Custom Blinds for Homes in Raynham, MA

The Patio Door Problem, and the Rest of the House

Ask what is hardest to cover in a Raynham house and the answer is usually the sliding patio door. The ranches and split-levels off Route 44 and South Main Street almost all have one, opening from a kitchen, a dining area or a lower family room onto a deck or yard. That door is wide, it is glass from top to bottom, and it gets used many times a day, which is why custom blinds in Raynham, MA so often start with the slider and work outward from it.

The newer colonials near Johnson’s Pond and around Raynham Center have sliders too, often paired with larger windows in open kitchens and family rooms. Wherever the door is, the blinds on the windows around it need to sit well beside whatever covers the glass.

• Vertical blinds for sliders and wide openings
• Wood, faux wood and aluminium for the windows around them
• Measured in your home, installed by our own team

Around the Slider: What We Make

Verticals for the door

Vanes on a single track that draw clear of the opening, so the door slides freely and people walk straight through.

Drapes beside the glass

Side panels on a rod above the door can frame a vertical blind or stand alone in a dining area that wants a softer look.

The kitchen window next to it

Faux wood copes with steam from the stove and matches the colour of the vanes on the door, so the two read together.

The front picture window

Wood slats in the living room give the house warmth from the street and tilt for privacy on the front.

Split-level stair windows

Small windows on the half-landings take a slim aluminium slat that stacks neatly and keeps the stairway bright.

A measured frame

The width of the door, the space above it and the clearance for its handle are measured before anything is suggested.

Getting the Slider Right

A sliding door is not a big window. It is a doorway that happens to be glass, and that changes what a blind has to do. Getting custom blinds in Raynham, MA right on a slider means thinking about how often the door is used, which way it opens and what the room around it looks like.

Traffic through the door

On most Raynham splits and ranches, the slider is the main way out to the yard. Trips to the deck, the yard and the grill all pass through it, many times a day in summer. A blind that has to be raised every time is a nuisance, and one that hangs in the way gets knocked and bent.

Vertical blinds solve most of this. The vanes hang from a track above the door and draw to one side, stacking clear of the opening so the door can slide fully open. For quick trips you can simply turn the vanes edge on and walk between them without drawing the blind at all. In the evening the vanes turn to close, and the glass is covered from edge to edge.

Which way it opens

A slider has a fixed panel and a moving panel. The blind should stack on the fixed side, so the open part of the doorway is always clear. That sounds obvious, but it decides where the controls go and which way the vanes travel, and it is the first thing we check when we measure. On a door where both panels move, or where the stack would cover a light switch, we may split the blind in the middle so half draws each way.

Handles and clearance

Patio door handles stick out from the glass. A vertical blind is mounted far enough forward that its vanes clear the handle when they turn. We also measure the space above the door, because some split-levels have very little wall between the top of the frame and the ceiling, and the track has to fit there neatly.

Matching the rest of the room

A slider usually shares a wall or a room with ordinary windows. In a ranch kitchen it may sit beside the window over the sink. In a split-level family room it may share a wall with two smaller windows. The vertical blind on the door and the horizontal blinds on the windows should look like one decision. Matching the colour is the simplest way to do it: white vanes beside white faux wood, or a warm neutral throughout.

For more on verticals and panel tracks for wide doors, see our vertical blinds in Raynham page.

Light and Privacy at a Wall of Glass

A slider lets in more light than any window in the room, and that is both its appeal and its drawback. On a door facing the afternoon sun, the glare across a kitchen table or a television can make the room hard to use for part of the day. Turning the vanes of a vertical blind partway angles the light away while keeping the yard in view, and the angle can be changed as the sun moves.

Privacy works the other way round. A slider onto a deck that looks across to the next yard, or out to a road behind the house, can feel exposed once the lights are on inside. Vertical vanes close fully across the glass, overlapping so there is no line of sight between them, and they open again in the morning with one turn of the wand.

Vane colour plays a part too. A pale vane keeps a room bright even when it is closed. A deeper colour cuts more light and looks warmer at night. We bring samples of both to the house, because the same colour can look quite different against your own glass and floor.

Lining up the heights

In a ranch kitchen or a split-level family room, the slider and the windows beside it are often different heights. If each blind is simply fitted to its own frame, the headrails can end up at three different levels along one wall. Where it suits the room, we mount the track and the headrails at a common height, so the tops line up and the wall looks planned. It is a small detail, and it is one of the reasons custom blinds in Raynham, MA are measured as a whole wall rather than window by window in isolation.

When a Vertical Is Not the Answer

Verticals are the usual choice, but not the only one. In a dining room where the slider is opened mostly in summer, side drapes on a long rod can frame the glass and close across it at night, and some homeowners pair those drapes with a vertical blind behind them for daytime light control. In a room with a modern look, shades made for glass doors give a soft, layered effect. Window Works makes drapes and shades as well as blinds, so we can show all of these side by side and say honestly which suits the way you use the door.

Horizontal blinds are rarely the right answer on a full slider. A blind that wide and tall is heavy to lift, and it has to be raised every time someone wants to go out. On a single French door that opens inward, though, a horizontal blind mounted on the door itself can work well.

Ranches and Split-Levels off Route 44 and South Main Street

Away from the slider, the ranches and split-levels in these neighbourhoods have a familiar pattern of windows. The front living room usually has a wide picture window. Bedrooms have standard double-hung windows, often several the same size. Kitchens have a smaller window over the sink, and split-levels add little windows on the stair landings and partly sunken windows in the lower level.

The picture window

The front window is the one most seen from the street, so it sets the colour for the house. Depending on its width and whether it has a centre post, it takes either one wide blind or two side by side. Two blinds are lighter to raise and let you open one half while the other stays closed. Wood suits a living room well, tilting upward for privacy from the road while still letting in daylight.

The lower level of a split

Lower-level rooms in a split-level sit partly below ground, with windows high on the wall and close to the yard outside. They let in less light, so a blind there should stack small and stay out of the way when raised. Faux wood is sensible if the room doubles as a laundry or a bathroom, and aluminium suits the shallow frames many of these windows have.

Bedrooms down the hall

Bedrooms on a ranch are at ground level. A blind fitted close inside the frame, where the depth allows, closes tight at night and keeps early light down. Matching the bedroom blinds to the front window keeps the outside of the house even.

A den or office downstairs

Many split-levels have a lower-level room used as a den, a playroom or a home office. These rooms often have one or two small windows and, in some houses, their own slider out to the back yard at grade. For an office, slats tilted upward send daylight onto the ceiling instead of across a screen. For a den used mostly in the evening, a blind that closes fully keeps the room snug and private from the yard. If the room has a slider of its own, it gets the same thought as the main door upstairs.

Newer Colonials near Johnson’s Pond and Raynham Center

The newer colonials near Johnson’s Pond and around Raynham Center bring bigger rooms and more glass. Open-plan kitchens often run straight into a family room, with a slider or a set of glass doors at the back and a wide window over the sink. Formal rooms at the front have regular rows of double-hung windows, and upstairs bedrooms follow the same pattern.

In an open kitchen and family room, choosing custom blinds in Raynham, MA is mostly about consistency across a long run. A vertical blind on the doors, faux wood in the kitchen and wood in the family room can all share one colour and look like one room. At the front of the house, wood blinds in the dining and living rooms pair well with drapes. Upstairs, bedrooms can take the same blind as the front rooms, so every window facing the road matches.

Houses near the pond may have rooms that face the water, where the view is part of the reason for the window. Vertical and horizontal blinds both tilt to cut glare while keeping the view, so the blind can stay down through a bright afternoon without blocking the outlook.

Picking a Material Room by Room

Here is a short way to think about the four materials in a Raynham house:

• Vertical for the slider and any other wide opening, where the vanes draw aside and the doorway stays clear.
• Faux wood for the kitchen beside the slider, bathrooms and laundry rooms, where steam and splashes are part of daily life.
• Wood for living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms, where warmth and a natural grain suit the room.
• Aluminium for small stair windows, lower-level windows with shallow frames and anywhere a slim line is wanted.

You also choose colour, slat or vane width and how each blind is operated. Samples help with all of it. We bring them to your home when we measure, and the showroom has the full range to compare.

How an Order Comes Together

We stay in constant contact with you from the first call until the job is done. A typical order for custom blinds in Raynham, MA goes like this.

1. You use the call button or the form to book a free quote and tell us about the slider and the rooms around it.
2. A specialist comes to measure in your home: the door, its handle and clearance, and every window you want covered.
3. We go through materials, colours and controls with you, with samples on hand.
4. You get a quote listing each opening.
5. Your blinds are made to the measurements from your home.
6. Our team installs them, runs the vertical blind across the door to check it clears the handle, and shows you how each blind works.
7. If anything needs a second look later, you call the same store.

What Sets Window Works Apart

Window Works was founded in Swansea in 1988 and is a family store in its second generation. For over 37 years it has worked in homes across the SouthCoast and the Rhode Island East Bay, and Raynham is one of the 25 towns it serves.

• Experienced window treatment specialists
• Measuring in your home on every order
• Installation by our own team
• In touch with you until the job is done
• Warranties offered on the products we sell

Blinds are one part of what we make. See shades, shutters, drapes and more on our window treatments for Raynham homes page, and all our blinds on the main custom blinds page.

Keeping Blinds Working

Dust slats with a soft cloth, closing them one way and then the other. Faux wood and aluminium can be wiped with a damp cloth, which helps on the kitchen window beside a busy door. Keep wood dry. Vertical vanes can be dusted in place, and turning them edge on makes it easy to reach both sides.

A vertical blind on a slider gets more use than any other blind in the house. If a vane comes loose, a cord wears or a wand stops turning on a blind you already own, our team can look at it, and it is often a simple repair.

Try a Vertical at the Showroom

The Swansea showroom is the place to draw a vertical blind across, turn the vanes and see how they stack, before choosing one for your own door. You can compare wood, faux wood and aluminium slats beside it and see colours together in daylight.

Bring a photo of your slider and the room around it. The showroom also has the Norman range on display.

Visit the showroom

Book a Free Quote

A free quote is the place to start. Call the Swansea store with the button on this page to book measuring in your home or ask about installation, or send the form and we will be in touch. To see the blinds first, find the showroom directions on the contact page.