Welcome back! In my last post about the sunroom renovations in my Poconos vacation home, we discussed the lighting choices I’ve made. Today I’d like to discuss the window treatments.
The sunroom at The Shack has 2 doors, one on either side. Each door wall has 2 additional windows, and the outside wall has 4 windows spaced out across the entire wall.
Any sunroom contains a lot of windows by default. While that’s an amazing feature for enjoying the outdoors, it can sometimes mean oppressively strong light, which makes the room hot and can cause fading of your furniture and rugs. In addition to light control, window treatments soften and add visual interest to a room with many windows.
Right from the beginning of this renovation process I began thinking about the type of treatments I wanted to include in our sunroom. I was very eager to replace those dated vinyl mini-blinds from the 1980s. The existing blinds were saggy, and several of them weren’t functioning properly after many years of use (not to mention the squirrel damage mentioned in an earlier post).
Damage caused by a crazy squirrel invasion!
So I started by searching my ample Pinterest folders for sunroom inspiration. You can see all the gorgeous sunroom images I’ve been Pinning by clicking on the following link:
All the following images can be found in the above Pinterest folders found in the link!
I always enjoy a good roman shade, and adding pretty fabric always softens, plus adds visual interest. But the pattern here is a little busy, and perhaps a bit fancier than what I’m going for in my sunroom at The Shack.
This simple valance adds softness and interest above the windows, and I love how it joins all the windows together, instead of visually chopping things up by separating each window like the Roman shades in the photo above. However, this type of valance doesn’t allow for light control or privacy. I’d still need to add a blind or shade underneath.
I love a good woven wood shade, also called bamboo shades or matchstick shades. They definitely give a woodsy, outdoors vibe, while filtering the light. And there are lots of different types and styles of grass or bamboo with a range of beautiful earthy colors available.
This particular image really inspired me, because of the way the woven wood shades span more than one window. This eliminates some of the ‘visual clutter’ by joining the windows together and minimizing the vertical dividers between each window.
I did this sketch of our door wall in the sunroom, to help guide us in placement of the casing and wall boards. But I also included the window treatments in the drawing, to help me visualize how an outside mounted bamboo shade might look spanning both windows on this wall. I love it, do you?
Detailed measurements are always required when you’re ordering window treatments. One bonus of outside mounting these shades is that they could all be the same size and have the added bonus of hiding the imperfections in the windows. The original builder of the room (a former homeowner) did less than beautiful work on the drywall around each window. As a result, the inside dimensions are very different on each and every window. Inside mounted blinds would have just drawn attention to this, and might have even affected how the shades would function!
So the next step was exploring the various options available through my shade suppliers. I wanted a color that would coordinate well with the hickory ceiling and floors, and something masculine and warm for the gentleman’s smoking room vibe I was trying to create.
Here’s my husband, opening the boxes of woven wood shades to prepare for installation. These are cordless, and very long, since each shade will span two windows.
Here you go! Doesn’t this look exactly like my drawing? The shades turned out fantastic! And I love how the rich neutrals look with the ceiling and floors! These woven wood shades add just the right woodsy feel to the sunroom at The Shack.
The sunlight in the afternoons is just beautiful when filtered through the natural shades. I’m super happy with my choice for the window treatments in the sunroom at The Shack. I hope you like them too!
Until next time, make sure to like Robinson Interiors on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter, and DO stay tuned for future posts about my work, travels, and design inspirations, not to mention tips and ideas for updating your own home!
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