Three Kinds of House, One Hard Window
Planning roller shades in Cumberland, RI usually means planning for more than one era of house. The colonials around Diamond Hill and Arnold Mills have regular, well-proportioned sash in pairs and threes. The newer subdivisions off Mendon Road add big open rooms, wide back windows and, in many of them, a two-storey entry with a tall window or a stack of windows high above the front door. Down in Valley Falls, the older houses keep the smaller, plainer openings they were built with.
Of all of these, the two-storey entry window is the hardest reach in town. It is too high for a ladder to be a casual answer and too visible from the street to leave bare without thinking about it. A good part of this page is about that window, and about the rest of the house around it.
- Roller fabrics in light filtering and blackout
- Solar screens for glare with the view kept
- Motorised options for glass nobody can reach
What We Make for Cumberland Windows
For the high entry window
A shade hung high above the foyer, raised and lowered from a remote or a switch on the wall, so the window is controlled from the floor.
Bedrooms that need dark
Blackout fabric for bedrooms facing a street light or the early sun, sized to cover the frame fully.
Glass on several sides
Matching shades for a sunroom or a family room addition, each lowered on its own as the sun comes round.
Soft daylight
Light filtering weaves for kitchens, offices and living rooms, where you want brightness without being on show.
Roller Shades in Cumberland, RI, House by House
The right shade depends far more on the house than on the town, and Cumberland gives us three quite different starting points. Here is how roller shades in Cumberland, RI tend to be worked out in each of them, starting with the window that brings most people to us.
The two-storey entry in a Mendon Road subdivision
Walk into many of the newer houses off Mendon Road and the first thing you see is height: a foyer open to the second floor, a staircase climbing one wall, and a window, or a tall window with a smaller one above it, letting light into the whole space. By morning or evening, depending on which way the house faces, that window can throw strong light down the stairs and into the rooms beyond. At night it puts the hall on display to the street.
A shade solves both problems, but only if it can be worked. A manual shade high above a staircase is one you will never touch again after the day it is hung. That is why we usually suggest a motorised roller shade here, raised and lowered from a remote or a wall switch placed by the front door or at the top of the stairs. You lower it when the sun comes round or the lights go on, and lift it the rest of the time.
The fabric for an entry window is usually a light filtering weave or a solar screen. A light filtering fabric hides the hall from outside while keeping it bright. A solar screen keeps the view of the sky and the trees and takes the glare off the stairs. Blackout is rarely wanted in a hall, since the point of the window is light.
Where the entry has a window above a window, we look at whether one shade, two shades, or a shade on the lower window only makes sense. An arched or angled top section is often left bare, while the rectangular window below takes a shade. We talk it through on site, standing in the hall, rather than deciding from a photo.
Open plan rooms and wide back windows
The same subdivision houses tend to have a great room or a kitchen and family room run together across the back, with a wide window, a run of windows, or a slider onto a deck. That much glass facing the yard is pleasant until the afternoon, when the sun lands on the television, the kitchen island and the floor all at once.
Solar screens are the usual answer for those back walls. Openness is the property to think about. A looser weave keeps more of the yard visible and lets more light into the room. A closer weave cuts more of the glare off screens and surfaces and gives more privacy if the back of the house faces a neighbour. Many families pick one colour for every window in the open space and then vary the weave only where the sun is worst, which keeps the room looking calm.
A darker screen colour generally gives a clearer view out, because the fabric itself catches less light. A lighter screen blends with white trim and walls. We bring samples of both so you can hold them up at the time of day the sun bothers you.
For the slider, a roller shade can work if it is mounted high enough to clear the door frame, but a vertical blind or panel track is often the more practical choice for a door you walk through all day. If woven texture appeals more than a smooth screen, woven wood shades in Cumberland bring a natural look to the same openings.
Colonials around Diamond Hill and Arnold Mills
The colonials in these neighbourhoods are the easiest houses in town to plan for, because their windows tend to repeat. The front of the house shows a row of similar double-hung windows on both floors, and the rooms behind them are traditional: a living room, a dining room, a study, bedrooms upstairs.
Because the windows match, a colonial suits a consistent look from the street. We usually suggest one fabric colour on every front-facing window, fitted the same way, so the house reads as one even if the bedrooms behind take blackout and the living room takes a lighter weave. The fabric choice changes from room to room; the face to the street does not.
Most colonial frames have enough depth for the shade to sit inside them, which leaves the trim visible. Where a frame is shallow, or where the owner wants a bedroom as dark as possible, the shade is fixed above the frame instead and made wider than the glass, which reduces the light that creeps in at the sides.
A formal dining room or a main bedroom in a colonial often gets drapes as well as a shade. The shade does the daily work of light and privacy; the drapes bring colour and softness. Window Works makes custom drapes in Cumberland too, so both can be measured on the same visit.
Older Valley Falls houses
The older housing in Valley Falls is smaller in scale, with plainer windows and frames that have had decades to settle. Few of them are perfectly square any more, and many have later storm windows or replacement sash fitted into the original openings.
Those details decide the shade. An out-of-square frame can leave a tapering gap down one side if the shade is made to a single width, so each window is measured at the top, middle and bottom. A storm window or replacement frame can reduce the depth available inside the opening, which may push the shade outside the frame. For bedrooms close to the street, blackout fabric fixed outside the frame is the most effective way to keep a room dark at night.
Ready to Get Started? Book Your Free Quote
Call the Swansea store for a free quote, or come and see the samples in person.
Choosing the Fabric
Every roller shade starts with the fabric, and there are really three families to choose from.
Light filtering fabrics let daylight through softly and stop the view in. They are the choice for most living spaces, kitchens and home offices, and they suit the colonial living rooms and the subdivision great rooms alike.
Blackout fabrics block the light. Bedrooms, nurseries and any room with a big screen are where they go. In a house where the bedrooms face a street light or the rising sun, they make the most difference.
Solar screens are open weaves that cut glare while leaving the view. Back walls of glass, sunrooms and that tall entry window are their natural home.
Colour and texture come next. Plain, textured and woven looks are available, from soft whites that disappear against the trim to stronger colours that make the shade part of the room’s design. Seeing them in daylight at your own window is the surest way to choose.
A practical point for the subdivision houses: when the walls and trim are a single builder white throughout, a shade in a slightly warmer or cooler white can look off once it is hung. We hold samples against your actual trim so the shade matches the house rather than the brochure.
How the Order Runs
From the first conversation to the finished install, Window Works stays in touch with you until the job is done. A Cumberland order typically goes like this.
- Call the Swansea store or send the form, mention the rooms and any hard-to-reach windows, and book a free quote.
- A specialist visits to measure each window, checking frame depth, squareness and anything that could get in the way, such as a lock, a crank or a stair rail below a high window.
- For an entry window, we also plan where a remote or wall switch will be most useful.
- You choose fabrics and colours from samples at home, or by visiting the showroom in Swansea.
- Your quote lists each window, so every shade on the order is clear.
- The shades are made to the measurements taken in your house.
- Our team installs them, including the high ones, checks that each runs straight and stops in the right place, and shows you how to use them.
Sunrooms and additions
Several Cumberland houses have had sunrooms or family room additions put on at the back, with glass on two or three walls. Those rooms are lovely in the morning and hard to sit in by late afternoon. Matching roller or solar shades on every window let you shade one wall at a time as the sun moves, and when every shade is lowered the room still looks like one finished space.
If the addition gets cold in winter as well as bright in summer, it is worth talking about whether a cellular shade would suit some of those windows better. We will tell you honestly which product fits each window.
Motorised shades beyond the foyer
Once a remote or switch is in place for the entry, some owners add motorised shades in other awkward spots: a window behind a sofa, a high kitchen window over the sink, or a run of back windows that would take a long time to work one by one. Our page on motorised blinds and shades in Cumberland has more on how they work.
Swansea Made, Cumberland Fitted
Window Works is a family store founded in Swansea in 1988 and now in its second generation. It serves the SouthCoast of Massachusetts and the Rhode Island East Bay, and its specialists cover Cumberland the same way they cover the streets around the shop.
- Window treatment specialists, with over 37 years behind the store
- Measuring in the home, then installation by our own team
- Solutions tailored to each house and each window
- Constant contact with you until the work is finished
- Warranties offered on the products we sell
The showroom in Swansea has roller fabrics and solar screens to compare, along with the Norman range.
Home offices and bonus rooms
The newer houses often have a room over the garage or a small front room that has become a home office. These rooms tend to have a single window, sometimes facing the street, and a desk placed wherever the outlets allow. The problem is usually glare on a screen at one particular time of day rather than too much light overall. A solar screen on that window cuts the glare while keeping the room bright and the view outside, and you can lower it only when the sun reaches the desk. If the office doubles as a guest room, a blackout fabric gives you the option of a dark room at night, and the shade can stay raised and out of sight during the working day.
In a room over a garage, the windows may sit in a dormer or under a sloped ceiling. We check the clearance above the glass carefully there, because there is often little room for a shade to roll up, and we note whether a sloped ceiling affects how the shade can be fixed. These small points decide whether roller shades in Cumberland, RI bonus rooms look neat or awkward, which is why they are checked on site and not guessed.
Caring for your shades
A roller shade asks for very little. Dust it now and then with a soft brush or a vacuum on a gentle setting, and spot clean most fabrics with a damp cloth. Motorised shades need nothing extra beyond keeping the remote somewhere you can find it. If a shade you already own stops rolling true, a bracket loosens or a hem bar comes away, ask us about a repair before replacing it.
Every service we offer in town is listed on the window treatments for Cumberland homes page, and the complete range of roller fabrics and screens is on our main roller shades page.
Questions from Cumberland
How do I control a shade on a window high above my stairs?
A motorised shade is raised and lowered from a remote or a wall switch, so you never need a ladder or a pole. We plan where the switch goes during the measuring visit.
Should the window above my entry window get a shade too?
It depends on its shape and the light it lets in. Arched or angled tops are often left bare while the window below takes a shade. We look at it with you in the hall before suggesting anything.
What works on a wide back window in an open plan room?
A solar screen usually suits it best. It takes the glare off screens and surfaces and keeps the yard in view. A looser weave keeps more view, a closer one more privacy.
Can every front window on my colonial match?
Yes. We often suggest the same colour and fitting on every street-facing window, even when the rooms behind them use different fabrics.
Is the quote free?
Yes, quotes are free. Use the call button or the form and tell us which windows you are thinking about.
Book Your Free Quote
When you are ready, use the call button to book a free quote for roller shades in Cumberland, RI, to arrange measuring in your home or to ask about installation, including the high windows. You can also send the form and the store will be in touch. To see fabrics and screens side by side first, visit the Swansea showroom; directions are on the contact page. Window Works holds a 5.0 rating on Google.