What Are Hard Window Treatments?

In the world of window coverings, hard window treatments are beauty and brains. Decorative yet functional, elegant yet authoritative, hard window treatments offer custom-controlled light management in sleek or statement-making designs. Unlike soft window treatments like curtains and drapes (covered in last month’s blog), hard window coverings, including blinds, shutters, shades, and cornices, are made of durable materials such as wood, metal, or composites. Customization ensures an exact fit, allowing for superior insulation, enhanced light control, and exceptional privacy for smooth operation and an expertly finished look.

Blinds

Blinds have come a long way from the flimsy plastic slats of decades past. Featuring tilting slats made of materials like wood, faux wood, and vinyl that adjust to control light and privacy, today’s blinds provide natural beauty, durability, and versatility ideal for many homes. Blinds work wonders in living spaces, offices, bedrooms, and beyond. Their clean, linear design balances both traditional and contemporary architecture. Whatever your personal preference, we help select premium blind materials and features like cordless lifts to match perfectly. Beyond looks, precise custom sizing ensures blinds fit properly to tilt, raise, and lower easily without sticking or gaping. 

Shutters

Similar to blinds in function, shutters are a sturdier, customizable version with movable louvers made of materials including hardwood, composite, and vinyl. These sophisticated, durable, and low-maintenance window treatments provide enhanced privacy and light control, and custom fabrications ensure a perfect fit. Hardwood shutters display elegant, natural wood grain textures and colors that are lovely in living spaces, whereas moisture-resistant vinyl shutters resist warping and yellowing, making them ideal for coastal climates. For versatility, faux wood composite shutters mimic the beauty of hardwoods while withstanding humidity and wear-and-tear, producing an optimal product for any space, but are well suited for laundry rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens.

Roller Shades

Roller shades have clean lines and a sleek, minimalist aesthetic that looks great in any window. Installed inside the window frame for a smooth, built-in appearance, roller shades neatly roll and unroll from the top down, enabling maximum enjoyment of outside views when opened and diffused light or full privacy (depending on material choice) when closed. A slim cassette housing discreetly contains cords, spring mechanisms, or remote controls for raising and lowering with ease.

Woven Wood Shades

Woven wood shades are natural window treatments, offering a relaxed look, varied textures, and warm, neutral tones complimentary of coastal residences, sunrooms, and dens, matching both casual and contemporary styles. Easy to clean and available in both corded and cordless options, these window coverings are made by weaving together thin strips of bamboo, grass, or other natural fibers. The resulting fabric features a tight horizontal lattice-like construction that filters light through small openings in the weft.

Fabric Shades

Fabric shades offer a more delicate hard window covering solution with an extra dose of insulation and light diffusion. Cellular shades, honeycomb shades, and pleated shades utilize unique material construction to trap air, moderate UV rays, and transfer heat and cold better than standard blinds or shades. Cellular and honeycomb shades take their names from the stacks of hollow fabric cells (sometimes honeycomb shaped) running horizontally across window expenses in order to filter and gently diffuse incoming rays into ambient illumination. Available in a range of opacities, these shades are a wonderful choice in sleeping spaces.

Cornices

A cornice is a distinctive hard window treatment that adds architectural interest, crowning the window while concealing hardware. Unlike soft, flowing valances, cornices feature a wooden frame that is often upholstered. This construction and crisp tailoring spotlights ornate patterns and colors, dressing the window and adding a focal point to any room. Custom-sized for a flawless fit, cornices can integrate any shape and size, providing a classic look on their own in kitchens or above doors, or will complete a look when layered with draperies, shades, or blinds.

Hard window treatments like blinds, shutters, shades, and cornices perform wonderfully on their own, but can finish a polished, custom interior design when layered with soft window treatments like Roman shades, drapes, or valances. The team at Designer Draperies enjoys collaborating one-on-one with homeowners and interior designers to find the style that suits your windows best, and can help you design the perfect custom window treatment solutions for your needs and style. Our full-service support handles everything from conception to final installation, ensuring that every phase of the project is managed with expertise and absolute attention. 

Distinctive style starts at Designer Draperies. Schedule your appointment today.