RAISING THE CURTAIN ON THE LATEST BLINDS AND SHADES

By Diane White McNaughton

It seems to be curtains for your grandmother’s heavy fabric draperies and sheers. Designers are also throwing shade at your grandmother’s old crooked shades and yellowed mini-blinds.

Today’s window fashions are cleaner, more convenient, and more high-tech than ever. Just the thing to shine a light on your lockdown life when COVID-19 has made homeowners searching for the sanitary and weary of their four walls.

Many quarantining midstaters are craving beauty, sunlight, smart technology, ultra-cleanliness and control. Fashionably dressed windows are an easy, economical way to help lift spirits and lower exposure to germs.

“We have been extremely busy. We’ve been open for years, and this is the busiest we’ve ever been,” says Nicole Criswell, Showroom Manager for L & L Window Fashions in Swatara Township, which sells Hunter Douglas products exclusively.

Mark and Beth Toto, a husband-and-wife team operating Budget Blinds of the Susquehanna Valley, in Lower Paxton Township have also witnessed an unprecedented uptick in interest in new window décor, along with home re-decorating overall.

Mark says many homeowners right now are craving new surroundings. They want blinds with an anti-static finish so they don’t collect dust, and Micro-ban so they don’t collect mold, spores and other allergens. That vacation budget has been re-purposed to redecorating costs.

COVID-19 has “given many people the motivation to refresh and renew their window treatments,” Mark says --“start fresh and clean.”

Mark, who calls himself the “Chief Encouragement Officer” for his wife Beth, says when they bought the franchise, they were told that homeowners change their window coverings about every five years. While they suspected that that prediction may be overly optimistic, it has turned out to be true. In fact, COVID-19 has accelerated that timetable.

Beth views window fashions much like she does the preparations for an elegant formal affair. You buy the gown and the heels, you take pains with your hair and make-up. The crowning touch: jewelry to bling up your look.

Blinds and shades are today’s primary choice of window jewelry: it gives the rooms a "'clean, streamlined look,” Criswell agrees.

According to reports from Blinds.com, shutters are the fastestgrowing category in blind products. Curtains or drapes can soften the look of shutters. Two-inch wood blinds can achieve the shutter look without the hefty price tag.

In more traditional homes, pinch pleat, box pleat and pencil pleat curtains may still be the best decor options.

But now, roller and solar shades are all the rage, especially cordless shades and shades made from natural woven fibers, such as bamboo. The natural, neutral color of the shades paired with a white curtain are perfect for the modern farmhouse look. Blinds are also available in a variety of materials and styles, such as the wood, faux wood with embossed colors that look like real wood, and vinyl. Blinds can also be horizontal or vertical and corded, cordless, or motorized.

The faux wood blind is currently very popular, with homeowners often choosing a color to match the trim on the window, often white, Criswell says. Many customers also match their countertops.

Another new trend: motorized products. When hightech, remote-controlled products first debuted on the market, some people avoided it for fear it would just be another thing that could break in the home, the Totos says. But now, the science has been perfected. Homeowners can connect their blinds to their Wifi, which can be controlled from a smartphone or tablet. Criswell says you can tie your blinds in to Alexa or your Google device and issue voice commands for your shades.

Many shades now have lithium rechargeable batteries. When they are charged, they are good for a year, Mark says.

You never have to charge them again if you have a solar charger. “They are economical and incredible,” Mark says. “You can tell Siri or Alexa to put your shades down.”

Phone-driven apps can set the scenes, in keeping with today’s Smarthome technology. For example, you may want the shades in your kids’ bedrooms to go up at 6:30 am on school days, but not on Saturday so they can sleep in.

They are not only flexible, convenient, and energy-efficient; they can help ensure safety. A potential burglar may think you are home if the blinds are going up and down.

The industry changed a few years ago, the Totos say when the

Window Council of America and manufacturers self-policed and made safer cords, which were not only unsightly, but a choking hazard for children and pets.

The Exact lift, for example, is a cordless honeycomb shade. If it is up, if stays up. You don’t have to keep tugging.

Honeycomb shades come in a range of fabrics, colors and textures and can reduce the loss of heat through windows by up to 40 percent in the winter. In the summer, they can reduce unwanted solar heat through the window by up to 80 percent.

Hunter Douglas also has a line of environmentally responsible blinds, made from recycled ocean plastic. The company is part of a program that has already reclaimed more than 30 tons of plastic waste that has washed ashore.

The GreenScreen Sea-Tex screen shade fabric provides privacy, UV protection, glare control, and view-through, all while filtering sunlight.

Color schemes are changing in synch with these styles, too.

Criswell and Beth Toto both says gray has been a popular color for the past few years, but its popularity is waning. Taupe, in shades like linen, parchment, ecru, eggshell, and alabaster, is also in high demand right now.

She says Hunter Douglas’s spring launch was delayed to summer, but many of those fabrics are sporting brown tones.

Pantone’s Color of the Year was Classic Blue, and Toto says she has been seeing some blue, but in the end, it’s all what the client wants.

“Usually my recommendation is to complement the décor that is already there.”

“I like to jazz it up, but it’s all about the client’s taste,” says Beth, whose company sells Hunter Douglas and 11 other manufacturers.

Many clients choose neutrals because five years down the road, they don’t want to buy new furniture or repaint based on their window shades.

Criswell says her business is split evenly between blinds and shades.

“It’s a clean look. People want simple operation, simple cleaning,” Criswell says. “They are very easy to care for.”

Prices for blinds and shades vary widely. “Everything we sell is custom,” Criswell says. Prices may range from $200 to $2,000 a window.

“Like cars, you can do a lot of add-ons,” she says.

While L & L will come onsite to your home or business, they encourage buyers to come into the showroom first. Then expert staff will visit your home.

“We measure everything before we order, and finalize fabric choice and colors,” she says.

The turnaround time for blinds has been extended slightly due to the strong demand driven by COVID-19. Scheduling an in-home appointment may take two to three weeks, followed by a four- to fiveweek manufacturing time, along with shipping times.

These days, they are decorating many rooms that were converted literally overnight to home office space or an online classroom. When selecting blinds and shades, the glare on the computer monitor is always a consideration. Because offices usually opt for a more contemporary décor, roller shades or screen shades are extremely popular in home office areas, Crisswell says.

“Shades and blinds themselves add decoration to a room and give you privacy, light control and security at night. They look good and also have function,” says Crisswell.

With roller shades, you can just run a Swiffer over them or lint rollers, and they are clean.

Shades can have different levels of opacity: light-filtering, room darkening, or sheer.

Many different top treatments are also available, including cassettes, valances, and board-mounted tops. Interested buyers can go to their website at www.budgetblinds.com, their Facebook page or showroom.

Roller shades’ popularity is driven, in part, by the fact that you can use high-resolution photography to put rich, deep, color on them. The color is sharp and can be added cost-effectively. It no longer has to be just white or gray

Beth notes that they’ve got colors, shapes, circles, logos and more to put on shades.

Two customers with memorable shades come to mind.

One creative homeowner crafted a Mexican cantina room, installing white semi-opaque roller shades with a print of orange sunbursts in a sunbelt texture.

The other homeowner had a husband who worked in China, so she re-created an Asian look.

“It was the most challenging and most rewarding job I’ve done in years. We did 25 or 30 motorized shades in house, controlled with their cell phone,” Beth says.

Other popular products include indoor shutters. These feature wider slats, but it’s all about the view-through, the Totos says. They may have 3 ½ inch or 4 ½ inch louvers.

“It is a classic look,” says Beth. “It can be contemporary or traditional.”

For a home office, the Totos recommend energy-efficient roller shades or shutters. Besides considering the glare on the computer screen, they suggest that you look into the room to see what your coworkers and clients will see on Zoom calls: window treatments, fridge, coffee maker on the counter, a pile of old bills.

If you are an attorney working from home, your window treatments should represent your industry. You may be able to press a button and drop a beautiful shade that sets the theme for your clients.

Mark says, “The options are limitless, including printing right on the screen.”

They have even printed company and organization logos on screens.

Mark says, “With a roller shade, you can create any façade you are looking for.”

You can drop a blind and do dual roller shades. One shade can be black; the other can be a scenic panorama. When in school, you can black out the room with darkening shades.

Multiple shades can even be motorized to work independently.

The size of the window doesn’t matter, the experts says. Everything is scalable and custom-made, whether you have one window or a giant wall of windows.

The Totos have not only dressed up the windows of homes, but law offices, schools, corporate conference rooms, country clubs, and more.

Beth likened shades to an old pair of shoes. You don’t know you need new ones until you see what else is out there. You get comfortable in those shoes and don’t realize you’ve had your shades for 10 or 20 years. So she encourages you to shop.

As COVID-19 lingers on, now is your window of opportunity. 7