Window Treatments and Blinds for Tiverton, RI Homes

Sun, Salt and the Sakonnet

Water decides most window treatments in Tiverton, RI. The houses on Nanaquaket and along the Sakonnet River were built to look out, so their water-facing rooms carry a lot of glass, often whole walls of it, and that glass takes full sun off the river and salt on the breeze. Inland, around Four Corners, the farmhouses and shingled capes are a gentler job: smaller windows, older frames and rooms tucked under the roof.

The two need almost opposite thinking. On the shore, the fabric has to stand up to strong light and damp air without fading or sagging, and the treatment must never get in the way of the view it was built for. At Four Corners, the challenge is fitting older openings that are rarely square and keeping low-ceilinged rooms bright.

• Fabrics chosen for sun and salt where the house faces the water
• Every opening measured in your home
• Installed by our own team from Swansea

Each Service, Made for Tiverton

Roller and solar shades

Solar screen cuts the glare off the Sakonnet while you still see the water. Pick the openness by how much view you want to keep.

Roller shades in Tiverton

Cellular shades

Honeycomb cells trap air at the glass, which helps an exposed shore room hold its warmth through a windy winter.

Cellular shades in Tiverton

Motorized shades

A remote or a wall switch moves a whole wall of shades at once, so a glass-heavy room is easy to manage as the sun swings round.

Motorized shades in Tiverton

Plantation shutters

Interior shutters suit the farmhouse rooms around Four Corners, with louvres you tilt for light and close for the night.

Plantation shutters in Tiverton

Drapes and curtains

Our specialty. Sheers soften the river light and lined side panels add warmth and colour after dark.

Drapes in Tiverton

Woven wood shades

Natural weaves with a coastal feel. Light comes through in a pattern, and a liner closes the gaps when needed.

Woven wood in Tiverton

Roman shades

Soft folds of fabric for a cape’s kitchen or bedroom, flat, hobbled or relaxed.

Roman shades in Tiverton

Custom blinds

Faux wood and aluminium slats handle damp air well. Wood suits the drier rooms of an inland farmhouse.

Custom blinds in Tiverton

Vertical blinds

For the sliding doors out to a deck over the water, vanes or panel tracks that clear the opening completely.

Vertical blinds in Tiverton

Norman range

We carry Norman blinds, shades and shutters, and you can try them for yourself in the Swansea showroom.

Norman in Tiverton

Fabric decor

Pillows, duvet covers and some upholstery in fabrics that match the windows of the room.

Fabric decor in Tiverton

Glass Facing the Water

The heavily glazed rooms on Nanaquaket and the Sakonnet shore are the ones that bring most Tiverton calls. They are wonderful rooms, and they are hard on whatever hangs in them. Choosing window treatments in Tiverton, RI for a room like this means answering three questions in order: how to keep the view, how to tame the sun, and what will last in salt air.

Keeping the view

These rooms exist for the water, so the first rule is that the treatment should disappear when you want it to. Roller shades and cellular shades both roll or stack into a slim headrail at the top of the frame, leaving the glass almost completely clear. Drapes can stack to the sides of a wall of windows, clear of the glass, if the rod runs wide enough. We measure with that in mind, allowing room for the stack so it never eats into the view.

Solar screen is the material that lets you keep the view with the shade down. It is a woven screen that cuts glare and heat while you still see out. The openness of the weave decides the balance: a more open screen keeps more of the river in sight, a tighter one blocks more glare. We bring samples so you can hold them up to your own glass at the time of day the sun is worst.

Taming the sun

Light off water is strong and comes from low angles, especially late in the day on a west-facing shore. It fades floors, rugs and furniture, and it can make a room too bright to sit in. Layering is often the answer: a solar shade for the bright hours, with lined drapes or a room-darkening shade behind for evenings or bedrooms.

Where a room has more glass than anyone wants to work by hand, motorized shades help. A single remote or a switch on the wall can bring a run of shades down together, which is far easier than walking along a glass wall pulling cords. We keep it to remote and wall-switch operation.

Fabric that lasts in salt air

Salt and damp are the quiet enemies of a shore room. Some natural fibres take up moisture and can sag or spot. Untreated metal parts can corrode. For the water-facing rooms we lean toward fabrics and materials that cope with damp air and strong sun: solution-dyed and synthetic shade fabrics, faux wood rather than real wood for blinds, and drapery fabrics that hold their colour in sunlight. Where you love the look of linen or a natural weave, a lining can protect the face fabric from the worst of the sun.

This is the part where advice from someone who has seen a lot of shore rooms matters most, and it is one of the reasons we bring samples to the house rather than asking you to choose from a picture.

Four Corners Farmhouses and Shingled Capes

Away from the water, window treatments in Tiverton, RI are a different job: the farmhouses and shingled capes around Four Corners ask for something quite different. Their windows are smaller, many frames are old and slightly out of square, and the upstairs rooms in a cape sit under a sloping roof with a dormer window as the only daylight.

Older frames

An old frame is rarely the same width at the top as at the bottom. We measure each window at several points, so the treatment is made to fit the opening as it really is. Where the frame is deep enough, an inside mount keeps the old casing on show, which suits a farmhouse with good original trim. Plantation shutters are a strong choice here, because the frame of the shutter can be made to sit true even in an opening that is not.

Cape dormers and small upstairs windows

A dormer is often the only window in a cape’s bedroom, so whatever covers it should stack small and leave the glass clear when raised. Cellular shades and Roman shades with a compact headrail do this well. If the room needs darkness for sleeping, a blackout cell or a lined Roman shade handles it. You can see more on our cellular shades page.

Farmhouse kitchens and living rooms

Farmhouse kitchens tend to be the heart of the house, with a window over the sink and often a door to the yard. Cafe-style shutters covering the lower half of a window give privacy while letting light in above. Faux wood blinds cope with steam. In the living room, drapes in a warm fabric suit the low ceilings and wide boards, and our custom drapes page explains how we make them.

How a Tiverton Order Comes Together

Window Works is a short drive from Tiverton, and we keep you informed from the first call until the work is finished.

1. Reach the store by the call button or the form, and set up a free quote. Tell us whether the rooms face the water, since that shapes what we bring.
2. A specialist comes out to measure in your home, frame by frame, and notes where the sun comes from and how far the glass runs.
3. Samples come with us. You hold solar screens and shade fabrics up to your own windows, or visit the showroom to see them side by side.
4. A written quote lists each window and what is being made for it.
5. Everything is made to the measurements from your house.
6. Our installers fit the treatments, test each one and show you how they work.
7. If something needs adjusting later, the same store is a call away.

Rooms that face both ways

Many Tiverton houses have a water side and a road side, and the rooms on each side want different things. The water side needs glare control and a clear view. The road side needs privacy, especially in a cape where the front rooms sit close to the street. It is normal to use different treatments on each side and tie them together with a common colour, so the house looks considered from inside and out.

Bedrooms and sleep

Bedrooms facing east over the water get the sunrise straight through the glass. A room-darkening cellular shade, or a lined drape over a lighter shade, keeps the early light out. For a guest room that is used less often, a simple roller shade with a blackout fabric is a practical choice.

Sliding doors to the deck

Decks and patios over the water are common on the shore, and the sliding doors that open onto them are wide. Vertical blinds are the classic answer, with vanes that turn to angle the light and draw aside for the door. Panel tracks, with broad fabric panels sliding on a track, give a softer, more modern look for the same opening.

Matching fabric through the house

Because we make drapes, pillows and duvet covers as well as shades, the same fabric can carry from the windows to the furniture. In a shore room, that might be a sun-tolerant fabric on the drapes and the window seat cushions. In a farmhouse bedroom, a duvet cover that picks up the colour of the curtains. It is a small step that makes a room look finished. The whole range is on our window treatments page.

Looking after treatments near the water

A shore house asks a little more of its window treatments, and a little care keeps them right. Salt settles on everything near the glass, so a gentle dusting or a pass with a soft brush attachment every so often stops it building up in the folds of a shade or the slats of a blind. Faux wood and aluminium slats can be wiped with a damp cloth. Solar screen and most synthetic shade fabrics can be spot cleaned. Drapes are best kept lined on the sunny side, since the lining takes the light and the face fabric keeps its colour.

When the house is closed up for part of the year, lowering the shades on the water side protects floors and furniture from the sun while the rooms are empty. That is one more reason a remote or wall switch is useful on a long run of glass.

Choosing by the room, not by the catalogue

It is easy to start with a product and look for a window to put it on. In a Tiverton house it works better the other way round. For each room, we ask which way it faces, how much glass it has, whether the road or a neighbour can see in, and what the room is used for. Then the choice tends to make itself.

A sunroom on the water with glass on three sides usually ends up with solar screens or light-filtering cellular shades, often motorized. A front parlour in a Four Corners farmhouse might take shutters for privacy from the road and drapes for warmth. A cape bedroom under the eaves wants a blackout shade that stacks small at the dormer. A kitchen wants something that wipes clean. Thinking room by room is how good window treatments in Tiverton, RI come together, and it is the conversation our specialists have with you on the measuring visit.

Porches, entries and the in-between rooms

Farmhouses and older capes often have rooms that are neither inside nor out: an enclosed porch, a mudroom, a back entry with a window in the door. These spaces take a lot of light and see a lot of use, and they are easy to forget until the sun makes them too hot or the evening makes them too exposed. A simple roller shade or a cellular shade fitted inside each frame is usually enough, with a door-mounted shade for any glass in the door itself.

Enclosed porches facing the river are worth a closer look, because they behave like a sunroom. The same solar screens and sun-tolerant fabrics we suggest for the main water-facing rooms apply here too, so the porch stays usable on a bright afternoon.

Doing the house in stages

There is no need to do every window at once. Many Tiverton orders start with the room that is hardest to live with, which on the shore is usually the glass wall facing the water, and later rooms follow. We keep a note of what was made, so the second and third rooms can carry the same colours and fabrics and the house still reads as one.

A Family Store Since 1988

Window Works began in Swansea in 1988 and is run today by the family’s second generation. Across over 37 years we have worked on houses all through the SouthCoast and the Rhode Island East Bay, shore houses and inland farmhouses alike.

• Window treatment specialists with long experience
• Treatments tailored to the house, the room and the light
• We measure in your home and our own team installs
• In constant contact with you until the work is done
• Warranties offered
• A 5.0 rating on Google

See It Before You Choose

The Swansea showroom is the place to compare shade fabrics, solar screens, drapery and shutters side by side, and to see the Norman range in person. If you are weighing up window treatments in Tiverton, RI for a room on the water, bring a photo taken at the brightest time of day, and our specialists will help you match the fabric to the light.

Visit the showroom

Take the Next Step

A free quote is the place to start. Press the call button to talk with the Swansea store about measuring at your Tiverton house or about installation, or send the form and we will come back to you. If you would like to handle the fabrics first, the contact page has directions to the showroom.

Window Works serves 25 towns across the SouthCoast and the Rhode Island East Bay; you can see them all on our service areas page.