Window treatment ideas for ranch/strip windows?

9 years ago

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:

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Funkyart

9 years ago

I have similar windows but mine are not quite as wide (79") and I believe they aren't as high. I currently have "make do" curtains across them until I decide on window treatments. In the primary bedroom (i just can't call it a master at 9 x 12), I am torn between shutters (which I would attach to trim which we'd add) or linen roller shades with curtain panels. I like the idea of panels to soften the small rectangular room but I love the clean look of shutters.

In the spare rooms (one is being converted from storage to a dressing room-- the other is in the process of being converted from a spare room to an office), I will do either fabric roller shades or custom shutters.

As you can see, I have no trim-- typical modest mid century ranch style. I do plan to put trim around all the bedroom windows.

Here's a photo of the short wall (work was still being done at this point-- painting and floor refinishing. I have not yet replaced the hideous closet doors.)

I really like this look with blinds.. simple and clean.. nothing to catch dust. But this room has one window with panels and one without. I'd worry that two without would feel cold or institutional.

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Comments (6)

nosoccermom
9 years ago
There are companies that make such wide wood blinds, but they discourage it because it'll be super heavy if you plan to lift them frequently.

Another option are those IKEA sliding panels that are attached to the ceiling. They are quite inexpensive and come in a variety of patterns IKEA Kvartal for corner window
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bpath
9 years ago
Hey, that's our old house! Well, at least the windows, only they were horizontal sliders. So, we did just what you are thinking. In all four bedrooms, we removed the inside-mount roller shade.

In two east-facing bedrooms with a little shade, one had two 2" wood blinds with a common header, outside mount. We did two because one would be so heavy. The others bedroom had the corner window you describe, so one 2" blind with heads on each window. (from Habitat Blinds, they have since closed)

The other two bedrooms faced west with no trees for shade, so we used verticals to control the light better. Sometimes you just do what you gotta do.

The Kvartal looks cool, a house nearby has them on the big west-facing picture window. In nosoccermom's link, though, the light control doesn't look so good. A possibility is to add a roller shade beneath it for when you really need to block more light.
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You have lots of options with a triple window. You can mount roller shades for black out purposes by mounting them to the top of the window frame on the inside as you probably don't have sides on the middle window. You can do roman shades the same way and get a single valance across all 3 to make it look more united. You can do woven wood blinds the same way. You can also do bottoms up/top down shades like duettes. If you instead choose to mount outside the window frame, you can do drapes on rings or better on a traverse rod that will close and open easily. You could also get vertical gliding blinds or drapes...check out what hunter douglas has to offer. These are more modern and neater than vertical blinds. You could also do a combo, for example woven wood blinds with drapery panels in between to hide the breaks in the blinds, but that will cover more of the window. ...and yes, you can get woven woods and romans lined with black out material.
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I would not use brown blinds.....they are very cavelike. You could use white cafe curtains on rings. They could be closed after dark but kept open during the day. They are a very sweet look, too.
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I would absolutely not hang drapery from curtain panels that high. What you need to decide is what you need to control .... lighting, privacy, or both. If you don't need to cover the top windows due to either of those reasons, then just leave them as is and only focus on the lower windows. You can use window film to control lighting if you need to. But regardless of what you decide to do with window treatments, you need to paint all of the window trim a white color.
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I'm wondering if there's another idea I'm not considering. Are you open to painting the room (including the ceiling) a dramatic, dark color? In my first house, my husband and I painted our vaulted master bedroom a deep cool green (kept the trim white), and we *loved* it. We were pleasantly surprised at how much it darkened the room at night, something we hadn't even considered, but were thrilled with. I also really like curtains, and if it were me, I'd mount a single rod over the tallest window, extending it 8"-12" past each flanking window. Color would depend on the look you were after. Thoughts? :-)
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nosoccermom
9 years ago
www.selectblinds.com offers 100" wide wood blinds. They have a sale right now (35% off), but they have sales quite often. I ordered from them and their blinds seem good quality.
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jakabedy
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
We have the silhouette-type blinds in our similar windows (and actually in all the windows in the house, thanks to the PO). They're clean, custom, and unobtrusive. The downside is if you want to sleep with the window open. The blind has to be up for the breeze to come through, and you might have a cranky husband who objects to that.

The attached photos aren't of the windows per se, but I had the photos on my iPad. It will give you an idea. I do wish a couple of them were the top-down type, so I could get the light/breeze in, but keep some privacy.

Well &"#%. I can't get the photos to load from my iPad. I'll be back later.
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grapefruit1_ar
9 years ago
Couldn't you do 2 roman shades side by side?
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Window treatment ideas for ranch/strip windows?

Funkyart

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nosoccermom

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