When In Rome!: Five Types Of Roman Shades

If you're thinking of window treatments for your windows, there are so many options, with a myriad of not only drapery styles but also shade styles. As with anything in interior design, there is a whole encyclopedia of terms, forms, and details within the world of shades themselves. Let's take a look at a few of the more common types of Roman shades in particular.

Flat--Consisting of a piece of flat fabric without any pleats, folds, or channels, this type of Roman shade is good for windows where you will not be raising or lowering the shade often. The fact that it does not have any pleats means that the fabric does not fold up neatly or quickly when raised. But a flat Roman shade still provides light control and privacy while bringing color and pattern to a room. And this style in particular lends itself to prints since there are no channels or pleats to interrupt a pattern repeat.

Plain or Pleated--This style is much like a flat Roman but with seams every eight to ten inches to help ease the shade in raising or lowering. As you can imagine, a tight pattern repeat would be interrupted by the seaming. As with any genre of knowledge, nomenclature can vary and I have seen this referred to as a Rear Tucked Roman shade. The Pleated name also can refer to a different type of shade, one we will see a few points down.

Relaxed or European--Here we have another variation of the flat shade but with a drooping center bar at bottom which gives the shade a casual, country appeal. But done with the right fabric, it could also read as extremely elegant.

Hobbled or Soft Fold (I have also seen this style referred to as Teardrop)--This style of Roman shade is made of ripples of soft folds that fall on top of one another, giving the shade dimension and softness. I would advise judicious use of this style as it can look overblown or gaudy depending on material and location.

Knife or Ribbed (I have also seen this style referred to as Slatted)--For this Roman shade, dowels are sewn into pockets every eight to ten inches or so. They can be attached at the rear of the shade so the front has a seam, in which case it is called a Knife or Knife Edge Roman shade. If the dowel pockets are in the front (with seam in the rear), this is generally called a Ribbed Roman shade.

Knife Edge with dowel pockets in rear

Ribbed with dowel pockets in front

Happy designing!

Exotic Delia Shades

Hot on the heels of last week's post about the differences between shutters, blinds, and shades, I present to you the wonderful company Delia Shades. Founded by Delia Helig in 2006, her eponymous Manhattan-based company creates shades in varying degrees of light filtering material (Delia shades can filter up to 95% of UV radiation). They are made of environmentally friendly, Greenguard-certified fabric that is lead-free, flame-resistant, bacteria- and fungus-resistant, and yet able to be cleaned with a gentle detergent solution. And as you can see, they come in an array of patterns ranging from Moorish patterns to Indian Jalli screens to African designs to Japanese Katagami. Custom client designs can also be manufactured! Candice Olson used the Latticework pattern to great effect in the first room below.

These designs make a marvelous base for a window treatment which should still include fabric drapes to soften the window casing and also add another opportunity to layer texture and color into the room.

Delia Shades:
http://www.deliashades.com/

If you have windows you don't know what to do with, give me a call. Perhaps we can come up with some amazing, unique window treatments created especially for you.
Happy designing!

Shutters, Blinds, Shades: What's The Difference?

The world of window coverings is enormous. I know, it may seem silly to the lay person ("Oh come on Jeff, a world of window coverings?") but there are almost as many different ways to dress a window as there are windows. And consequently there are many different names and terms that can get confused or used interchangeably.

Let's take a look at three common window coverings that are often lumped together--shutters, blinds, and shades--and discover what they are, and how they differ.

SHUTTERS
Shutters are generally louvered coverings for a window or door. They can be fixed or able to open up, away from the window or door.

Often one will hear shutters called Plantation shutters since they were used extensively in Colonial islands like Jamaica. They are quite practical in tropical areas since they provide shade from glaring sun but the louvers can be tilted, usually on a central rod, to allow air to circulate. in interiors, they can signal an exotic, lush design scheme.

But the problem with shutters--and a complaint I hear most from clients who may have inherited shutters as window coverings from a previous owner--is that they can be overwhelming and make a space feel gloomy. When used on a large expanse, they tend to feel heavy, clunky...

In this application, it is simply a missed opportunity to layer window coverings which can introduce more color and texture into the space (we will see examples of this later in the post). And unlike most shades, blinds, or even draperies, shutters are fixed to the entire window. They cannot be stacked back or moved off the glass to allow more light or view. Whether they are built to sit inside the casing, or must be boxed and mounted outside the casing, they are bulky and cumbersome to open. Honestly, I have only ever had clients remove shutters, not install them, not only for the aforementioned reasons, but because the look is now quite dated.

BLINDS
Blinds offer a bit more flexibility. A blind is a series of slats made of metal, wood, or a composite material. They can be pulled up tight against the top of the casing, allowing for a fairly unimpeded view and like shutters, the slats can also be tilted to control light. It might just be me, but blinds make me flash on classic noir films from the 1930s and 40s.

And blinds can still have a cool, urban feeling. They play well in city lofts...

...but wood or composite versions can look nice anywhere.

An optional decorative feature on blinds is the addition of fabric "tape" which can come in any color or pattern.

The look can have a rich, Old World feel.

SHADES
A shade is generally a solid material that raises and lowers in front of the window. The typical shade most of us grew up with is the spring roller shade, which is a tube at the top of the casing on which the material rolls when open. Because of this, it is preferable for the roller mechanism to be hidden behind a fascia of some kind.

Now shades come with a top down/bottom up feature that allows for more precise control, not only for light but for privacy as well. As you can see in the image below, this privacy control is very useful in a bathroom!

Bamboo shades are perfect for introducing additional color and texture, and a warm, organic feel into a space. They are marvelous when layered under fabric drapes. This layering gives rooms a more finished look since the fabric drapery offers a softening element for the space.

And finally, a very popular variety of shade is the soft Roman shade. This is a flat piece of fabric or material (bamboo can be used as well) which pleats up into itself when raised. The advantage to this shade is that it can act like a drapery (coming in ANY choice of fabric), but have the functionality of a blind. For this reason, they are useful in kitchens where one does not want loose drapery fabric near either a water or a heat source. They can be tucked up out of the way, or lay flat against the glass when down.

And there we have three popular window covering options. As I said at the top of this post, the world of window coverings is wide and vast. Stay tuned for upcoming posts about draperies and the many ways they can be created.

Happy designing!

Let's Talk About Color: Four Color Schemes To Know And Love

Color is among the most basic and primary of elements in interior design, but somehow it ends up being the one that frightens, mystifies, and stymies people the most. Hopefully this post will ease any discomfort or anxiety you may have about working with color. If you know this information already, please bear with us as we explore hues, tints, tones, shades, and color schemes!

I am sure we all remember this from grade school, but there are three primary colors. They are called primary since all other colors are derived from combinations of these three. Red, yellow, and blue are the "original" colors.

When you combine any two of these, you get secondary colors: orange (from red and yellow), green (from blue and yellow) and purple (from red and blue).

And then if you combine these secondary colors you get--yes, you guessed it--tertiary colors! When we continually combine, the colors are more subtle, richer, and more complicated, like Red Orange or Blue Green.

Now I'd like to introduce you to an invaluable tool: the Color Wheel. You can buy one at any art supply store. It is literally a wheel that allows you to turn colors and see what combinations produce what colors. Look at the wheel below and you can see, for example, that the front side shows, at the twelve o'clock position, what happens when you mix blue with orange. At the two o'clock position, you can see what happens when you mix black with yellow: you get a sort of olive green color.

This leads us to a very handy trick when dealing with color, which is technically called a "hue." If you add white to any hue, you get a "tint," if you add grey to any hue, you get a "tone," and finally if you add black to any hue you get a "shade."

So here is where the fun comes in. Once you know the basics of color, you can apply it to interior spaces in the form of color schemes or palettes. There are four major color schemes I want to cover, and the first and simplest is the Monotone color scheme.

When we hear the word "monotone" applied to color, we tend to think of a room that has a white or neutral color palette. But a Monotone color scheme needn't mean a lack of color. In fact, it simply means a single hue, whether that hue is white, red, or even green.

Above bedroom by Anne Coyle. Photo used by kind permission.

From there we graduate to a Monochromatic color scheme which means tints, tones, or shades of a single hue. This can be used to great effect, especially when used with traditionally "calming" hues like blues or greens.

Now we can add more hues to our color schemes. An Analogous color scheme is one that uses several colors next to each other on the color wheel. You could stay calm and relaxing with a combination of yellow-green, green, blue-green, and blue. Or you could do something bold like yellow-orange, yellow, and yellow-green. Take a look at these rooms that feature exactly such schemes.

Above living room by Amy Lau.

Next up is what is known as a Complementary color scheme. Complementary refers to the fact that two hues are opposite each other on the color wheel. Look back at the color wheel above and see for yourself some classic combinations like red and green, and blue and orange. It is possible to create a very pleasing and engaging color scheme from complementary colors. In the first two examples below, you can plainly see that red and green do not automatically mean "Christmas." We have cultural and societal conditioning toward certain colors and combinations, but when red is tempered with a bit of orange, and the green is toned down, the result is actually quite sophisticated.

There are advanced color schemes like a Split-Complementary or a Tetrad, but for now I hope this tutorial about color will get you started. When you use a color wheel, it is so easy to establish a color palette using one of these four major color schemes. And here is my Design Mantra #3: there are no bad colors... color schemes can be inspired by nearly anything under the sun: a pillow, a piece of art, a garden, a favorite outfit, a place, or even a time period. But that's a post in itself...

Until then, thanks for reading and happy designing!