Custom Blinds for Homes in Cumberland, RI

The Hardest Reach in Town

Ask anyone who lives in one of the newer subdivisions off Mendon Road which window gives them the most trouble, and the answer is nearly always the same: the two-storey window over the front entry or in the great room. It is high, it is often the largest piece of glass in the house, it pours sun into the foyer, and nobody wants to climb a ladder twice a day to adjust it. That window is where most conversations about custom blinds in Cumberland, RI begin.

The rest of the town is more familiar ground. Colonials around Diamond Hill and Arnold Mills have regular sash windows in symmetrical rows. Valley Falls has older housing, with narrower openings and frames that have moved over the years. Each calls for something different, and every window, high or low, is measured where it is.

• Wood, faux wood, aluminium and vertical blinds
• High windows planned for operation, not just fit
• Measured at your home and installed by our own team

What We Offer Cumberland Homes

Motorised blinds for high glass

Raised, lowered and tilted from a remote or a wall switch, so a window two storeys up is as easy to use as one by the sofa.

Motorized blinds in Cumberland

Wood and faux wood for colonial rooms

Matching sets for the even rows of colonial windows, with faux wood in the kitchen and baths and wood everywhere else.

Norman blinds in Cumberland

Vertical blinds for sliders

A single track and turning vanes for the slider from the kitchen or family room to the deck.

Vertical blinds in Cumberland

The Two-Storey Entry Window

A two-storey window is really several windows: usually a tall rectangle or a pair of them at the lower level, more glass above, and sometimes a half-round or arched window at the very top. From outside it is the centrepiece of the front of the house. From inside it lights the foyer and the stair, and on a sunny afternoon it can make the whole entry glare.

Why it is hard

Three things make it difficult. The first is height: the upper glass is out of reach from the floor, and often from the stair as well. The second is size: the panes are large, and a blind covering one is long and heavy. The third is that it is seen from everywhere, from the street, the foyer, the landing and often the great room, so it has to look right from all of those places.

Three ways to handle it

1. Motorise the high blinds. A motorised blind on each upper window, raised, lowered and tilted from a remote or a wall switch by the front door, puts the whole window under control without a ladder. The lower windows can be motorised too, or fitted with ordinary controls if they can be reached.
2. Cover the lower windows and leave the top clear. Many people only need privacy and glare control at the lower level, where the foyer can be seen from the street. Blinds on those windows, with controls in reach, solve that, and the upper glass stays open to the sky.
3. Set the upper blinds and leave them. Where you want the high glass covered but rarely change it, the upper blinds can be installed with the slats set to an angle that softens the light, and left that way. It is the simplest option, though it gives up day-to-day control.

The arched or half-round piece at the very top of some entry windows is a shape a horizontal blind is not made for. The rectangular windows below it are where blinds belong, and we will talk through the arched top separately at the measuring visit.

Measuring and fitting at height

Our specialist measures each part of the window, including the high glass, so the blinds are made to the openings as they are. At installation, our team fits the upper blinds, checks that they line up with the ones below, and sets up and tests the remote or wall switch for any motorised blinds before showing you how they work.

The landing above the entry

In most houses with a two-storey entry, a landing or bridge runs past the upper glass, and that is the one place where the high windows can be reached at all. If you plan to use ordinary controls on the upper blinds, we look at whether they can hang toward the landing side, within reach of someone standing there, so the blinds can be adjusted without a ladder. Where the landing is too far from the glass, motorising those blinds is the cleaner answer. Either way, choosing custom blinds in Cumberland, RI for an entry window starts by standing on that landing with you during the visit and working out what can be reached from where.

Custom Blinds in Cumberland, RI, Neighbourhood by Neighbourhood

Colonials around Diamond Hill

The colonials around Diamond Hill keep a classic arrangement: windows set in even rows across the front, the same size on each side of the door, with slightly shorter windows above. That regularity is an advantage. One colour, one slat and one drop across every front window keeps the house looking balanced from the road, and a matching set goes up quickly.

Inside, the front living room and dining room usually take wood, the kitchen and bathrooms faux wood, and the family room at the back whatever suits its light, often wood with a wider slat for a more open view of the yard.

Arnold Mills

Arnold Mills mixes older houses with colonials of various ages, and windows there are less predictable. A house that has been added to over the years may have original sash in the front rooms and newer windows in an addition, with different frame depths and sizes. We measure each window separately and suggest an inside or outside mount window by window, keeping one colour throughout so the house still reads as one.

Older houses in Arnold Mills also tend to have a farmhouse feel inside, with wide trim, low windows under the eaves upstairs and sometimes a porch shading the front rooms. Lighter slat colours help those shaded rooms, and slats that tip wide open let in what light the porch allows.

The subdivisions off Mendon Road

Beyond the two-storey entry, the houses in the newer subdivisions off Mendon Road have standard window sizes, square frames and a lot of windows. A great room may have a wall of tall windows, the kitchen a slider to the deck, and the bedrooms a matching pair each. Fit is straightforward; the work is in planning operation and consistency across many windows.

For a great room with tall windows, a wider slat cuts the number of slats and makes each blind easier to lift. Where several tall blinds sit side by side, motorising them lets the whole wall move together from one switch. The kitchen slider takes a vertical blind, and bedrooms take a matching set that closes tight for sleep.

Houses that face each other

Subdivision streets are laid out so that houses face one another across the road, often with front windows lined up almost exactly. Ground floor rooms at the front, especially a dining room or a home office beside the entry, end up in full view of the house opposite once the lights go on. Custom blinds in Cumberland, RI for those front rooms are usually set up to stay lowered: slats angled upward by day for light without a view in, and closed fully in the evening. The two-storey entry window adds to this, because a lit foyer behind tall glass is the brightest thing on the street after dark, which is another reason many people put blinds on at least the lower panes.

Valley Falls

Valley Falls has the town’s older housing, with narrower window openings and frames that have settled. A blind made to the nearest standard width would leave a gap here, so each window is measured at several points and made to its own size. Slimmer slats suit the narrower openings, and aluminium works well on small windows, where its compact stack keeps the glass clear when raised.

From Quote to Installation

1. Use the call button or the form to reach the Swansea store, tell us about the rooms and any high windows, and book a free quote.
2. A specialist visits and measures each window, including the high glass, and talks through materials and how each blind should operate.
3. You choose material, colour, slat width and controls, with samples at home or at the showroom, and decide which windows to motorise.
4. Your quote sets out each window, so you can see exactly what is being made.
5. The blinds are made to our measurements.
6. Our team installs them, sets up any remotes and wall switches, checks every blind and shows you how they work.
7. Throughout, we keep in contact with you until the job is done.

Fitting out a whole house at once

Many of the houses in the newer subdivisions come to us with almost nothing on the windows, sometimes a few years after the owners moved in, sometimes straight after. Doing the whole house in one order has real advantages: every window is measured on one visit, the colours and slats are planned together, and the installation is done in one go.

A whole-house order for custom blinds in Cumberland, RI usually works floor by floor. The front rooms and the entry are settled first, because they set the look from the street. The great room and kitchen come next, where operation and the slider matter most. Bedrooms and bathrooms follow, using the same colour so everything matches through open doors. If budget or timing means splitting the work, we keep a full record of the first order so later rooms match it exactly.

Finished lower levels

Many Cumberland colonials and newer houses have a finished lower level, partly below ground, with short windows set high in the wall. These rooms are often a family room, a gym or an office, and they can be damp. Faux wood or aluminium is the practical choice: both handle moisture, and both stack small, so the little glass there is stays clear when the blind is raised. A walk-out lower level with a slider to the yard takes a vertical blind, the same as the kitchen slider upstairs.

Choosing a material for each room

Ask yourself one question per room: is there steam or damp here? If yes, faux wood is the answer: it looks like a painted wood slat, holds its shape in moist air and wipes clean, which makes it right for kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms and a damp lower level.

If not, wood is usually the first choice for living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms and a home office. It has a real grain, it is light for its size, which helps on tall great room windows, and it suits the trim in a colonial.

For the smallest windows, such as a bathroom window, a stair window or a narrow side light, aluminium gives the slimmest slat and the smallest stack.

For sliders and any opening wider than it is tall, vertical blinds draw aside and turn, where a horizontal blind would be long and heavy.

Sun in the great room and foyer

Two-storey rooms gather a lot of light, and in the afternoon that can mean glare across a television or heat in the foyer. A blind with its slats angled against the sun cuts glare while leaving the room bright, and tilting the slats upward throws light onto the ceiling, which spreads it more evenly through a tall space. On a motorised blind, adjusting the angle through the day takes a press of a button.

Bedrooms want slats that close tight and a close fit at the frame, so early light stays out. A home office does best with the slats angled up, so daylight lands on the ceiling rather than the screen.

Blinds with drapes and other treatments

In a great room or a formal living room, blinds paired with full-length drapes soften a tall wall of glass and add colour, while the blinds handle light and privacy. Window Works makes drapes and custom fabric decor too, so both can be chosen together. Some windows suit a different treatment, such as cellular shades in a cold bedroom or shutters in a kitchen. If another option is the better choice, we will tell you. Our Cumberland window treatments page shows every service in town, and our main custom blinds page covers the full range.

Care

Blinds need very little care. Dust the slats with a soft duster now and then. Faux wood and aluminium can take a damp cloth; wood should stay dry. Vertical vanes can be dusted where they hang. High blinds are best left lowered and closed when you dust from a step, or simply dusted at the same time as the windows are cleaned.

Who Will Be Working on Your Windows

Window Works opened its doors in Swansea in 1988. The same family still runs it, now the second generation, and in over 37 years the store has fitted window treatments throughout the SouthCoast of Massachusetts and up through the Rhode Island East Bay, Cumberland included.

• A specialist team that deals in window treatments and nothing else
• A home visit to measure, up to the highest pane
• Fitting carried out by Window Works installers
• Updates from us all the way to completion
• Warranties on the products we supply

Curious how a motorised blind feels in use? Press the remote yourself at the Swansea showroom, then set wood, faux wood and aluminium next to each other and look through the Norman range.

Visit the showroom

Ready When You Are

Start with a quote, which is free. The call button rings the Swansea store, where we can book the quote, set a date to measure your windows, high ones included, or answer questions about fitting. You can also write to us through the form. If you would like to try a remote or handle samples before anyone visits, find the showroom through the contact page. Window Works carries a 5.0 rating on Google.