Roman Shades Mullica Hill NJ

Custom Roman Shades in Mullica Hill NJ

The renovation of the living room in this Gloucester County NJ home came down to the window treatments.  New windows - installed.  Wall patches - complete.  Painting - done. 

Most of the furnishings and artwork complimented the theme for the room.

With 10 foot ceilings and very tall windows, the client felt that the challenge for the window treatments was to maintain the vertical space of the room while softening the height of what should be a 'comfortable, personal' space.

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The detailed trim around the windows formed a distinct architectural feature.  The deeply molded trim springing from a deep chair rail and upper corner blocks would be hidden by standard drapery treatments.

So, how to feature the trim details while easing the height and rectangular blocking of the windows?

Patterned roller shades and cellular shades seemed like an answer.  But a quick-and-cheap trial from one of the big box home stores told the story.  They allowed the trim to show, but accentuated the feeling of 'tall, looming windows' because they covered the full height of the window with ... a full height treatment.

Something had to shorten the feel of the windows without covering the tall trim.

We suggested an inside mount Roman shade with an attached valance.  The inside mount would not cover the trim.  The valance would reduce the visual height of the window.  A quick mock up with a piece of left-over upholstery fabric for the valance and an old sheet for the shade proved the suggestion.

Selecting Fabric for the Roman Shades

Since the design for the window treatment involved two fabrics - one for the body of the Roman shade and one for the valance - picking appropriate fabrics ran through many choices (look left at a few of the pairings).

The room and the windows expressed rectangular lines, the valance should show a more random element.  Since the room had a vertical 'feel', the shade should echo that emphasis.

After leafing through many sample books and looking at quite a few memo samples, the choice came down to these, both from Kasmir Fabrics.

For the valance, a random pattern to offset the rectangular bias of the room:

For the body of the Roman shade, a vertically themed semi-sheer to show a vertical emphasis on the horizontal folds of the shade:

In keeping with an old house, the four windows were four different sizes.  Generally, they measured 38" by 73".  Two of the windows were skewed, so installing the shades became a game of try-and-see.  But it worked out!

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The inside mount leaves the architectural trim exposed.  The 16" valances matched to the wall paint shorten the windows, yielding a more intimate feeling to the space.  The random cherry blossom pattern softens the rectangular blocking of the room. 

The vertical lines in the body fabric keeps the sense of height to the visible window, offsetting any 'squat' feeling from the horizontal stacking of the flat Roman shades.

Cost of These New Jersey Roman Shades

The price of these four Roman shades?

With the Bettina Dove and Creekmore Smoke fabrics from Kasmir (both above $70 per yard) on these four 38" x 73" windows, the price came to $2418.  Including installation, design assistance and samples.

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