Motorized Blinds and Shades in Attleboro, MA

Bays, Transoms and Tall Sash near Downtown

The older houses near downtown Attleboro and up on Oak Hill were built with windows that nothing off a shelf will fit: three-sided bays, tall sash in high-ceilinged rooms, and transoms over doors and wide windows. Those are exactly the windows where motorized blinds in Attleboro, MA earn their keep, because they are made to measure in any case, and a bay with three or five separate shades is a lot of walking and reaching to run by hand.

Away from the centre, the town changes. The split-levels off Route 123 and the ranches of South Attleboro have more regular windows, but most still have one or two that are awkward: a broad living room window behind a sofa, short lower-level windows near the ceiling, a bedroom window over the bed. We look at the whole house and suggest a motor only where it makes daily life easier.

• Operated by remote, by wall switch, or by both
• Each shade or blind made for its own opening
• Fitted and set up by our installers, who show you the controls

What We Motorize in Attleboro Houses

Every face of a bay

A separate shade for the centre and each angled side, so the bay closes neatly without leaning over the window seat or the plants.

Tall Victorian sash

High windows in rooms with tall ceilings, where the top of a shade is out of reach.

Glass over the stairs

Landing and stairwell windows run from a switch at the bottom or the top of the flight.

The split-level picture window

The main room’s wide front window, raised from a switch on the half-landing as you come up.

Ranch bedrooms

A remote by the bed for dark nights and slow mornings in South Attleboro bedrooms.

Made to the opening

Sizes taken at the house, colours and fabrics chosen with you, nothing bought off the shelf.

Bay Windows and Motorized Blinds in Attleboro, MA

A bay is the window most Attleboro owners of older houses ask about first, and it is a good place to show how motorized blinds in Attleboro, MA are planned. A bay is really three windows, sometimes five, set at angles to each other. Each face needs its own shade, sized to its own frame, and the shades have to close to the same line so the bay looks even from the room and from the street.

By hand, that means leaning over whatever sits in the bay, a window seat, a table, a row of plants, and pulling three or more cords in turn. In practice, the shades on the side panels tend to stay down and the centre one up, or the reverse, and the bay never quite works as it should. With a motor on each shade, you raise or lower them from the room without moving anything.

Fitting the angles

The angled sides of a bay leave little room where the shades meet at the corners. Each headrail has to fit its face without clashing with the one beside it, and the motor sits within that headrail. We measure each face of the bay and the depth of the frame separately, rather than treating the bay as one wide window, and check how the corners will look when every shade is down.

Light in a bay

Bays catch light from three directions, which is why they were built. The side facing the morning sun and the side facing the afternoon need lowering at different times. With separate powered shades, you can close one side and leave the others open, following the sun round rather than shutting the whole bay to deal with one bright pane.

What sits in the bay

Bays in the older Attleboro houses are rarely empty. Some have a built-in seat with cushions, some a dining table pushed into the curve, some a desk, a piano or a crowd of plants enjoying the light. Whatever is there decides how far each shade can come down and how the controls should work. A window seat means the shades should stop just above the cushions, not on them. A table in the bay means no one wants to lean across the plates to reach a cord, which is the strongest argument for a remote kept on the sideboard.

We note what sits in each bay on the measuring visit, and if a radiator or a heating vent sits under the glass, we plan the shade so it hangs clear of it. Getting these details right at the start is what makes a powered bay feel effortless once it is in.

Transoms and High Windows in the Older Houses

Many of the Victorians and colonials near the centre have transoms: a fixed pane above a door or above a wide window. They let in light, and in a bedroom or a front room they also let in the street light at night and the sun first thing in the morning. They are usually left uncovered because they are high, fixed and an unusual shape.

A transom is one of the few places in a house where you cannot simply reach up and pull a cord. Whether a particular transom can take a powered shade depends on its size, its shape and the space around it, so we measure each one and tell you honestly what will fit. Where a shade works, a switch beside the door lets you close it with the rest of the room.

The same goes for the tall sash in a high-ceilinged parlour or dining room. The top of the window can be well above head height, and a long cord hangs down to the floor to reach it. A motorized shade on a window like that removes the cord altogether and brings the shade down evenly every time.

Keeping the trim on show

The older houses near downtown and on Oak Hill often have deep, decorative window trim. Where the frame is deep enough, we fit the shade inside it so the trim stays visible. Where it is shallow, the headrail can sit above the trim, sized to the trim’s width so it looks deliberate. We check the depth at every window, since the windows in an old house are rarely all the same.

Split-Levels off Route 123

The split-levels off Route 123 are a different kind of house with a different set of awkward windows. The main room sits half a flight up from the front door, and its wide front window faces the street. A sofa nearly always sits under it, so raising the blind means kneeling on the cushions. A powered blind there can be run from a switch on the half-landing, so it goes up as you come upstairs in the morning.

The lower level, half below ground, has short windows set close to the ceiling. They are the windows least often covered, and in a lower-level family room or office they let the glare straight onto a television or a screen. A small powered shade on each one makes the room easy to darken. Because these windows sit close to the ground outside, they are also the ones a passer-by can see into at night, so a shade that closes from a switch at the bottom of the stairs is welcome.

Bedrooms in a split are on the upper level, often with two windows each. A remote on the nightstand covers both shades, one after the other, without getting up.

South Attleboro Ranches

The ranches in South Attleboro are one storey, with the living room at the front and bedrooms along one side. The living room window is broad, and a single shade across it is heavy to lift by hand. A motor raises it smoothly and evenly. If the house has a slider out to the back yard, that is another candidate, since the covering on a wide door is the one most often left in one position all day. Our vertical blinds in Attleboro page covers the hand-operated options for patio doors.

In a ranch kitchen, the window over the sink sits behind a deep counter. It is a small window, but it is the one you reach across most, often with wet hands. A powered shade there is a modest change you notice every day.

Colonials on Oak Hill and Their Stair Halls

The colonials on Oak Hill and around the older streets near the centre usually have a central stair hall, with a window on the landing halfway up and sometimes another at the top. Those windows light the stairs by day, and at night they are dark squares that the neighbours can see into. Covering them by hand means stopping halfway up the stairs and leaning across the banister to reach the cord.

A powered shade on a landing window is one of the most useful single changes in a house like this. With a switch at the foot of the stairs, the shade comes down as you go up for the night and rises again in the morning as you come down. Nobody has to stretch over the rail, and the shade always closes to the same line.

The front rooms of these colonials are usually a matched pair either side of the hall, each with two or three tall windows facing the street. From outside, those windows read as a set. If you power the shades in one room, we keep the fabric, colour and lowered height the same as in the room opposite, even if those are run by hand, so the front of the house stays symmetrical.

A Room at a Time

Few households power a whole older house in one go, and there is no need to. The most common place to start with motorized blinds in Attleboro, MA is the room with the hardest windows, often the bay, followed later by the stair hall or the bedrooms. Because every shade is made to measure, a room added later can match the first exactly, as long as the fabric and colour are noted when the first order is placed, which we do.

Starting with one room also lets you find out how you actually use the controls. Some find a remote they keep on the arm of a chair is all they need. Others find that a switch by the door is what gets used every day. Knowing that before the next room is planned makes the next order fit the house better.

How the Work Runs

We stay in touch with you from the first conversation until the last shade is running. Here is the usual order of events for an Attleboro house.

1. Call the Swansea store or use the form to book a free quote, and mention the bays, transoms or windows you have in mind.
2. If you like, visit the showroom first to look through the fabrics, slats and colours in person.
3. A specialist comes out for measuring in your home, taking each face of a bay and each transom separately and checking the depth of every frame.
4. We agree which windows will be powered and whether each room gets a remote, a wall switch or both.
5. You receive a quote listing every window.
6. Each shade or blind is made to the measurements taken at the house.
7. Our installers fit them, set up the controls and show you how everything works.

Remotes and switches in an older house

In a Victorian or a colonial, the rooms are separate and the doors matter. A switch beside the parlour door or at the foot of the stairs suits the way those houses are used: you close the shades as you leave a room or go up for the night. In a split-level or ranch, with more open rooms, a remote kept by the sofa is often handier. Many houses end up with some of each. We plan it on the measuring visit, room by room.

The shade first, then the motor

The motor is a convenience. The shade itself still has to suit the room, and in an older Attleboro house that often means a fabric that sits well with the trim and the period of the house. In a bedroom, a room darkening fabric does the work at night. In a south-facing living room, a fabric that softens glare and keeps some view may be the better choice. We settle the shade first and add a motor where it helps, which also lets powered and hand-operated windows match.

The window treatments for Attleboro homes page shows the other services we bring to the town, and our main motorized blinds page covers the service across every town we serve.

Fewer cords, tidier windows

Powered shades have no lift cords. In a bay with three or five shades, or a parlour with tall windows, that removes a row of cords that would otherwise hang to the floor. It looks tidier, and it means nothing loose within reach of small children or pets.

Care over the years

Powered shades ask for very little. Dust the fabric or slats lightly every so often, and use a damp cloth only where the material allows it. In a bay, keep plants and ornaments on the seat or sill back from the glass so nothing sits in the path of a lowering shade. Run any shade you rarely use, such as a transom or a guest room window, all the way up and down now and then, so you notice early if it starts to move unevenly. If something seems wrong, call the store, tell us which window it is and what it is doing, and we will take it from there.

What Sets Window Works Apart

Since 1988, Window Works has been a family business in Swansea, and the second generation runs it today. Over 37 years, the store has dressed windows across the SouthCoast and the Rhode Island East Bay, including the bays and tall sash of Attleboro.

• An experienced team that works on window treatments every day
• Measuring in your home, then installation by our own team
• Warranties offered on what we supply
• Constant contact with you until the job is finished
• A Swansea showroom with fabrics and samples to handle

Visit the showroom

Your Next Step

When you are ready to price motorized blinds in Attleboro, MA, start with a free quote. Use the call button to reach the Swansea store, arrange measuring in your home or ask about installation, or send the form and we will come back to you. Prefer to look first? The showroom has the fabrics and colours on hand, and the contact page explains how to find it. Window Works is rated 5.0 on Google.