Roller and Solar Shades in Taunton, MA

High Ceilings and Long Drops

Roller shades in Taunton, MA are often made long. Around the Green and through Weir Village, the Victorians and triple-deckers were built with lofty rooms, and their windows rise to suit: tall, narrow openings that start low on the wall and finish well above head height. A shade for one of these windows has a long way to travel, and it has to look right in a room where the ceiling is a long way up.

Out in East Taunton, the picture changes completely. The ranches built there in the middle of the last century are low and broad, with wide front windows and modest ceilings. Off Bay Street, the larger newer colonials bring bigger rooms and more windows per room. Three quite different kinds of house, and a roller shade can be made for each, because it is built to the exact width and drop of the window in front of it.

• Long-drop shades for tall downtown windows
• Solar screens, light filtering and blackout cloths
• Measured in the house and put up by our installers

Roller Shades for Every Part of Taunton

Tall Victorian windows

A long shade that covers the full height of a downtown window and rolls up neatly at the head.

Triple-decker bedrooms

Blackout cloth for back bedrooms facing the morning light or a lit yard.

Ranch picture windows

Light filtering cloth sized to the full width of an East Taunton living room window.

Bright family rooms

Solar screen across the larger windows of a Bay Street colonial, keeping the yard in view.

Out of reach

Motorised roller shades that run from a remote or a wall switch, for windows too tall to reach comfortably.

Motorised shades in Taunton

Framed in fabric

Drapes either side of a tall window, with a roller shade doing the daily work behind them.

Drapes in Taunton

Fitting Roller Shades in Taunton, MA

What follows takes the downtown housing first, because its windows ask the most of a shade, then the East Taunton ranches and the colonials off Bay Street.

Victorians around the Green

Victorian rooms were designed to feel generous, and the windows are a large part of that. Tall and narrow, often in pairs or groups of three along a parlour wall, they let light deep into the room. Many still have their original moulded trim, and some have a deep recess.

A roller shade is a good partner for this kind of window for a simple reason: when it is raised, there is nothing left hanging. The fabric rolls round its tube at the head of the frame and the full height of the window is open. With slatted or pleated products, a tall window means a tall stack at the top when raised. With a roller, the roll stays slim however long the drop.

Where a window is part of a group, we set every shade to stop at the same height when lowered partway, so the wall reads as one composition. Old frames are rarely identical, so each one is measured separately to make that line come out straight.

Where to mount on a tall window

A tall window gives you a real choice about where the shade sits. Mounted inside the frame, it keeps the trim fully visible and looks built in, provided the recess is deep enough. Mounted above the frame, closer to the ceiling, it can make the window look even taller when the shade is raised, and it covers the trim when lowered. That second option also blocks more light at the edges, which helps in a bedroom. We talk through both at each window and show you what each looks like before anything is ordered.

Triple-deckers through Weir Village

A triple-decker floor runs from front to back, with the living room at the front, the bedrooms behind and the kitchen at the rear. The ceilings are generous and the windows tall, in keeping with the rest of the downtown housing. Side windows can face the next building at close range.

On those side windows, a light filtering roller shade is usually the most useful choice. It keeps the room bright while blocking the view between buildings, and it can stay down most of the day without making the flat gloomy. The bedrooms at the back usually take blackout cloth, especially where a yard light or an early sky is a problem. The front room, facing the street, often takes a light filtering cloth too, since it needs privacy from passers-by as much as glare control.

Reaching a tall shade

On a window that finishes well above head height, the control needs some thought. It should fall within easy reach and sit on the side of the window that is clear of furniture. Where the window is very tall, set above a radiator or behind a sofa, or where several tall windows sit together, motorised roller shades raise and lower from a remote or a wall switch. The motorised page for Taunton has more.

East Taunton Ranches

The ranches across East Taunton are low, one-floor houses, and their main feature is usually a wide picture window in the living room facing the street. It is the window most people want to deal with first, because it brings in plenty of light and also lets the street see straight in.

A roller shade made to the full width of that window solves both problems. A light filtering cloth softens the daylight and blocks the view in, so the room stays bright and private at the same time. If the window is very wide, two or three shades side by side give you more control: lower the section the sun is hitting and leave the rest open. Where the window has posts or mullions, we line the shades up with them.

Ranch bedrooms are at ground level, close to the yard and sometimes the street. Blackout cloth does two jobs there, darkening the room for sleep and keeping it private. For a bedroom where darkness really matters, an outside mount, set a little wider than the glass, cuts the light that can slip past the edges.

The kitchen in a ranch is usually at the back, with a window over the sink. A light filtering cloth that can be wiped clean suits it, and an inside mount keeps the shade clear of the tap.

Low ceilings, compact shades

In contrast to the downtown houses, the ranches have modest ceilings, and the space above the windows is limited. A roller shade suits that well, because the roll at the top is compact and fits where a bulkier product might not. When raised, it leaves almost all the glass clear.

Many ranches have a back room or a converted porch with a run of windows facing the yard, and these rooms can be the brightest in the house in the afternoon. A row of matching shades, each made to its own window, lets you lower only the ones the sun is hitting. If the room faces west, a screen keeps the yard in sight while taking the glare off; if it faces north or east, a light filtering cloth is usually enough. Where a slider leads out to a patio, a vertical blind tends to suit the door better than a roller, and the windows beside it can still take roller shades in the same colour.

Larger Colonials Off Bay Street

The newer colonials off Bay Street are larger, with more rooms and more windows in each. Family rooms often open to the kitchen and may have windows on two or three walls. Upstairs, the bedrooms are larger and the main bedroom may have several windows.

In a bright family room, a solar screen is often the right choice for the wall that takes the afternoon sun. It is a woven fabric with small gaps, so the yard stays in view while the glare comes down. The choice is how open the weave should be. A looser weave keeps more of the view and lets more daylight in, while a closer weave controls more glare and makes it harder to see in from outside. A darker screen usually gives a clearer view out; a lighter one blends with white trim.

A screen gives little privacy at night once lamps are on inside, so for a family room used in the evening, pairing it with drapes or a second shade is worth thinking about. Because we make drapes too, both can be measured on the same visit.

For the bedrooms, blackout cloth is the usual choice. Where a room has several windows, keeping every shade the same colour and setting them to the same height keeps it calm.

Keeping a large house consistent

A big colonial has a great many windows, and it is easy for an order to become a patchwork of fabrics and colours. The simplest way to avoid that is to choose one colour for every window that faces the street, then vary the fabric behind it: screens where the sun is strong, light filtering in the living areas, blackout in the bedrooms. From outside, the house looks orderly; inside, each room gets what it needs. Roller shades in Taunton, MA for a large house are often ordered in stages, and choosing the colour first means later rooms will match the earlier ones.

How a Taunton Order Runs

Updates come from the store as the order moves along, right through to the day the last shade goes up.

1. Get in touch by phone or the form, say which windows bother you most, and a free quote is booked.
2. At the house, a specialist sizes each opening and records its height, how deep the recess runs, what the trim is like and whether a radiator or crank sits nearby.
3. Cloths, screens and colours are compared at your own windows, or in the Swansea showroom if you would like to see more.
4. The quote breaks the order down window by window.
5. Shades are built to the visit’s figures.
6. On fitting day, each shade is hung, run the length of its drop to confirm it tracks straight, and handed over with a quick demonstration.

Light, colour and high ceilings

In a high-ceilinged room, the shades are a large part of what you see on the wall, especially when lowered. A colour close to the wall colour lets them recede, which keeps the room feeling tall and open. A colour close to the trim makes the windows read as a frame. For a downtown Victorian with painted woodwork, an off-white or soft stone that matches the trim usually looks right. In a newer colonial with plain white trim, a crisp white or pale grey suits. An East Taunton ranch, with its lower rooms, can carry a slightly warmer tone without feeling heavy.

Keeping shades in order

Long shades gather a little more dust than short ones, simply because there is more cloth. A feather duster or brush attachment run down the fabric now and again is all it takes, with a lightly damp sponge for the odd mark. Every so often, let each long shade travel all the way up, which helps it stay flat and roll square.

Bays, groups and the odd opening

Downtown Victorians sometimes have a shallow bay or a group of tall windows set close together, with narrow strips of wall between them. Each window takes its own shade, sized to its own frame, and all of them are set to the same height so the group reads as one. In a bay, the shades meet at slight angles, so we measure the depth carefully to keep the rolls from touching where the faces join. The same attention goes into any window that is a little unusual, whether it is a narrow stair window, a small window high in a bathroom wall, or a window that has been altered over the years.

Planning for each floor

In a triple-decker, each floor has its own light. The top floor sees the most sky and the most sun through the roof and upper windows, so screens or blackout are more often needed there. The middle floor sits between neighbours’ upper floors and may be dimmer. The ground floor faces the street and the yard, and privacy is usually the main concern. If you own the whole building, planning roller shades in Taunton, MA floor by floor, rather than ordering the same thing three times, gives each flat what it actually needs.

Other treatments in town

A roller shade is not the answer for every window. A cold north room may be better with a cellular shade, and a dining room might suit the folds of a Roman shade. Everything we offer Taunton is on the window treatments for Taunton homes page, and the main roller shades page covers the whole range.

A Family Store Down the Road

The business started in Swansea in 1988, and the family that built it is now into its second generation behind the counter. Taunton lies a little way up the river, and across more than 37 years our people have dressed windows in high Victorian parlours, compact ranches and new colonials throughout the SouthCoast and the East Bay.

• Long-serving window treatment specialists
• A measuring visit at the house, the tallest windows included
• Fitting handled by our own crew
• Steady contact from the store until everything is done
• Warranties available on what we sell

Drop by the showroom to see screens and cloths together, and the Norman range alongside them.

Visit the showroom

Book Your Free Quote

Every set of roller shades in Taunton, MA begins with a free quote. The call button reaches the store to book it, fix a measuring visit or ask about installation; the form is there if writing suits you better. To handle the cloth before choosing, visit the Swansea showroom, with directions on the contact page. Window Works holds a 5.0 rating on Google.