Seeking something shady
March 24, 2018 4:52 PM

We need new window coverings, and I am not sure what is desirable or what to look for, with considerations of pets, children, and automation. Fortunately, we only have 6 windows…

The house is a Philadelphia row home, with 5 windows in the front and one on the side. Current window coverings are (what I imagine to be) nice cordless honeycomb-style blinds, which are now old enough to become delaminated and unglued in places, as well as being further destroyed by our cat. We also have small children, so safety and artificial darkness for summer bedtimes are highly desirable.

Ideal qualities include:
* enabling moderate darkness
* cord-free
* able to cover the bottom or the top half of the window
* not resembling a stretching post (including linen-style fabrics, very thing reed/wood)
* I am also moderately interested in motorized blinds and/or automation capabilities, but this is a far distant criterion.

Do you have blinds you like that might fit this profile? Or are there other characteristics to avoid? All windows are semi recessed into the brick facade, so there is drywall for mounting, but no wooden trim considerations on the interior.
posted by zachxman to Home & Garden (1 answer total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
I literally bought custom shades today. The most straightforward thing would be to go to your local home improvement store. They will have a bunch of examples hanging up, and a bunch of swatch books. I found this much more helpful than looking online--I looked about a month ago, paid attention to what we do with our current windows with that in mind, and went back today with all the specifics sorted. There are a few different ways they have of allowing light up top, different transparency levels, automation, and different materials, some of which I specifically avoided because they looked so shreddable.

As for summer bedtimes, we have blackout curtains in the bedrooms--ours too. They are a lot less expensive than shades, so if the cat climbs them and wrecks them, they are more replaceable.
posted by tchemgrrl at 6:25 PM on March 24, 2018


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