Open or closed curtains or shades are part of the home decor. As soon as night falls, they bring a warmer, softer texture to a small window, or even to large bay windows.

The importance of shading windows

When you have large bay windows it is indispensable to be able to keep prying looks away and provide some privacy for people in the house. By their sheer size bay windows also bring in large amount of natural sunlight that you must sometime filter for your own comfort and for protecting furniture or rugs that could fade with too much light.

Even when you do not close the shades they provide a decorative element to the room. This is particularly true of Roman shades. with their beautiful pleated look when open.

You can certainly shade your windows with traditional curtains, but curtains are not always adaptable to every window. It is often easier to fit a shade than it is a curtain, for example if you have a slanted window only a shade will be able to cover it beautifully.

Today’s shades come in several materials, from fabrics to vinyl, to bamboo and even wood. You can buy shades that are one color (any color you want) or you can selected prints. It is even possible to buy shades that you decorate yourself before installing them, like the temporary paper blinds by Redi Shade®. These paper blinds are very inexpensive but are of a very good quality and value. Do not let the word paper fool you.

While as I said all colors are available for shades, you may have to go to a specialty store to find the exact color you need. Department stores and building supply stores are less likely to carry the very large variety that specialists do. Choosing your color is important and should be done in function of the room. If your room already has all the vibrant colors it needs then you should keep your windows neutral. On the other hand if your walls, floors and furniture are more muted you might make your windows covering sharp and stimulating with bright colors.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 14th, 2010 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Buying Guides, Window Coverings.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.