Window Treatments 101- Fabric Roman Shades

There is now a plethora of choices for window coverings from simple to extravagant, and from budget to budget-busting! To decide which treatment is right for your room, your budget and your style, start by reviewing your options. This is the sixth in a series of posts where we will discuss many of the options, give you the pros and cons and sample pricing for a 36" wide by 48" long shade. Your shades should be custom fit to your windows for the best results.

Here are a few of the twenty Fabric Roman Shades Styles:

Casual Unstructured Roman is a classic style with soft billowing swags created by the lifting mechanism which results in small wings. This is a less-structured silhouette for a casual room. The width of the shade determines the number of swags.

Flat Roman with Top-Down Bottom-Up

A Flat roman is the most popular, and most economical shade as it uses the least amount of fabric. When lowered, this shade is a flat display of your chosen fabric. This is used when you want to showcase the beautiful and intricate design of a fabric without adding any fussy details. This shade folds up into a neat row of folds when raised, but may require some "dressing" to create a tight stack at the top.

Soft Unstructured Roman

This relaxed style creates a gentle swag along the bottom of the shade when up or down. This style works well when showcasing the pattern of a fabric, and is pretty when using a sheer fabric.

Flat Roman on a Door Frame

Installing roman shades on french doors is a beautiful solution when you have a room with doors and windows if you want to use the same treatment everywhere. The best styles are ones that require a limited amount of fabric, thereby creating a tighter "stack" of fabric when the shade is raised.

Balloon Shade

The Balloon shade has a formal, classical appearance. This shade has deep inverted pleats along the upper edge, falling into tailored poufs along the bottom creating the "balloons". Soft fabrics work best as heavier fabrics will require "dressing" each time the shade is raised, and due to the amount of fabric required to make the balloon, it can get quite heavy.

Features/Benefits:

· Standard Cord Lock operation, or top down/bottom up and cordless operation upgrades

· Can be lined with sheer fabric, privacy fabric, thermal fabric, or blackout fabric

· Some UV protection (approx 75% - depends on tightness of weave and lined or not)

· Huge amount of fabric choices

· Multiple fold styles to choose from

· Can add edge banding and bottom trims to coordinate room decor

· Wide range of prices based on style-usually related to amount of fabric required to make the shade

Drawbacks:

· Some fabrics expensive

· Some fabrics are heavy due to density of material

· Must outside mount (above window or window frame) in some cases

Typical Price (36"w x 48"l) in Fabric Code "C" for

Flat Roman, Relaxed Roman or Soft Roman:

Basic Price including labor and privacy lining: $180 - $288