its hem. So the sizes exist as rungs, and you buy the one nearest the floor. Which rung lands nearest depends on how high the rod goes, so it is worth using the calculator to test a rung against your own drop before picking one.

You can see the rungs directly in the pricing. Half Price Drapes lists its Signature Velvet panel at a locked 50 inch width in five drops, 63, 84, 96, 108 and 120 inches, and the price climbs with the length: 80.82, 92.94, 97.81, 103.59 and 107.91 dollars. The number you pick is not “a height,” it is “the rung above your height.”

What each price actually covers

Brand	Listed	Basis
Half Price Drapes Signature Velvet Blackout Curtain (Alabaster Beige)	$92.94	single panel, 50W x 84L (fixed size, width locked at 50 in)
Half Price Drapes Performance Linen Hotel Blackout Curtain (Extra Wide)	$86.50	ready-made panel, fixed 100 in width, priced by length: 84L $86.50 / 96L $87.50 / 108L $89.00 / 120L $98.99; no width choice
Half Price Drapes Double Layered Extra Wide Sheer Curtain (White)	$42.33	ready-made panel, fixed 100 in width, priced by length: 84L $42.33 / 96L $45.59 / 108L $47.57 / 120L $51.02
Two Pages Birkin Velvet Curtain Pleated	$89.00	starting price for a single panel in base configuration; size (width/length) and Lining Type are billed on top through the configurator
Neutral Curtains 100% Belgian Flax Linen Curtains & Drapes Pleated	$89.99	base pleated panel, add-ons excluded (page states 'Total Price = Base Price + Add-ons'); compare_at 99.99
Neutral Curtains Lily Linen Curtains & Drapes Ripple Fold with Track	$98.99	base price, identical across the 38 colours, per panel; the brand prints Total Price = Base Price + Add-ons, so this is not a total
Neutral Curtains 100% Belgian Flax Linen Cafe Curtains	$79.99	listed base price, one finished panel, buyer-selected size; hooks included, rings and rods excluded

Not like-for-like. These figures rest on different bases, so they cannot be ranked against each other. Read what each price covers before comparing.

Source: official product pages from Half Price Drapes, Neutral Curtains, Two Pages, checked 2026-07-21, 2026-08-21, 2026-08-22, 2026-08-29 and 2026-09-02. Fold & Light does not measure products; any percentage is the one that brand publishes.

The rungs are far apart, and they are not even the same from one product to the next. The two wide options at the same merchant, its Performance Linen panel and its double-layer sheer, both come in a single fixed 100 inch width and skip 63 entirely: they start at 84 and jump to 96, 108 and 120. The gaps between those steps are eight inches to a foot of cloth. Land between two rungs, which is the normal case, and no ready-made length is actually right. One is too short and the next is too long.

Half Price Drapes Signature Velvet Blackout Curtain, official catalogue photo — **Half Price Drapes · Signature Velvet Blackout Curtain (Alabaster Beige)**
Listed at $92.94. single panel, 50W x 84L (fixed size, width locked at 50 in)
Catalogue photo from Half Price Drapes, retrieved 2026-09-02.

Made-to-measure removes the ladder and hands you a tolerance instead

The alternative is to specify the drop instead of picking a rung. Made-to-order brands bill length through a configurator: on Two Pages you choose a single panel size in width and inches of length, and the panel is cut to it. There is no ladder to land on, because you name the number.

That buys you the exact drop no rung reaches. It costs you certainty at the last inch. A cut-to-order panel arrives with a stated tolerance, and the two brands publish very different bands. Neutral Curtains prints a 0.4 inch tolerance on the finished size, “due to manual measurement.” Two Pages prints a full inch: “Lengths vary by 1 inch due to handcraft.” So a made-to-measure length is really “your number, plus or minus the brand’s band,” and on a panel cut to your window that band is not recoverable. You cannot let the hem down on a length that came back short.

Easy to get wrong

The habit	What it costs	Instead
Washing a made-to-measure panel because the fabric could take it The care line is read as a fact about the cloth, so a fabric that sounds washable gets washed.	The cloth usually survives. The finished length is the part that does not, and a hem cut to your window cannot be let down again. A made-to-order panel is not returnable either, so the half-inch decision you paid for is simply gone.	Read what the listing says about dimensional change before you read what it says about the fabric. Merchants print that warning themselves, under the very method they recommend.

Common failure modes and their fix. No product data on this card.

That is the trade in one line. A ready-made rung is visible rounding you can see before you buy. A made-to-measure drop is exact, minus a small tolerance you cannot see until it hangs.

Two Pages Birkin Velvet Curtain Pleated, official catalogue photo

Curtain length is really a decision about where the hem lands

Strip away the numbers and the length question is a question about one line in the room: where the bottom of the curtain stops. There are three finishes that read as deliberate, and nothing usable between them. Half an inch of daylight clear of the floor looks clean and practical. Touching the floor looks tailored. Two to three inches pooling looks soft and formal. An inch of gap under the hem is none of those; it just looks like a curtain ordered in the wrong size, which is what it is.

Rule of thumb

½ in clear · touching · 2–3 in puddle

Where the hem should stop

Half an inch clear of the floor, touching it, or two to three inches of puddle. Nothing in between.

The three lengths are three deliberate looks: clean and practical, tailored, or soft and formal. An inch of daylight under the hem is none of them: it reads as a curtain ordered in the wrong size, which is exactly what it is.

Geometry and long-standing trade practice, not a brand claim. Check it with a tape measure, not with us.

This is why the ladder matters more than it looks. A fixed rung rarely lands your hem on one of those three finishes, so the ladder chooses the look for you, and usually the one nobody wants. Specifying the drop is the only way to put the hem exactly where you decided it should go.

The finish is also a real spec, not just a preference. Two Pages publishes a 1.5 inch bottom hem on its pleated linen and velvet panels, and recommends puddle length on its own pages because the extra cloth on the floor blocks a little more light along the bottom edge. Neutral’s Lily ripple-fold panel carries a much deeper 3 to 3.5 inch hem. Two panels ordered to the “same” length will not break the same way at the floor if one carries a 1.5 inch hem and the other three and a half: the deeper, heavier hem hangs straighter and pools differently. The length number alone does not tell you how the bottom will sit.

The number depends on where you hang the rod, not the window

Notice what the drop is measured from. It is the distance from the floor to the rod, adjusted for the finish you chose, and the rod does not sit on the window. It goes above the frame, or all the way to the ceiling, which is its own decision, covered in how high to hang your curtains. Move the rod up and the required length grows with it.

So the same window needs a different curtain length depending on how high you hang. Choosing “84 because it is standard” is really choosing where the rod has to go to make 84 look right, which is the decision backwards. Decide the height first, read off the drop second, and the length stops being a guess. This is the first move in the whole process, and it is the one the size chart cannot make for you.

What the size charts don’t tell you

The chart gives you a column of numbers and hides the parts that actually decide the purchase. It does not tell you that the 63 you saw on one panel is missing from the wide ones, so the ladder itself is uneven. It does not tell you how much to hem if you fall between two rungs, or what that lost hem does to the finished look. Some listings do not even publish the range they cover: Neutral’s Lily panel names a track in its title but gives no minimum or maximum size on the page, so you cannot tell which windows it fits.

What these listings do not tell you

Half Price Drapes Signature Velvet Blackout Curtain (Alabaster Beige): weight gsm
Half Price Drapes Performance Linen Hotel Blackout Curtain (Extra Wide): weight gsm, stack back
Half Price Drapes Double Layered Extra Wide Sheer Curtain (White): composition, weight gsm
Two Pages Liz Linen Drape Pleated: price, availability
Two Pages Patti Premium 100% Belgian Flax Linen Curtain Pleated: price, availability
Neutral Curtains Lily Linen Curtains & Drapes Ripple Fold with Track: track included, size envelope, stack back, weight capacity lb

Missing from the product page, so missing here too. A brand that prints the number is doing you a favour worth counting.

And the tolerance is not the end of the movement. Two Pages notes on its care instructions that steaming and drying “may cause slight dimensional changes,” on the same product where it already publishes a one inch length variation. The two stack: a length that can arrive an inch off can move again the first time you freshen it. None of this is on the size chart, and all of it decides whether the length you chose is the length you keep.

Which length, for which reader

Put together, the answer to “63, 84, or 96?” depends on which of three situations you are in.

If your window is a standard height and your hem target lands within about an inch of a rung, buy the ready-made length and stop there. It is the cheapest correct answer, and off-the-shelf drops like 63, 84 and 96 exist precisely for this case. Check the rung against your measured drop before you order, not after.

If your target falls between two rungs, or you want a clean float or a proper puddle, made-to-measure is not a luxury here, it is the only way to hit the number. Read the tolerance as part of the deal, 0.4 of an inch on one brand and a full inch on another, and do not mistake a panel that arrives within its stated band for a mistake.

If you are hanging a light fabric or planning a puddle, weight the hem so it falls as a straight column instead of fluttering, decide the hem depth on purpose, and never wash a made-to-measure panel to try to save a length. The cloth may survive it. The length you paid for will not.

Worth doing

Weight the hem on light fabric

Sew-in drapery weights at each corner and at the base of every seam.

A light panel flares at the bottom and lifts every time a door opens. Weights are a few grams and they turn a fluttering panel into a straight column. On sheers, and on anything light enough to lift in a draught, this matters more than the fabric choice.

A practical step, not a product claim. Nothing here depends on which brand you buy.

Questions people ask before choosing a length

Are 63, 84 and 96 inches the standard curtain lengths? They are common ready-made drops, but the ladder is not universal. Half Price Drapes sells its Signature Velvet in 63, 84, 96, 108 and 120 inches; its wide Performance Linen and sheer panels skip 63 and start at 84. Read it as one merchant’s rungs, not a standard.

What if my window falls between two standard lengths? Buy the rung above and hem it, losing the finished hem you paid for, or specify the exact drop. Made-to-order brands like Two Pages and Neutral Curtains bill length through a configurator, so there is no rung to miss.

How exact is a made-to-measure length? It is your number plus or minus the brand’s stated band. Neutral Curtains publishes a 0.4 inch tolerance, “due to manual measurement”; Two Pages publishes a full inch, “Lengths vary by 1 inch due to handcraft.” On a cut-to-order panel, that band is not recoverable.

Where should curtains end, on the floor or above it? Three finishes read as deliberate, nothing in between: half an inch clear of the floor, touching it, or two to three inches of puddle. An inch of gap under the hem reads as the wrong size.

Can I wash a made-to-measure panel to save a length that came back short? The cloth usually survives; the length does not. Two Pages notes that steaming and drying “may cause slight dimensional changes,” and a hem cut to your window cannot be let down.