Window Treatments 101
Ed Paul
Accordion Pleat
Box Pleat
Continental
Pinch Pleat
Rod Pocket
Shirred
Upholstered Cathedral
Upholstered Grecian
Balloon Valance
Arched Valance
        Swag with Jabot
Pouf Valance
Rod Pocket Rope Swag
Arched Draperies
Swag with Sheers
Decorated Rod
Roman Shade
You may think the first purchase for your    brand new house will be that dining room set you have been talking about  for months. But after you finally move in and spend your first day   there, you will find your priorities drastically altered and window  treatments moved to the top of your list.
As houses have gotten bigger, so have the windows. And there are more  of them. A 2,400 square foot  mid-sized, mid-priced house in  most markets can have 20 to 25 windows, and it's not unusual to have  more than that, even in a smaller house. At the same time, lots have  gotten smaller and the neighbors closer. Even if you are on a one-acre  lot and privacy is not an issue, sun control can still be bothersome,  especially if you can' t see your spouse at the dinner table without  sunglasses or enjoy watching television.
If you thought about windows at all, you may have envisioned drapes,  but blinds and shades, often called hard treatments, will solve your window problems for much less money. The variety of blinds  and shades that are now available, however, is quite astounding, and it  may take you some time to decide what will work best for your house and  your budget.
As you start to look into blinds and shades, you'll  find that the  astounding variety lies in the refinements. The main distinction between the two remains the same: Blinds afford sun control and a view while   most shades, as you will realize with the Redi-Shades, are either up or   down, light and view or neither.
With blinds, two factors differentiate the many types available: the material used to make the slats and the size of the slats. Most blind   manufacturers also offer a ;blackout feature. The slats are overlapped so that no light comes in thru the cord holes, an advantage       if you're trying to take an afternoon nap.
Lightweight vinyl blinds are the least expensive blind available, but   the thin slats can sag, the cords shred and the mechanisms break.   Aluminum blinds, a moderate step up in price, are a better bet. They   come in 1/2-inch, 1-inch, and 2-inch sized slats, as many as 100 colors,   and someanufacturers offer different finishes including metallic,  hammered, brushed, and a leather-like soft suede. The two-inch slats generally provide better sun control, and because there are fewer of them, they are less intrusive to the view outside.
The next step up in price is the wood look-alike blinds, usually  called ;faux wood. Their one and two-inch sized slats are  thick and look like the real thing to everyone but a window treatments  expert. The wood look-alikes are either a wood-polymer mix or 100  percent polymer.
Faux wood blinds are favored by many interior designers because they         are easy to clean, an advantage in a kitchen, and they don't  warp, fade or crack, a great advantage in a room with high humidity such as a         bathroom.
The most expensive blinds (roughly 8 times the cost of aluminum         blinds) are 100 percent wood. The one and two-inch slats can be painted or exposed oak, maple, cherry or maple to match your furniture, flooring  or wall paneling.
Wood and faux wood blinds will definitely dress up a room, but if the       window is large, they can be cumbersome and heavy to raise. An elegant,  albeit more expensive alternative, but one that is easier to operate is shutters. These give a room a more finished look, and because you can  open the top half for light and air while keeping the bottom part  closed, offer more options for sun control and privacy than a regular   blind. The only downside to a shutter, besides the price, is that the         framing can block as much as 20 percent of the view outside.
Plantation Shutter
For a softer look that is roughly            four times the cost of an aluminum blind, you can get a fabric                 blind that is encased between two sheets of sheer fabric. The                 Hunter Douglas fabric blind is called a silhouette, and most interior designers routinely use this term when  referring to this type of blind. A silhouette-type blind with  vertical slats is also available and it goes by the Hunter   Douglas term, luminette. A less expensive vertical  blind has slats made of vinyl or fiberglass.
Moving onto shades, the least expensive option is a spring                loaded, vinyl roller shade, but, as you may recall from your  student apartment days, the mechanism can easily break. More   expensive fabric roller shades not only have a more reliable  mechanism, they also come in an enormous range of fabrics and  opacities. These range from sheer, which provides some privacy   during the day when the interior is darker than the outdoors    (this works well in a home office), to semi-opaque and  room darkening, which lets no light pass through at    all, a plus if you have a large screen TV that requires a more  darkened room than a smaller set.
Then there's the honeycomb shades, so called because in  profile they look like cells of a honeycomb strung together. These can significantly reduce heat gain or heat loss from a     window and some manufacturers offer ones that are two and three           cells deep. The Hunter Douglas honeycomb is called a ;duette,               and designers and decorators routinely use this term.
Another plus with both the pleated and the honey comb type is that they can  be made to fit unusually shaped windows. A palladium style arched window is an example.
Next up in price are woven wood shades, which are made with               matchstick-thin pieces of wood, bamboo, reeds or grasses. A fair         amount of daylight can pass between the thin slats, but these do                 provide some sun control and daytime privacy. For nighttime privacy, this type of shade must be lined.
The most expensive type of shade, but the richest look  because it can be made with silk, linen or drapery fabric, is a   Roman shade. When lowered, a Roman shade can be flat or made to  have cascading folds. When raised, the shade forms folds at the  top.
Pleated and duette shades can be made to open from the top                 down or the bottom up, which allows you to mask the room from                 public view while still getting light. This feature is  especially advantageous for a master bathroom in a new house                 because invariably there will be a large window right next to a                 large soaking tub.
Many shade types can be motorized so that you can raise or    lower them with a remote, a definite plus for two-story rooms                 with windows that may be nine feet off the ground, and in master             bathrooms, so that you don?t have to clamber over the tub to                 adjust the shade. If you plan ahead you can get the motorizing                 feature wired in during construction. Otherwise you?ll have to  use a battery-operated remote.
Woven Wood Shade
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Duette/Honeycomb Shade
Wood Blinds or Faux
Pleated Shade
Silhouette