What do you have for window treatments?

Peri

We are doing a whole house window replacement and as part of that need to think about new window treatments. On the way out are 40 year old windows and the 40 year old aluminum mini-blinds that were all the rage in the 80s. On the way in, better windows, but for the rest, no idea!

I saw pictures of "zebra blinds" and thought they were just stuck on stripes, but now I've seen some IRL and the adjustment from half sheer to solid was so easy that I'm considering them. I'm also a little bit interested in wide wood blinds.

What do you have? Would you get the same thing again or change it? What are the pros and cons? What is the stylish window wearing these days?

The only goals I have are: 1) Easy to clean and 2) Able to fully close for privacy and blocking light. That's all I know so far. I've never been a fan of actual curtains because they are such fussy dust catchers.

3 weeks ago

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14 replies

Latest reply was from anchie

Staysfit

Veteran

I used Hunter Douglas’s horizontal Silhouette shades in my first house. They sound similar to the Zebra shades you describe.

The silhouettes shades did provide privacy. When toggled, a front sheer panel shifts to a lower position than a back sheer panel. This reorients the solid horizontal panels to a more vertical orientation enabling them to completely close, (similar to slat style blinds). The sheer panels are fairly transparent to the outside when the solid horizontal panels are open or angled, although the light is filtered and what you see is not crisp/crystal clear. The Silhouettes also rolled up like a window shade leaving the window bare when you wanted a crisp outdoor view. When closed the horizontal panels were translucent but did not block out enough light for bedroom use. Perhaps that has changed.

I loved their clean look and the filtered light from the shades was wonderful. They dampened sound like curtains. The mechanism was mostly good but I did have to get a couple repaired. They attracted dust. While I could vacuum the outsides of the shades it was not easy to get at the space between the sheer panels which lay open against the vertical aspect of the window frame. Despite my efforts (vacuum attachment, etc.) flys, spiders and dust would get trapped between the two sheer panels. The trapped insects would get smashed creating stains, etc. I lived with them for 5 years and they did not look as clean as when first installed and the vertical edges of the sheer panels were a bit ragged.

I chose not to put them in my current house mostly because they were hard to maintain/keep clean, and they did not blackout bedrooms. If the issues I experienced have been fixed in newer versions I would strongly consider them. I believe there are more suitable vacuum attachments that did not exist 25 years ago. Even so, vacuuming each open space would be fiddly. The wood slat blinds I chose instead of the Silhouettes in my current house still look amazing after 20 years and are easy to keep clean.

3 weeks ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

We don't have curtains. It does not work with our loft or Scandinavian home decor. Our blinds are custom-made for our living space, which is quite unique.

We live in a corner unit loft with 20 foot high ceilings. and the entire one corner - so two sides - is windows to showcase the view. We have binds for all those windows! They are a sheer black gauze to keep out the sun and glare, but not black-out blinds. You can still see the view when they are down. The top ones are electronic and the bottom ones are manual. They are awesome and we'd get the same again! They don't seem to gather dust. Hard to believe! We took them down before the remodel, and they weren't dusty. The remodel debris made them dusty, though.

We have the blinds down during the day when it's sunny. They are open at night. The outside lights do not prevent us from sleeping, and it's wonderful to wake up with the view. Our bedrooms and bathrooms are upstairs and private so no need to close them for that reason. We have the same types of blinds upstairs, which also stay open at night.

We lived in a Seattle craftsman before the loft and had wooden white blinds that were very adjustable. The white matched the white window frames. Hunter Douglas. We closed them at night for privacy. They were amazing and looked sooooo good! Excellent quality, and very solid. You could pull them all the way up if needed. Some of them got dusty, but were easy to clean. We'd get them again for that type of house. We did not have curtains.

Good luck, Peri! Hope you find just the right blinds

3 weeks ago

Peri

Veteran

Thanks Staysfit, you have confirmed some concerns I had about the Zebra shades and added more. I did think they might not be private enough but I hadn't thought about the issue of having to vacuum between layers. I'm ruling them out! The wood slat blinds are now in first place. How wide are yours?

Thanks Angie. Another vote for the wood slat blinds. I'd be going for white too. Our house has to be called "colonial" style so I don't think we can go for sheer black gauze, though that sounds amazing looking for a modern loft.

2 weeks ago

JAileen

Veteran

We have the aluminum mini blinds you hate, and also plantation shutters, both the same color as the walls. We have a big window in the front and wanted more mini blinds, but the span was too long. So we have these solid non wood shutters. We also have them in our bedroom. I like the look of them, and they block the afternoon heat well. They have also been very good with dogs. We had a problem with a dog (not Bob Barker or Mr Skunky) seeing dogs outside and getting angry and tossing the cushions around. The trainer suggested closing the lower part of the shutters and problem solved!

2 weeks ago

Carla

Veteran

DH and I have owned 3 very different homes, but they have all been distinguished by having beautiful trim around the windows.

Our first home had metal mini blinds - copper in the living/dining room, and white in the other rooms, with me-made curtains over. The mini blinds could be adjusted to diffuse or block the light, and the curtains (lined) would block any drafts from our old home’s original windows.

Our second home had deep set windows and gorgeous trim. It was spendy, but as we renovated we had wide slat white wooden blinds installed throughout. The only windows that received different treatment were the living room windows - which got custom floor to ceiling (10 ft) linen sheers and drapes. DH gasped at the price, but they amortized over 18 years - and were sold with the house. The windows were west (hot sun) and north facing and the floors were wood. The cloth drapes muted noise in a large room that echoed every sound (TV, instruments, voices) without them!

Our current home came with a combination of wide wooden blinds and wide slat plantation shutters on windows facing west, north, and east. We have windows facing south over a ravine/conservation area. These windows have cream coloured light diffusing roller blinds that match the trim. They stay up to reveal the view most of the time. During hot, sunny days -:we pull them down, otherwise the rooms (and house really heats up!) In the 12 years we’ve lived here, we haven’t replaced any window treatments, though I have had to repair hardware that became dried/cracked by the sun and broke. (A small, inexpensive fix - but fussy work.) I’m tempted to add drapes in the bedroom, because the wide wooden blinds don’t completely block out the light, and when we have a full moon, stripes of light hit my side of the bed - right across my face! I suppose I could wear a sleep mask, LOL!

There are lots of things to consider when shopping for window treatments, and they can be a big spend. We are considering replacing windows, and I will be building the price of replacing window covering into the budget.

Ask yourself:

Do I want privacy from passers by and neighbours?
Do I want to block or diffuse light?
Do I want to block drafts from leaky windows?
Do I want to make the room feel warm and cozy, or open up the space?
Do I want to embrace a view beyond the window, or create beauty within the room (highlight window trim, or use beautiful window coverings)?
How long will you be in this house? (It is common practice to leave the window coverings with the house, however you can take drapes that match furniture or bedding when you move - but must write it in the sale agreement. Often curtains or drapes don’t work with windows in new home, but they can be refashioned. ($$$)
Do I have budget considerations?

(Sorry about the novel! Can you tell I’m obsessed about window coverings?)

2 weeks ago

Staysfit

Veteran

Peri, I assume you are asking about the wood slat blinds? Most of my windows are about 3 feet wide, but I have wider windows in the bedrooms and the master bath, 4 and 5 feet wide.

2 weeks ago

Peri

Veteran

JAileen, I don't quite hate them but I'd like something easier to care for. These are hard to dust and the pulley systems keep getting stuck...possible just age.

Carla, those are great questions! I'm going to print this out and discuss them with the DH but I'm pretty sure we'll have the same answers. But...I can see having to add something extra to the bedroom as you said. Not quite blackout curtains, but I do like it dark at night. They'd have to be able to move out of the way in some fashion because I want light during the day.

Staysfit, no, I was asking about the width of the slats. My husband pointed out that they can't be wider than the depth of the window, so our options would be 1.5 to 2 inches.

2 weeks ago

Debbie

Veteran

I have wood slat blinds and love them. They have been up for over 30 years and still look great.

2 weeks ago

avicennia

Veteran

We have top and bottom cellular blinds in our little cottage and I love them. People can walk quite close to the house, so during the day I have bottom and top open to let light in for the plants and yet keep people from looking straight in. I was afraid they’d be hard to keep clean or that spiders would crawl in the cells, but it hasn’t been an issue.

2 weeks ago

Suz

(website)

Veteran

I'm very late here....but we have Silhouette blinds in our dining room/ sitting room, and they work brilliantly there -- no issues and no problem with upkeep/ dust, either .We had them for more than a decade in our previous house, too. Also had no problem, and we love them. They offer some privacy but still allow light in. We usually have them all the way up during the day except for one window that overlooks our neighbour's house (we don't like that view). Our other views are of the ravine in back -- all trees, so unless it is very hot we like the light and the atmosphere.

We have wooden slat blinds in our living room in white. We are getting the same in our bedroom to replace the ancient metal Venetian blinds which came with the house. I considered blackout blinds there, because I could use them (same issue as Carla!) but we are planning to leave this house in a few years and the slatted blinds were more consistent with the rest of the house, less money, and also, the slatted blinds allow us to adjust the angle of the sun during the day, so they won out.

2 weeks ago

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Another fan of no-curtains here! Our aesthetic in our home is more modern anyway, but I was happy to leave curtains behind when we moved here. We tore down the big 80s-era gold fabric window treatments the previous owners had in the bedroom and never looked back!

We had wooden blinds for the office/guest room in our old house and they’re still there and work well (I sold the house two years ago but drove by recently and they’re still up after 25 years!). They were a little bit of a PITA to dust though, and the cords were problematic. I do not like any blinds with cords anymore. And I stopped getting aluminum blinds many years ago when I had a cat who would squeeze through them to sit in the window so the slats would bend and break. LOL

In our current home, a contemporary post-and-beam with lots of windows, about half of the windows have no coverings — the ones in our living room and den. We back up to the woods so privacy is not an issue there.

We have Lutron motorized shades in our new kitchen and also added those to the dining room and our bedroom. They can be chosen in various thicknesses for more or less light blocking. It was not cheap but it’s nice to adjust multiple shades at the touch of a button, and they are very clean and modern looking, which is the look we wanted. We chose a thickness that is not very light blocking since these are for rooms that don’t require darkness for sleeping.

When we renovated my office and guest room after our house fire a couple of years ago, we updated the shades in those rooms to Hunter Douglas honeycomb shades with a bit more light blocking ability. They are cordless and open from top or bottom and work very well.

Our house had some very old honeycomb shades from about 1990 and they did well for years until the dogs ripped one (in the foyer next to the front door) and one in our bathroom wore out and tore. They looked pretty good until near their end so I’d say they are nice for at least a couple of decades, although an occasional insect would get trapped inside.

Pics 1-2 Lutron shades in dining room atrium and kitchen
Pic 3 Hunter Douglas shades in my office

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2 weeks ago

Helena

Veteran

We have shutters on the front on the house and sheer coverings on the back. The back is actually where our living space is, so we try to maximize the light in the north facing space. I would love to refresh the back but it's so expensive! We have the challenge that our back neighbours are close, otherwise I'd be on team minimal window coverings! Good luck with it, it's one of the hardest parts of home decor I think!

1 week ago

elpgal

Veteran

Not sure where you are but we had a consultant mock up some options and bring us samples. We went with cordless Hunter Douglas shades. They were easy to install ourselves.

5 days ago

anchie

Veteran

We live in an apartment and have huge floor to ceiling windows so privacy is very important. We have external metal electric blinds that provide full blackout and privacy but being external they get dirty easily and are pain to clean. We are on the first floor (i think considered second in US - it is not ground floor) so impossible to access from outside. I am already dreading cleaning them this spring.

4 days ago

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