Glass Facing the Water
On the waterfront in Tiverton, rooms are built to look out. Houses on Nanaquaket and along the Sakonnet River put a lot of glass toward the water, and those rooms are exposed to strong sun, reflected glare and salt in the air. Fabric chosen without thinking about that can fade, go limp or look tired within a few seasons. Choosing the right cloth is the heart of custom drapes in Tiverton, RI, and it is exactly where Window Works starts. Drapery is our specialty, and every order is built from the fabric up.
Away from the water, the farmhouses and shingled capes around Four Corners are a gentler brief, with traditional windows, plenty of wall and rooms that have long suited simple, natural fabrics. One store, one way of working, two quite different kinds of house.
- Fabric chosen for the exposure of each room
- Glass walls, bays and old sash measured at your house
- Drapes hung and dressed by our own installers
Fabric and Drapery for Tiverton Houses
Fine sheers
A whisper of fabric across big glass that cuts the glare and keeps the river in sight.
Woven plaids and textures
Sturdy woven cloth with a little pattern, for farmhouse rooms and family spaces that see daily use.
Soft, sun-friendly tones
Creams, blush and stone shades that age gracefully in bright rooms.
Top treatments
A fabric heading across the top of a window that finishes it neatly and can hide a shade’s headrail.
Bedding that matches
Duvet covers and pillows in a fabric that echoes the bedroom curtains.
Curtains for window seats
Light side curtains that soften a window seat or a deep sill without crowding it.
Afternoon Sun across the Sakonnet
Tiverton sits on the east bank of the Sakonnet River, so many water-facing rooms look west. Mornings are mild on that side of the house. Afternoons are not. As the sun sinks, it comes in low over the river and through the glass at eye level, and the water doubles it. A west-facing living room that is perfect at lunch can be hard to sit in by teatime in July.
Fabric is the simplest fix. A sheer pulled across once the sun swings round turns hard glare into soft, even light, and the river is still there through the weave. On the hottest days, a heavier lined panel in front of the sheer holds back the heat and stops the sun bleaching the floor and the sofa. Two rods, or one double rod, let you use either layer or both.
Choosing custom drapes in Tiverton, RI for a west-facing room means planning for that rhythm: a cloth that tolerates sun, a lining to shield it and hardware that makes drawing the drapes effortless, because it will happen most afternoons from spring to autumn.
Picking Fabric That Lasts by the Water
Every cloth changes in strong light eventually. The aim on the waterfront is to choose one that changes slowly and evenly.
Shade and colour
Whites, oatmeal, driftwood grey and pale stone are kind to a sunny room; they suit the setting and any gradual softening barely shows. Rich jewel tones and dark navies are the first to look tired on a west wall. Strong colour can still have its place: on a gable window that faces inland, in cushions, or on the bed, where the sun reaches less.
Weave and fibre
Delicate cloths such as silk are a poor match for a sunny river window, since sunlight weakens them. A firmer weave with some substance keeps its shape and hangs evenly through the seasons. Open, breathable weaves cope better with damp, salty air than very dense ones, which can stay clammy after a foggy morning.
The lining
On heavily glazed walls, a lining is the hardest-working part of the drape. It takes the sun’s brunt, keeps the face fabric’s colour and gives the panel body. A sheer is left unlined, of course, but any heavier drape on the water side nearly always benefits.
You can handle the full fabric range in the Swansea showroom, and our specialists will be frank about which cloths will and will not suit a given room.
Nanaquaket: More Glass than Wall
Around Nanaquaket, many houses open their main rooms to the water almost entirely, with window, slider and window again along one side. That leaves very little plain wall for drapes, and it changes the planning order. Before talking about fabric or heading, we work out where the open drapes will live.
If the glass runs nearly corner to corner, the panels may be gathered at the two far ends, against the side walls, with the rod running the full width of the room. If a slider sits at one end, the panels may all draw to the other. Sometimes a run of glass is best divided into bays of fabric, each pair covering two or three windows, so no single panel is too heavy to draw.
In other rooms, fabric that never moves is the right call. A tall panel at each end of the glass wall softens the edges of the view and absorbs some of the echo in a room of glass and hard floors, while a shade near the glass does the daily work.
Furniture matters here too. A sofa or a dining table set in front of the glass affects how close to the window the drapes can hang and which way they can draw. We look at the room as it is lived in, not just the empty wall.
Winter on the Waterfront
A glass-walled room that soaks up sun all afternoon can turn cold quickly on a January evening. Drapes help it keep the warmth it gained during the day.
Pull the drapes across as the light fades, and a layer of lined fabric sits between the room and the cold glass. The more completely it covers, the better it works: panels wide enough to cross over in the centre, ends that bend back to meet the wall and a hem that reaches the floorboards all cut down the cold air that slides off the glass and along the floor. In a room you use every evening, that can make the difference between reaching for a sweater and not.
Ready to Get Started? Book Your Free Quote
Call the Swansea store for a free quote, or come and see the samples in person.
Four Corners Farmhouses
Around Four Corners, the older farmhouses sit back among stone walls and fields. Their windows are multi-paned sash in plain, sturdy trim, often several to a wall, and the rooms have a calm, practical feel that fancy drapery would fight.
Simple panels suit them best. Linen or cotton, plain or in a modest check, hung from a rod just above the trim and falling to the floor, look as if they have always been there. In a keeping room or dining room with a fireplace, a heavier woven cloth makes the room feel warm in winter. Where windows line one wall, a single long rod across them all, with panels between the windows, can look tidier than separate pairs.
Because these houses face fields rather than open water, they can take stronger colours and bolder patterns than the waterfront, and traditional checks and stripes look completely at home. A farmhouse with a stove or fireplace in the main room also benefits from fabric that can be brushed down easily, since a little woodsmoke and ash finds its way into curtains over a winter.
Shingled Capes and Their Dormers
The shingled capes near Four Corners keep their bedrooms upstairs under the roof. Each dormer window sits at the end of a small tunnel, with sloped ceiling on both sides, and a standard pair of drapes has nowhere to open.
Three answers work well. A café-length curtain on a slender rod within the dormer itself, covering the lower part of the glass and leaving the top for light. A single panel that slides to whichever side of the dormer has more room. Or a pair hung on the bedroom wall in front of the dormer, framing the whole opening like a doorway. The last option is often the prettiest when the room is large enough.
Downstairs, the cape’s living room usually has one main window facing the road. Carrying the rod onto the wall on each side lets the curtains open fully, so a modest window gives all the light it can.
Sleeping Late with a River View
West-facing bedrooms on the Sakonnet stay bright well into summer evenings, which is lovely until you want an early night. A blackout-style lining behind a light, airy face fabric gives you both: a room that feels fresh by day and turns properly dark when the drapes close.
Light finds the gaps, so we close them. A generous crossover where the panels meet, rods whose ends return to the wall, and hems that just touch the floor all help. Bedding made in a fabric that picks up the curtains, through our fabric decor service, finishes the room.
Privacy Facing the Water
It is easy to think a house on the water has no one looking in. By day that is mostly true. After dark, though, a lit room with a wall of bare glass is visible from a long way across the river or the pond, from boats, from the far shore and from neighbouring docks. It often only becomes obvious on the first autumn evening in a bright room, when the black glass shows nothing but your own reflection.
Drapes give the room back its sense of enclosure at night. Because the view matters so much by day, the drapes on a water wall are usually planned to disappear when open and to close completely when drawn. A lined panel that meets in the middle and covers the full height of the glass does that. That evening comfort can be as big a reason to order custom drapes in Tiverton, RI as the afternoon sun.
Keeping Waterfront Drapes Fresh
Salt air and damp mornings settle into fabric over time, so drapes near the water appreciate a little routine care. On dry, breezy days, opening the windows lets the fabric air out. A soft brush on the vacuum, run down each panel every few weeks, lifts dust and salt before they bed in. Lighter curtains in the farmhouse kitchen can simply be taken down and freshened.
For lined drapes, professional cleaning is the safer choice, since a face fabric and its lining can shrink unevenly in a home wash and the hems end up crooked. When you choose your custom drapes in Tiverton, RI, we will tell you how that specific fabric should be cared for.
Rods, Tracks and Draw
The hardware decides how the drapes move and where they can hang. Along a river wall that is opened and closed every afternoon, the fabric should glide with one easy pull, so rings on a pole or a smooth-running track make sense. In a farmhouse parlour where the drapes are mostly left open as a frame, a pole with a tailored pleated heading looks crisp. Where glass runs right to the ceiling, a track fixed to the ceiling lets the fabric fall the full height and run the full width.
On the measuring visit we will look at each window with you and explain which arrangement suits it and why. Where a long, heavy run of fabric is involved, we also check what the hardware will fix into, because a waterfront wall of glass often has a beam or a header above it that takes a bracket well, while a ceiling may need its fixings placed with more care.
How Your Drapery Order Runs
Expect regular updates from us at each stage.
- Call us using the button or send the form, tell us about the rooms and which way they face, and we arrange a free quote.
- One of our specialists visits to measure, recording the glass, the side walls, the ceiling, any sliders and how the furniture sits.
- At the showroom, you settle on fabric, then lining, heading and length for each window.
- We follow up with a quote broken down by room.
- Each pair of custom drapes in Tiverton, RI is made to those measurements.
- On installation day, our team mounts the rods or tracks, hangs every panel and dresses the folds.
Two Layers on Exposed Glass
Glass that faces the water often wants a working layer and a soft one. Close to the window, a shade copes with glare and privacy, and you can still see out through many of them. In front, drapes add warmth, colour and the feeling of a finished room after dark. Cellular shades with lined drapes are a warm combination for winter; roller shades with sheers suit the long, bright days.
We make the shades as well as the drapes, so both are designed and measured together. For pillows, cushions or a duvet cover in the curtain fabric, see custom fabric decor in Tiverton.
Just Across the State Line in Swansea
Window Works has been a family store in Swansea, Massachusetts since 1988, and the second generation is at the helm now. For more than 37 years it has made drapes for houses in both states, and Tiverton is a short drive away.
- Specialists in window treatments with deep experience of fabric
- A measuring visit to your house and installation by our own team
- Fabric to compare side by side in the showroom
- Warranties are offered on our products
- Steady contact from us until the work is done
Our main custom drapes page explains more about how we make drapery, and the Tiverton window treatments page shows the full range for the town.
Questions from Tiverton
How do drapes cope with the afternoon sun off the Sakonnet?
With the right choices, well. A pale, sturdy fabric with a lining, plus a sheer to draw in the late afternoon, keeps both the room and the drapes in good shape.
Most of my Nanaquaket living room wall is glass. Can it still have drapes?
Yes. We decide first where the open fabric will gather, often against the side walls, or use fixed end panels with a shade doing the daily work.
What drapes suit an old farmhouse near Four Corners?
Plain linen or cotton panels, or a traditional check, hung just above the trim and falling to the floor.
Can I sleep in a west-facing room that stays light late?
Yes. A darker lining behind a light face fabric, a good overlap in the middle and returns at the sides make the room properly dark.
What does the quote cost?
Nothing at all. Call us or use the form to set one up.
Book Your Free Quote
A free quote is the first step. The call button takes you straight to the Swansea store, where we can book a measuring visit to your house or talk through installation; the form is there if you would rather write. You are welcome to browse the fabric in the showroom first, and the contact page shows how to get there. Google reviewers rate the store 5.0.