A Guide to Window Treatments

If you have just purchased a new house or are looking to get your home a fresh look without doing a lot of work, then changing the window treatments is a great way to get that accomplished. Window treatments serve several important functions. In addition to improving the look and décor of your house, they also serve as protection from the light and sun, allowing you to either sleep or to protect furniture or wood flooring from potentially getting damaged. It also provides for protection from any potential burglaries or home invasions. Criminals that are not able to see inside you house are less likely to come inside because they have no idea what is waiting for them behind closed doors. They are also not able to do a quick scan of your house to see what types of valuable items that they may want to steal and later resell to make a large profit on.

When it comes to finding the right window treatments, they are many selections to choose from, such as, shades, blinds and shutters. Each comes with their own set of positives and negatives as well as different price tags. Here is a look at some of the more popular selections in each category.

Venetian Blinds - sometimes also called horizontal blinds, these are the standard blinds you will see in most homes to help control the amount of light that comes in. These aren't the flimsy thin plastic blinds of the 1990's. These blinds have wider slats that are much more durable and come in several different colors instead of the standard plain white.

Woven Blinds - these blinds will still allow for some light to come in between the weave pattern. These blinds usually come made from natural materials and may come in several different colors as well.

Vertical Blinds - also called horizontal blinds, these are typically used for extremely large windows, like sliding glass doors leading to the outside of the house or on French doors. You may find a few more different types of materials used for these type of blinds compared to the Venetian blinds. Wood, plastic or even aluminum are commonly used and come come with fabric coverings or textured patterns on them for design.

Traditional shutters - sometime also called colonial shutters, these offer a higher class look than standard blinds and they have the higher price tag to match. Colors are usually the typical white or sometimes cream and are able to bounce back a good amount of light trying to get in from the outside.

Plantation shutters - plantation shutters are much like the traditional shutters in look and design, the only difference being is that the slats on the plantation shutters run two to almost four times as wide as the standard shutters.

Roman shades - if you are looking for a contemporary look and feel for your window treatments, then Roman shades are the way to go. They have nice clean lines and can work with almost any style or design concept. They come in a variety of materials from fabric, to bamboo style or even solar materials. They have a roll-up bottom that is worked by cords.

Cellular shades - also known as honeycomb shades, these types of shades allow a little bit of sun to be able to sneak its way inside the home. Despite some light getting in, you still have the privacy protection as people will not be able to peek inside. The fabric layers help keep cold and heat out while giving your home some natural sunlight during the day.

Roller shades - although not as popular as the first two examples, roller shades are the traditional fabric made roll-up shade. They will typically come in some kind of sun filtering or blackout style.

Any of the above window treatments can work well for your home, it just depends what works best with your design style and decor. Here is a tip though, if you are buying a brand new house and it does not come with window treatments, work to have that negotiated into the purchase price.

many of the new homes that are being built have large windows and many of them in every room. Depending on what type of window treatments you like, buying them after the fact will set you back a few thousand dollars or more so keep that in mind when buying a brand new home.