Window coverings are an important part of framing your view.
Summer is the perfect time to focus interior views on the great outdoors, and bring light into all Barrie homes. Window fashions are a very important part of framing your view. The right window covering can create privacy when required, control light and heat, and offer a way to add colour and pattern to any room. Today there are endless products to choose from to cover your windows in style. The correct treatment can make windows look taller, wider and more dramatic. Clean lined shades, shutters or blinds can tuck close to the windowpane and are sensible treatments in any space.
When privacy is of most concern, almost any window treatment will work. Drapery, roman shades, pleated shades and roller blinds can offer complete privacy when the covering is closed. The broad palette of fashionable colours and textures available for these types of privacy treatments can coordinate both patio doors and windows. Drapery that fully closes provides not only privacy but also warmth and visual softness to a space. If you want to create “dramatic windows” consider a drapery treatment for an entire wall. If you cover only a window you’re chopping up the wall. So even if the window is two thirds the length and height of the wall, treat the entire wall with the fabric. This treatment will make the space more expansive and will look best when the window covering is a similar colour to the wall.
Summer warm weather makes it a great time to take advantage of today’s window coverings to control both light and heat. One of the most effective ways to control light is to consider a product that tilts and offers various degrees of control. Both vertical blinds and horizontal venetians allow you to adjust the slats for partial privacy and light control. These products come in a variety of fabrics, plastics, metals and wood.
California shutters continue to be a popular choice for windows when light and heat control are important factors. Shutters are custom made to fit both windows and doors and come in various poly satin resins as well as gorgeous stained woods. Shutters are also one of the most insulating coverings, with some having a 4.1 R Value that can reduce utility bills. They are durable, low maintenance and absolutely beautiful. Barrie homebuilder Pratt Homes has recently offered window-covering packages to all their purchasers, and shutters have certainly remained a popular choice.
Control light in an entirely ‘new’ way with silhouette, pirouette and luminette window shadings. These fantastic treatments allow warm, diffused light to enter the room while providing a softened outside view through sheer panels on the front and back. Soft sheer slats can be closed for privacy or left open to reduce glare.
Well-designed window treatments do much more than simply cover a window. Form and function are inseparable. Great window coverings are beautiful to live with, provide variable light control, insulate rooms against heat and cold, protect furnishings from damaging UV rays and most of all, frame and focus your view.