Window treatment ideas for ranch/strip windows?
I live in a 1956 house that has casement and awning windows in every room. In the bedrooms there are two horizontally-oriented windows ganged together with a total width of 100", a pair on each of two walls with a small space in the corner. There are lots of houses with these ranch or strip windows, but they're almost never featured in magazines or blogs, and they're tough to deal with!
In the master bedroom there are currently vertical blinds which need to be replaced. I'm struggling with what to use. My preference would be plantation shutters, but they'd have to have an exterior mounting because there isn't enough flat surface on the inside of the casing. I'm also not sure whether an outside mount would work with the current clamshell molding, which isn't flat, or if the shutters would project too much into the room. That's an issue because the room isn't huge and the bed is underneath one pair of windows. Just to add to the issues, the windows open with cranks which project out.
A second choice would be 2" horizontal wooden blinds, which would also have to be mounted on the outside. The problem is that I haven't found a company that can make a 100" wide single blind, so I'd have to use two, hopefully with a common headrail.
I'd go with verticals again if I have to, but that's a distant third choice. I definitely don't want curtains or draperies.
Any ideas or pictures? Here's the room:
Comments (6)
nosoccermom
8 years ago
bpath
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Window treatment ideas for HUGE window
Comments (14)If you do decide on curtains, I think theresa's idea is interesting. The only problem I see there is that the outdoor fabrics tend to be quite heavy, and for such a big window, I think you'd have too much bulk and weight to make them work inside. But building on her idea of tying the window to the view, and depending on your style, what about considering lightweight nylon sailcloth or parachute cloth? Those billowy fabrics come in very wide widths, you can put a lot of yardage on a traverse rod - or a regular rod with grommets - without weighing it down, and you could stack lots of it to the sides without creating too much bulk.. And where you live, you ought to be able to find a sailmaker who can get the material and make your panels. If you want to consider that, the way to make them feel more homelike is to make the panels with very deep hems - 10 or 12 inches, I'd say. You also might need to add a light weighting chain in the hems, to keep them hanging well, but I think they could be very pretty and effective....See MoreDrapery length and style for high ranch strip windows
Comments (4)The bedrooms in my house (1951) have the same kind of windows, and also have pinch-pleat drapes that end a few inches below the windows, a treatment that does nothing for me. Here's what I'm doing: in the MBR, installing woven-wood roman shades, mounted above the window frames so that the self-valance of the shades ends at the top of the glass, plus fabric valances just below the ceiling. The front bedrooms have corner windows. A second closet has been added in the MBR, creating an alcove in which one window is off-center. I'm hanging a single long panel next to that window to fill the gap; the panel will hang behind a low dresser that fills the alcove, sort of squaring it off. I'm not hanging a corresponding panel at the end of the window on the other wall - the windows are asymmetric to begin with. In the bedroom that I use as a home office, however, I'm going to hang floor-length panels on either side of the double window (not a corner window). The difference is that a lateral file cabinet occupies the space below the window and between the panels (when they're installed), with a tallish table lamp on it, so that there won't be a large gap of empty wall between the panels. I don't particularly like the appearance of long panels framing an wide, empty section of wall, so I very much prefer to have the space below a high window filled with furniture. (I don't like to see a gap above windows, either, so the current fashion of hanging single panels, either fixed or not adequate to draw closed, at ceiling height doesn't suit me either, not that the ceilings in this house are high enough for it to matter.) For now, I'm not changing the stubby pinch-pleats in the guest room, but the long-term plan is to replace them with roman shades as well....See MoreWindow treatment ideas for bay window??
Comments (3)gastroc, your window trim is very similar to ours. I love it! Though I've not used this type of rod on any of our windows yet I'm thinking about doing so in the guest bedroom just to show off the gorgeous trim. There are a few different styles but they all fit inside the trim leaving just a small little hole. The photos in the link below are not all Twist n Fit Rods, but you'll see the style in all the ones on the top row and here and there through out the rest of the page linked below... Here is a link that might be useful: Twist n Fit rods....See MoreWindow treatment ideas for corner windows
Comments (6)Would a rod stick out enough to go over the molding and sill, or would curtains look kind of bent where they hang over the molding? Personally, I love plain white linen curtains like your last picture. Another option, light filtering shades, http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70314592/ However, they don't offer complete privacy at night....See Morenosoccermom
8 years ago
jakabedy
8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
grapefruit1_ar
8 years ago
Funkyart