Roller and Solar Shades in Rehoboth, MA

Old Windows, Open Land

Roller shades in Rehoboth, MA are often going into houses that have stood for a very long time. Along Winthrop Street and Route 44, antique colonials and farmhouses sit back on large lots, and their windows were made for another age: small panes of glass set deep into thick walls, with wide sills you could rest a mug or a row of seedlings on. Off Bay State Road, the newer colonial subdivisions follow a more familiar pattern, with standard openings and more of them.

The setting matters as much as the window. Several of the older houses sit in open, agricultural land, with fields on one or more sides and no house close by to break up the sun or the view. A room like that can be flooded with light from first thing to last, and the view out across the land is often the best thing about it. A shade for that room has to deal with the light without throwing the view away.

• Roller shades and solar screen shades
• Light filtering and blackout fabrics
• Measured at the house and hung by our own installers

Roller Shades Made for Rehoboth Houses

Inside a deep-set window

The thickness of an antique wall lets the shade sit right back in the recess, close to the glass.

Leaving the sill clear

A shade that stops just above a wide sill keeps it free for plants and keepsakes.

Facing open fields

Solar screen that tones down the glare from an open aspect while the land stays in sight.

Country-dark bedrooms

Blackout cloth for a bedroom that faces the sunrise over open ground.

Subdivision colonials

Matching shades across a newer colonial’s standard windows, so every room and the front elevation look even.

Layered with drapes

A roller shade for daily use with drapes beside it for colour and softness in a formal room.

Drapes in Rehoboth

Choosing Roller Shades in Rehoboth, MA

An antique window and a modern one need quite different thinking, and many properties in town have both, either in separate houses on the same road or in one house that has grown over the years. The sections below take the antique houses first, then the open-land question, then the newer subdivisions.

What a deep-set antique window allows

The thick walls of an old colonial or farmhouse create a deep recess around each window. For a roller shade, that recess is a gift. The shade can be mounted right inside it, close to the glass, so that when it is lowered it sits back within the wall rather than hanging out into the room. The sides of the recess hide the edges of the fabric and block much of the light that would otherwise slip past them.

The windows themselves are small by modern standards, often divided into many panes. A roller shade suits that scale well, because there is no stack of slats or folds at the top when it is raised, only a slim roll that sits up against the head of the frame. The small panes and their wooden bars stay fully visible, which is much of an antique window’s charm.

Measuring is where the work lies. Old frames are hand built, rarely square, and they can taper slightly from top to bottom. Two windows on the same wall can differ noticeably. We measure every opening at several points and make each shade to the narrowest of those measurements, so it runs freely without rubbing the sides of the recess.

Working with a wide sill

The broad sills of an antique house are a feature in their own right. People keep plants on them, display pottery or simply sit beside them. A shade that drops all the way to the sill and drapes across whatever is there is not much use.

There are two ways to handle it. The first is to set the shade’s lowest point just above the sill, so it closes the window without disturbing anything on it. The second, where the recess allows, is to mount the shade close to the glass, so it falls behind the plants rather than over them. We look at how you use each sill before deciding which works better.

Sun with nothing in its way

The houses on open land have a particular kind of light. With no neighbours close by, nothing stands between the window and the sun as it rises and sets, and low-angled light can stream across the whole room for long stretches of the day. In a living room that faces west across fields, the late afternoon can be dazzling.

A solar screen is designed for exactly that situation. The fabric is woven with small gaps, so with the shade lowered the fields, the stone walls and the treeline remain visible, but the glare is taken down to a comfortable level. The main choice is how open the weave should be. An open screen keeps more of the view and lets in more daylight, which suits a room where the landscape is the reason you sit there. A closer weave controls more of the glare and gives more privacy, which suits a room with a television or a desk. Screen colour plays a part as well: a deep colour usually lets you see out more clearly, while a light colour blends into white or cream trim.

Privacy when there is no one next door

Houses without close neighbours often need less privacy by day, which leaves the fabric choice free to focus on light. After dark, it changes. A lit room in an otherwise dark landscape can be seen from the road a long way off. Solar screens do not help with that, because they give very little privacy at night when the lamps are on inside. For a living room or bedroom that faces the road, it is worth pairing a screen with drapes, or choosing a light filtering cloth that keeps its privacy in the evening as well as the day.

Reading the light across a full day

On an open lot, it pays to follow the sun round the house before choosing anything. The east side catches the sunrise with nothing in the way, so a bedroom there can be bright very early, and blackout cloth is usually the answer. The south side sees the sun for most of the day, high in summer and low in winter, when it reaches deep into the rooms. The west side gets the long, low light of late afternoon, which is the hardest to live with, because it comes in at eye level. The north side stays even and cool, and often needs little more than privacy at night.

Once that is mapped, each room almost picks its own fabric. A west-facing sitting room takes a solar screen, a south-facing kitchen a light filtering cloth, an east bedroom blackout, and a north study perhaps nothing heavier than a pale cloth that rolls fully away by day. The windows in an antique house are small, so each shade is modest in size, and the order can be tailored room by room without any one window becoming a big job.

Seasons shift the picture too. The low winter sun that is welcome in a cold farmhouse kitchen can be a nuisance on a computer screen in the same room. A roller shade that is easy to raise and lower lets you take that winter light when you want it and cut it when you do not, which is one reason roller shades in Rehoboth, MA suit these older houses so well. We talk through how you use each room across the year during the measuring visit.

Newer Colonials Off Bay State Road

The subdivision colonials off Bay State Road present a more straightforward set of windows. The openings are standard double-hung, usually repeated across the front elevation and the bedrooms upstairs, with a slider or French door at the back and perhaps a larger window in a family room.

For these houses, consistency is usually the aim. From the street, a colonial’s front windows form a neat grid, and shades in one colour at one height keep that grid looking orderly. Behind that front, the fabric can change. The bedrooms upstairs typically take blackout cloth. The family room might take a solar screen if it faces the afternoon sun, or a light filtering fabric if it does not. The kitchen window over the sink suits a light filtering cloth that wipes clean.

The newer frames are usually deep enough for an inside mount, which gives the neatest look. Where a bedroom needs to be as dark as possible, an outside mount set slightly wider than the glass can cut the thin line of light at the edges. We decide that at each window during the measuring visit.

The back of these houses often opens onto a deck or patio through a slider, and a roller shade is not always the best fit for a door that is opened many times a day. A vertical blind or a panel track usually handles that better, and we will point it out if it is the case. The windows beside the door can still take roller shades that match the rest of the room, so the whole back wall looks considered.

Deciding between screen and cloth

Many people arrive unsure whether they want a solar screen or a fabric roller shade. A simple way to decide is to ask what you want to see when the shade is down. If the answer is the view outside, a screen is the right choice. If the answer is nothing at all, because the room is a bedroom or a bathroom, a light filtering or blackout cloth is better. Rooms that need both, such as a living room used by day and night, can take a screen and a cloth shade on the same window, or a screen with drapes.

Colours that suit an old house

Antique interiors tend to have painted woodwork in soft, slightly aged colours, wide plank floors and plaster walls. Bright white can look stark against them. Warmer neutrals, such as cream, oatmeal or a pale stone, often sit more comfortably. For a screen, the colour facing outward is seen from the road, so a neutral that suits the clapboard or shingle of the house is a good starting point. We bring a range of samples so you can see them against your own walls and trim.

Our Process, Start to Finish

From the first call to the final fitting, the store keeps you up to date on where your order stands.

1. Call us or use the form to tell us about the house and the rooms, and arrange your free quote.
2. A specialist visits to measure. Antique windows are measured at several points; newer ones are checked for depth and square.
3. You compare fabrics and screens at your own windows, in your own light, or see the wider range at the Swansea showroom.
4. Your quote sets out each window on its own line.
5. The shades are built to the measurements from the visit.
6. Our installers hang each one, check it runs cleanly within the recess, and show you how it works.

Roller shades alongside other treatments

In a formal front room of an antique colonial, a roller shade can sit inside the recess while drapes hang at the sides of the window, framing it and adding warmth. Because Window Works makes drapes as well as shades, the two can be planned together and measured on the same visit. Some antique rooms suit interior shutters instead, and the newer colonials sometimes call for a different shade altogether. All our services for the town are on the window treatments for Rehoboth homes page, and the full roller shades page explains the range in more detail.

Looking after the fabric

A roller shade asks little of you. Brush the fabric lightly or go over it with a vacuum on its gentlest setting when it gathers dust, and most cloths can be sponged with a little water if they pick up a mark. Letting a shade roll all the way up from time to time keeps the fabric flat. If a shade you already own has stopped rolling as it should, see our page on blind and shade repair in Rehoboth.

Making a whole house work

Many orders cover only a few rooms to begin with, often the ones with the worst glare or the bedrooms that need darkness. If you plan to do more later, it helps to choose a colour and a style that can carry through the house. That way, the shades added in a year or two will match the first ones, and roller shades in Rehoboth, MA that went in at different times still look like one decision.

Window Works, Swansea Since 1988

Window Works has been a family business in Swansea since 1988, and the second generation runs it today. Rehoboth is a short drive north, and over 37 years our specialists have fitted shades in antique houses and new builds alike across the SouthCoast and the East Bay.

• Experienced window treatment specialists
• A measuring visit to your home, essential for hand-built antique frames
• Installation by our own installers
• Regular contact with you until the work is complete
• Warranties offered on the products we sell

The showroom has screens and cloths to handle and compare, along with the Norman range.

Visit the showroom

Book a Free Quote

For roller shades in Rehoboth, MA, the first step is a free quote. Use the call button to book one, to arrange a measuring visit or to ask about installation, or send the form and the store will be in touch. To see screens and fabrics before deciding, visit the Swansea showroom; the contact page has directions. Window Works holds a 5.0 rating on Google.