Madison Lane is attending Hunter Douglas continuing education

We won't be in the shop this Thursday!   Every year our primary vendor for blinds and shades, Lafayette Interior Fashions offers a day of continuing education for their products and Hunter Douglas products.  The company actually listens to the customer, and continually updates/improves/changes their product line.  We want to know all of these changes, whether it's just a small bracket or a completely new headrail.  Every window is different and  knowing how the shade or blind will be installed is part of getting the customer what they want and need.  On the fashion side, we also need to see the newest colors and fabrics available for each product. 

Here's some of our most popular products from Hunter Douglas:

Nantucket Window shades

 

Featuring fabric vanes suspended between two
sheer fabric facings, Nantucket™ window
shadings transform natural light entering a room
into a warm glow while also blocking harmful UV
rays. When raised, the shadings disappear into
the headrail for an unobstructed view and are
available in a wide selection of casual fabrics.

Vignette Roman Shades

Vignette® Modern Roman Shades offer fresh,
contemporary fabrics and colors in a wide
selection of fold sizes, styles and design options
to dress almost any window you can imagine.
Vignette shades roll up or stack and they
traverse side to side to cover wide windows and
doors. All options are made from the same
stunning fabrics for ultimate coordination and
child safety.

Duette Shades

The Duette® Architella® Honeycomb Shade
Collection provides a high level of energy
efficiency with its innovative honeycomb-withina-
honeycomb design, reducing energy loss up
to 50% at the window. New to Architella is the
revolutionary IllumiCell™ - a clear inner cell that
offers superior light transmission with the same
energy savings as a fabric inner cell.

Silhouette Window Shades

Featuring the Signature S-Vane™, Silhouette®
window shadings transform sunlight into
remarkable beauty. Suspended between two
sheers, the fabric vanes offer precise lighting
control. When fully raised, Silhouette shadings
disappear into the fabric-covered headrail.
Available in 2", 3" and the Quartette® 4" vane
size.

Be sure to visit the Hunter Douglas website for additional information and more pictures of their products.

Window treatments for transom windows

 Transom windows are often left untreated, or dressed with panels.  As beautiful as they are, many questions are raised when it's time to add something for privacy and light control.  The crosspiece inside the window makes installing the shade (Hunter Douglas Vignette) at the top of the window impossible.  Leaving the top open is not a bad look in the daytime, but at night a transom can become a dark hole in the wall, and in the morning, it can pose a real problem for sleeping past 6:00 am.

Our client, Doris, has a more contemporary decorating style, and anything too fussy just wasn't going to work in her house.  We liked the thought of a box pleated valance, but it needed to have some depth, so by using more pleats, the treatment is not as flat as it would have been with fewer pleats.  The picture below is a computer rendering of the proposed solution:

 

Here's a closeup of the finished treatment:

 

We had a grouping of the same windows in the breakfast area.  The view of the sky is lovely, but that morning sun wasn't so great every morning.  It wasn't as important as the bedroom sun, but blocking some of it would help. We decided on a pennant style valance, with blackout lining and trimmed out in a dark brown cording to blend with the cabinetry.  It's not visible on this picture, but it's the details that make the difference when doing such a simple design.

Even the smallest amount of fabric can add just enough color and texture to your windows. We can help you decide on the proportions, color, texture and style for your room.