The Ups and Downs of Window Treatments

   

“WHAT YOU NEED TO CONSIDER WHEN

CHOOSING WINDOW TREATMENTS”

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One of the very first things we have to think about when we move in to our new home are the window coverings.

When it comes to window treatments I am a no nonsense kind of gal. 

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Basically I would have nothing on my windows if I did not need privacy at night, and some light control from the hot sun during the day. I like an open window policy.

For some I know this would be like living in a fish bowl, but for me it is light, bright and airy, all of the things that I require in my home.

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However we have to be practical don’t we? 

So this is me being practical……..

Our new home’s walls are covered in windows. I have three walls in my great room, two walls are covered in a bank of three windows each, and the other wall has a fireplace, and an entertainment niche. 

There is basically no wall space in there to speak of. I love the idea of all the windows, however it leads me down the path of the dreaded window treatment decision, (insert scary music here ♪♫♪)

Here is a picture of what our windows will  look like in the kitchen and great room at the new house. You will have to visualize white walls and wood floors………

“Just look at all of that light! It is going to be great!!!” She says, until she realizes she has to cover the windows with some kind of window treatment!

The way our lot sits we will get afternoon sun on the back three windows at a slight angle. 

It is actually the same exposure we had in our previous home so I do have an advantage of knowing what my needs are.

In our previous home we had a large slider with 2 in. white wood blinds….

My daily routine was to open up the blinds, and the slider and they stayed up, and open until about 2:30 –3:00 during the hot summer months, and then I would close them to keep the sun off of the hardwood floors, and also to keep the room cooler. 

You will notice my hubby built a cornice board above the two blinds. 

I could pull the blinds up into the cornice and they would disappear. Insert: Happy girl!

Now I have the light, bright, airy, nice big wide open window that I crave!!!

So this brings me to function and design. When thinking along these lines, think of your needs first…..

MY NEEDS:

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• Open windows for air and light.

• Covered windows for privacy at night and sun protection.

• Slightly open or tilted to let in some light but able to direct the sun upward away from hardwood flooring. ( I might do this for 2 hours of each day.)

• Inside casing treatment in order for window framework to show.

Of course each room has it’s own needs as far as privacy. Such as a bedroom, or bathroom will need the option for complete privacy throughout the day, and night. I will talk about that later. 

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Today we are discussing the main living area of the home.

Next you need to think about the overall feel and look you want your home to have…

STYLE/LOOK:

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• Nantucket, classic, casual, coastal vibe.

• Open, airy, light filled rooms.

 

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The windows will have molding added to them to beef up the windows a bit. 

Something similar to this:

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Since we are going to trim out the windows I will be needing an inside casing treatment.

Now that I have my needs, style, and application narrowed down, it is time to look at some options.

Option #1: Plantation shutters…

Upside:

The beauty of plantation shutters is, just that, they are beautiful. They let in light when tilted open and they look really nice.

Downside for me personally:

See the frame around the actual shutter, well that pretty frame/rails will cut into the light coming in. 

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Basically you will lose a certain portion of your window surface. It will vary somewhat according to which company or style of shutter you purchase.

On an average you can figure about 3in. per side , so you will lose approximately 6in. top and bottom and another 6in. for the sides.

If your windows are large enough and you do not mind losing some of the light that will filter into your room, this is a wonderful option.

Since my needs are to be able to have wide open windows in the Great room plantation shutters would not be the best option for my wants.

As far as the style, look and feel go, they would look beautiful.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD!

Next shall we look at:

OPTION #2, 2IN. BLINDS….. 

Upside:

More economical and budget friendly.

Can be up or down and tilted to direct the light.

Downside:

Stack-up!! (this is an important word to remember)

Knowing how much a window treatment stacks-up, or stacks-back if it is a curtain is a very important consideration.

You will need to allow room for your stack-ups, or stack-backs,if you choose draperies, and remember when doing an inside mount treatment that will mean the stack-up will always cover your window permanently when it is drawn up.

Here is a very helpful chart to figure out what the stack-up would be for wood blinds….

You can see that for most windows it ranges from about 6in. to 10in. the other thing to consider, do you like the look of stacked up wood blinds?

I personally do not like the look of a stacked up blind, so when I use them I usually have a cornice made to hide the stacked up blind so it disappears as I did in my last home.

Since we plan on having some nice molding around our windows these will not work in my Great room area.

Next Option!

Roman Shades:

There is a lot to consider when choosing a roman shade, first what type of material do you want to use, and what color family will you need to accent your room.

I will not go into the many, many options that are out there, but today I do want to talk about the mechanics, and the look that a roman shade will give you.

The other thing to consider is the stack-up as I spoke about with the wood blinds. Here is a helpful chart for the stack –up of roman shade.

As you can see most stack ups for either type of fold will be 7-9 in.  You also have to consider, do you like the look of a stacked up roman shade.

Personally I do, they look finished and neat and tidy.

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UPSIDE:

With a roman shade I will get an open airy look, privacy, and light control when needed, and it is a perfect look for a Nantucket/Coastal look when done in a textural fabric such as linen, or a type of bamboo, or matchstick blind.

DOWNSIDE:

Keep in mind they are either up or down. Since I only needed the tilting option for about 2 hours a day, I am willing to compromise on this one need for the overall look and functionality of a roman shade for my room.

DECISION FOR MY GREAT ROOM:

Until I am actually living in the home, nothing is ever certain, but as of right now, I am leaning towards Roman shades in a lighter value color than my hardwood floor, but something with texture and warmth.

Soon I will do a post on what I am leaning towards with pictures to show you the direction I will most likely be going. I definitely have a plan in mind.

UPDATE ON OUR NEW BUILD HOME!

This was on Tuesday!!

This was on Friday!

We now have framing! Look at my pretty lamp post! That pretty lamp post is one of the reasons we chose this lot, I love it's charm.

So now we own some dirt, metal thingys, cement and wood! To say we were excited when we turned the corner and saw this is an understatement. 

 

 

Another Design Choice Has Been Made!

 

The process of building a new home is in full swing now. 

We had our first meeting with our building manager on Tuesday. He explained how the new building process works. Boy, have things changed since 1978!!

They run this operation like a fine tuned machine. On Tuesday we got lucky, and we were there as they were pouring our foundation. 

Best part! I got to wear a hard hat!!

I was so relieved that it was blue and not orange.( I am totally serious about this) That would have totally clashed with my dress, plus orange is just NOT my color!!

Luckily I had some old tennis shoes that I keep in the trunk to wear if we just happen to go to the beach so off went my cute madras plaid flip-flops, and on went my grungy tennis shoes.

Lots of very important discussions were going on here!

A huge crane like  mechanism delivered the cement to the hard working cement workers.

We both were very excited about seeing all of this start to happen. So now we own some dirt, some metal rod thingys, and some cement!! We are on our way!!!!

I think I need a job where I get to wear a hard hat once in awhile!! Just kidding!!

Speaking of our new home another decision process has happened. 

We picked out our flooring!

I have learned something in my life, “Once you have hardwood floors there is no turning back!”

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As you all saw in my previous post we chose the countertops…

This is a quartz product by Arizona tile called Lyskamm.

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The cabinetry has been chosen……….

A classic door style with an inset panel with bead detail.

Basically it will be an all white kitchen since I will probably use a white subway tile as my backsplash.

Since it is so much white I knew before ever going into the meeting that I liked white kitchens with a darker floor to ground the room, rather  than the color of flooring I had in my last home which was white oak, in a clear finish and 3in wide planks.

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In our new home I want to have a bit more of a casual relaxed look, and I think the flooring can help me achieve this goal.

I want to have a somewhat Traditional coastal feel, think of a Nantucket look, and that pretty much nails where I am headed. 

You will probably hear me refer to the look of my new home as Nantucket style, even though we are surrounded by olive trees, and grape vineyards. I am just a coastal gal at heart!

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With all of this information in my brain the flooring was the easiest of decisions, pretty much a slam dunk.

We chose hickory in a medium value stain. It has some texture to the grain, including some knots. The planks vary in size from 4in., 5in., and 6in., and the lengths vary in lengths from 1.3 ft- 5 ft planks. 

It has so much character, and will give some texture to our home, plus be casual, and easy to maintain. 

Best of both worlds.

This is a vignette of my flooring, quartz, and cabinet doors.

Another choice checked off!

Next bathroom finishes!!!

 

 

We Made Our Kitchen Cabinet Choice

 

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Over a year ago I started a Next House pinboard, just for fun. I figured we would move someday,  we just did not know when. 

I thought it would be fun to explore what I might do in A NEXT HOUSE! Little did I know I would be accessing it this soon.

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I am so glad I made that board because it really did help me zero in on some of the quick design choices I had to make for our new home. 

Pinterest, or saved clippings of what you truly love is a valuable resource when it comes time to zeroing in on a style, or color choice for your home.

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If you line your images up you will see a pattern start to form, there will be repeats of colors and styles. This will be your clue to what direction you will be able to live with long term.

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I already shared our countertop choice. The reason I started with the counter top is it was the main star of that part of the room, and I knew that every other design choice would hinge on the style, and color of our counter top. 

Something to keep in mind when making design decisions….

…..I think it is a good idea to choose the least available element first. I knew I would be limited on my choices  for the counter top due to the color, and feel I wanted, and also I was limited by the builders offerings.

Lyskamm, quartz by Arizona Tile.

So many people want to start with a paint color because it is a fast quick fix, but that is not the best approach in design. 

There are limitless colors of paint, or you can have a custom mix made, but something like a rug, or in my case, a counter top will be more limited in choices.

As I wrote in my post about the counter top choice,  I needed something light and bright with a bit of movement due to the size of my kitchen island which is over 9ft long and almost 4 ft. in depth. 

At one point I considered a white on white, without movement until I saw the huge helipad of an island.

This is a model of my kitchen, but my personal kitchen is going to look different. The layout is the same but the materials and paint color I chose are quite different.

You can see how it looks into the great room, This is what I loved the most about the model we chose.

Let me show you some of the images from my  Pinterest board, “Next House board,” so you can get a pulse of the direction I tend to like.

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My heart almost stopped when I saw this kitchen. I know the island being a different color than the perimeter cabinet is a trend, and one that will not be here forever, however I really love this idea, and thought I would do just this very kitchen color combination going into the design meeting.

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I went back, and forth in my mind on whether I wanted to take a risk doing something that would look dated in the near future, or just go for it.

Well my decision was made for me by my friend Mr. Budget. In order to have the island painted a different color was just going to be too costly, and our budget would not allow for that. 

We had priorities of MUST HAVES, and those had to  be met before a WANT. So in comes the all white kitchen!!!

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To be honest when I looked at my kitchen boards they were mostly all white kitchens. I had even debated on painting my  green cabinets to white in our last home when we did the reno, but after thinking long and hard, I knew for that particular home the green cabinets were perfect.

Now I had the opportunity to do something different for me and it still felt classic enough to have staying power even though I know white kitchens have been done to death it is still a favorite look of mine.

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I toyed with the idea of black counters, and was drawn to images of such kitchens. I played with the idea for an entire day, looking and pinning kitchens with white cupboards and black counter tops. 

At the end of the day, I realized I tired of the all black counter tops for my own personal home. I still love them and think they make a gorgeous kitchen.

I am going to show you the image of my kitchen design once again so I can explain the changes that we made in the design.

First visualize white walls and white cabinetry with the Quartz counter tops! Are you ready!

Let’s start with the back of the island. This was one of the main elements I wanted  changed. We will have panels that will go with the door fronts we chose, so it will be painted panels of wood.

(this is the actual door front we chose)

The upper cabinets will not be in an up and down configuration and the space above the cabinets will be less.  Our ceiling height is 10 ft. The uppers will be 42in. instead of standard 32, they will also have a larger crown above them 7 in. instead of the smaller 3 1/2 in.

( here it is in wood. I think you can see the detailing better in this image. It is simple and classic)

The two cupboards flanking the stove hood will have glass doors. I am really excited about these changes.

We chose the standard simple mushroom nickel knobs and will change those out in the future according to the design direction I go.

I hope you can visualize for now! WE only have to wait 5 more months to see it all come to fruition.