“Roller shades and honeycomb shades are unfashionable, aren’t they?” Absolutely not! But I’ve heard this before, and today I’m telling you exactly what I tell our clients — how, when, and why to use the many varieties of window shades in your home in order to create a timeless and on-trend look that elevates your space.
Window shades, roller shades, solar shades, screen shades, Roman shades, transitional shades, woven wood shades, exterior shades, motorized shades — so many names, so many styles, so much information. How can you possibly know which kind of window shade is the right solution for you? Well, we’re here to help.
Finding the right window treatments isn’t just about beauty. They also need to fit with your existing decor, work for your family, and last a long time.
Sometimes this might mean floor to ceiling draperies, and other times it might mean light and airy shades.
No matter the situation, my latest blog post is sharing my best advice for finding and evaluating window shades that will help create a timeless look that functions well and looks fabulous.
Let’s take a look at 5 window shade options that are gaining popularity for their ease of use, simple beauty, and versatility in the home…
Option #1: Warm, Charming, Natural Woven Wood Shades
Add warmth and character to your space with materials that pay homage to unique textures found in nature. Beautiful, custom woven wood shades are the perfect choice to create a casual, yet elegant, ambiance throughout your home.
Made from hand-selected fibers of bamboos, grass, rattan, reeds, jute, and wood, woven wood shades are sure to give your room a charming, natural look and feel. We love woven wood shades, and you should to! Here are just a few reasons why:
1) Versatile Applications
Woven wood shades are incredibly versatile and lend themselves to many design styles. They come in many price points to work within your budget. Woven wood shades are available in an extensive array of patterns and shades to fit your needs. Roman and roller styles, woven-to-size or cut to size, as well as both manual operation and motorized operation.
2) Privacy and Light Control
Woven wood window coverings also offer flexibility in terms of privacy and light control. Depending on the materials used and the tightness of the weave, some patterns may be sheer while other patterns are opaque.
Sheer woven wood shades allow light to flow beautifully into a room, while still reducing glare and energy loss. On the other hand, patterns that are more tightly and densely woven offer more privacy and light control. For the highest degree of light control, you can add a privacy liner to make the treatment a blackout shade.
3) Seamless Style
There is no doubt that woven wood shades offer a unique look that you just can’t get with any other window treatment. Give modern and contemporary interiors an exquisite natural texture. Or, create a more comfortable and relaxed atmosphere in casual and traditional homes.
Living in our hyper-connected digital age, we spend less time outdoors soaking in nature’s healing qualities than we should. However, by designing interior spaces using organic hand-made furnishings, we can replicate the health benefits offered by nature and improve our well-being.
At Beautiful by Design Interiors, we carry woven wood lines that have pledged to use only sustainable fibers — each rapidly-renewable and grown in well-managed ecosystems. So, you can easily incorporate the organic beauty of nature into your home with woven wood shades…and feel good about it!
Option #2: Radiant, Versatile, Custom Roman Shades
Roman shades are currently the single most popular window treatment in the interior design field today. Why? Simply put, Roman shades truly can be adapted for any room in your home. They enhance nearly every style of home décor, too.
Beautiful by Design creates custom Roman shades for any type of window to add style to your interior design. We offer a variety of styles of Roman shades including flat Roman shades, relaxed Roman shades, pleated Roman shades, top-down-bottom-up Roman shades, and many more. Plus, they can be paired with colorful draperies.
Our Process
Once we have helped you narrow down the style, fabric, and trim for your Roman shades, we will guide you in choosing the proper lining and operation method. We offer standard cord lock, continuous clutch control, cordless operation, and motorization.
Our team can design custom Roman shades in a variety of styles and an infinite variety of materials. A huge plus with Roman shades is that — through the use of tape trims, accent banding, and pre-made cord trim — we can design Roman shades that are unique to your personal design style and to the feeling you want to express in your home.
Whether you are looking for breezy, linen Roman shades that evoke the casual, upscale feeling of a Malibu beach house…or you prefer lovely silk Roman shades elegantly adorned with decorative trim for your luxurious master suite, we are here to assist you at every step of the way.
Option #3: Helpful, Simple, Affordable Honeycomb Shades
Honeycomb shades offer unsurpassed energy savings all year round and add a softness to any window treatment. We often pair a honeycomb shade with a decorative valance to enhance the design of the window treatment. Plus, the stain-resistant, wrinkle-resistant, and easy-to-clean fabrics practically take care of themselves.
Honeycomb shades are formed into honeycomb-shaped cells that trap hot and cold air from escaping through windows. This makes your home more energy efficient. The insulating qualities maximize your home’s energy efficiency, especially with cellular shades featuring double cells.
They come in six distinct cell styles, an array of fabrics, and opacities that include sheer, semi-sheer, semi-opaque, and blackout — so you control the light, not the other way around.
Honeycomb shades are my go-to for a simplistic, budget-friendly shade option. They also work wonderfully for windows that need a low-profile stacking headrail. Honeycomb shades are known for being tailored, energy efficient, and infinitely customizable. That’s about as cool as it gets!
Option #4: Reliable, User-Friendly, Elegant Roller Shades
When it comes to shades, roller shades are the second most popular shades requested. They are a wonderful addition to any home and offer many great benefits. Let’s take a look at 4 of the top reasons to consider adding roller shades to your home:
1) Cost-Effective
One of the biggest advantages of roller shades, over other types of window coverings, is the fact that you can use them to decorate your home without lightening your wallet. Drapery can use a lot of fabric, and using more fabric means spending more money.
The installation of standard blinds can also be an expensive endeavor, but roller shades are so buyer-friendly because of their simple design. They are commonly constructed from a single piece of fabric along with the rolling mechanism. These shades are light and colorful, but they won’t break the bank.
2) Available in Elegant Designs
The sky’s the limit to the many choices of designs you can have on your personal roller shades. Your design options include everything from solid colors to floral prints, and the benefits are two-fold. When the shade is closed, you not only block out excessive sunlight, but you also get a lovely pattern to decorate your home.
3) Automation and Motorization
Another fantastic benefit of roller shades is that the user has the option to have them motorized for ease of use. This function is especially important for high windows or for windows in the homes of users who may not have the ability to reach the raising mechanism.
Automation and motorization capabilities can be added as well. This gives users the opportunity to open or close the shades from a distance. Meaning they even have the ability to close the shades in one room from the comfort of another.
This kind of functionality can work especially well in an “Internet of Things” connected home. If you want to open or close shades on a schedule or be able to control them when you’re away on vacation, this technology adds a whole new level of privacy and even security to your windows.
4) Versatile
Not only do these incredible shades work on almost any size window, but they also look great in any room. The variety of shapes and sizes that roller shades are available in makes installation in everything from the patio door to the bathroom window a breeze. Add in the ease of use and elegant designs available with roller shades, and it’s easy to see why they are such a convenient and popular choice in homes.
Option #5: Sophisticated, Pretty, Sheer Pleated Shades
Imagine blending the beauty and softness of a sheer with the function and convenience of a blind. How genius is that?
Pleated shades and sheer shades add structure and depth while beautifully filtering light and offering the privacy you desire. Their crisp folds and fashion-inspired looks give your space a truly sophisticated style. Translucent and light-dimming fabrics are blended with a sheer or mesh fabric. This provides varying opacity levels depending on your fabric choice.
There are many other benefits to pleated shades as well. They disappear inside the headrail when raised for an unencumbered outdoor view. When lowered, the magnificent outdoors remains in sight with no distracting lift cords.
Pleated shades can help maximize your privacy. During the day, you can see out, but no one can see in. Plus, they soften the harsh sunlight by using fabric vanes suspended between two sheer panels that can tilt to brighten up or dim down your environment. At night, close the vanes and voila…privacy assured.
Pleated shades work wonderfully for larger windows and doors and can be made up to 120 inches wide. There are three vane sizes available to suit the scale of your windows.
And if you are contemplating adding a skylight…these are a great alternative. They are less hassle, less expensive, and just as effective. The unique s-shaped vanes capture more light than other types of shades. This results in the treatments illuminating a magically even glow deep within your room.
Shades offer endless options and tout some incredible benefits. They are versatile, family-friendly, and are a beautiful window treatment option that will surely elevate the look of your space.
If you need a professional eye on your windows for maximum beauty, be sure to reach out to us — we’d love to meet you! From customizing the perfect shades to match your style, to a hassle-free approach of selecting roller and honeycomb shade fabrics, our team is help you every step of the way.
Warmly,
Jessica
