Narrow Mill Openings and Rooms Full of Windows
Lincoln’s housing pulls in two directions. In Lonsdale and Manville, the mill housing keeps its original narrow openings: slim windows in modest rooms, built for the people who worked the mills. Around Lincoln Woods and Breakneck Hill, the newer colonials have standard window sizes and a great many of them. Custom fabric decor in Lincoln, RI has to handle both a room where the window carries only a sliver of cloth and a house where the same window repeats twenty times.
Off Great Road, the large-lot houses add a third kind of room: generous, open to woods and fields, and far from the neighbours.
- Throw pillows, duvet covers and some upholstery
- Matched to the fabric at your windows, whether there are two or twenty
- Cloths to compare at our Swansea showroom
What We Make
Pillows for small rooms
Where a narrow mill window holds only a slim panel, a couple of pillows let its pattern be seen properly.
Covers and shams for the bedroom
A duvet cover and pillows worked out alongside the bedroom curtains, in a cloth chosen for washing as well as looks.
A little upholstery
We take on some upholstery, chosen to suit the window fabric. Describe the piece to us before you plan around it.
Mill Housing in Lonsdale and Manville
The mill houses were built to be practical: compact rooms, plain trim, and narrow window openings that are still the original size. Those narrow openings set the terms for every fabric decision in the house.
Small windows, small amounts of fabric
A narrow window takes a slim panel or a shade fitted inside the frame. Either way, very little cloth shows. In a room where the window’s pattern appears only as a narrow strip, the soft furnishings do the work of showing it off. A pillow cut from the curtain fabric lets the whole print be seen at once. A duvet cover in a companion cloth carries the colour across the bedroom.
Rooms that feel bigger
Mill house rooms are seldom large, and the narrow windows let in a modest amount of daylight. Lighter colours help. A pale curtain with a soft pattern, pillows in two cloths that share its colour, and a light duvet cover keep the room open. One deeper accent, a single pillow in a stronger shade, adds life without making the room shrink.
Fabric where the trim is plain
The woodwork in mill housing is simple, so the fabric supplies the character. That is an opportunity. A cheerful print at the window, echoed on the pillows and the bed, can give a plain mill room more personality than any amount of moulding.
Side-by-side houses
Much of the mill housing stands in pairs or rows, close to its neighbours. Side windows look across a narrow gap to the next house, so privacy matters. A light-filtering shade or a sheer on those windows keeps the room private, and pillows near that window are seen against it every day. A pale shade makes coloured pillows stand out; a tinted one suits softer tones.
Colour with a working past
Mill houses have an honest, hard-working character, and they tend to suit colours with a bit of the same: indigo and chambray blues, brick reds, warm ochres, the natural tones of undyed linen and cotton. Those are also colours that wear well and forgive a little fading. A front room with indigo-striped panels, pillows in a plain chambray and a red accent, and a linen-coloured throw on the chair, suits the house as if it had always been there. Planned this way, custom fabric decor in Lincoln, RI respects what these houses were built for.
When walls have come down
If your mill house has been opened up inside, with the front room and the kitchen now one space, the narrow windows are spread along a longer wall. Treat them as a set: the same slim panels or shades on each, so the run looks orderly. Then use the pillows and any upholstery to mark out the sitting area from the kitchen end, with one shared colour linking the two.
Kitchens in the mill houses
Mill house kitchens are usually at the back, often with a single window over the sink. A café curtain or a short valance in a bright cotton there, picked up on a pillow on a kitchen chair or bench, makes a small kitchen feel cared for. It is a modest touch, and in a small house those touches add up.
Bedrooms up the narrow stair
The bedrooms are usually reached by a narrow stair, tucked under the roof or at the back. The windows are small and often low. With so little fabric at the window, the bed carries the room. Choose the duvet cover first in a mill house bedroom, then pick a curtain that picks up one of its colours. It is the reverse of the usual order, and in a small room it often works better.
Custom Fabric Decor in Lincoln, RI for the Newer Colonials
The colonials around Lincoln Woods and Breakneck Hill are the opposite case. Their windows are standard sizes, and there are many of them: two or three to every room, front and back, upstairs and down. Custom fabric decor in Lincoln, RI in these houses is about consistency at the windows and variety inside.
One look at the windows, many looks in the rooms
With so many windows, most households choose one or two window treatments for the whole house, so it looks orderly from outside and calm inside. Shades in a single colour, perhaps with side panels in the main rooms, are a common approach. That steady backdrop leaves the pillows, bedding and seating free to vary from room to room. The living room might take blues, the family room greens, the main bedroom a soft rose, all sitting comfortably against the same windows.
Living rooms and family rooms
A colonial usually has a more formal living room at the front and a family room at the back off the kitchen. The living room suits refined cloths: a linen, a fine stripe, a velvet accent. The family room takes the wear, so tight weaves, mid-tones and small patterns that hide marks are better there. Removable covers help.
Bays and breakfast nooks
Many of the newer colonials have a bay in the living room or a breakfast nook with a cluster of windows off the kitchen. A bay treated with shades and side panels, with a run of pillows on a seat beneath, becomes a favourite corner. A breakfast nook with a bench takes washable pillows in a cheerful cloth that relates to the kitchen curtains.
Formal dining rooms
The dining room in a newer colonial is often at the front of the house, across the hall from the living room, with two windows on the street side. If the windows share the house’s single treatment, the dining room’s personality comes from fabric elsewhere: pillows on a pair of host chairs or a window bench, perhaps in a richer cloth than you would use in the family room. Because the dining room and living room face each other across the hall, choosing their accent colours together keeps the view from the front door balanced.
Upstairs bedrooms
Upstairs, each bedroom usually has two windows, sometimes on two walls. If the shades are the same throughout, the duvet covers are where each room gets its identity. A main bedroom might take a print that matches its side panels; a child’s room something brighter that can be swapped later; a guest room a calm plain with a pattern on the pillows.
Back rooms that face the trees
Around Lincoln Woods and on Breakneck Hill, many of the colonials back onto trees, and the family room and main bedroom often look straight into them. Light in those rooms is softened and greenish for much of the year, and it changes how colours read. Warm colours, rust, gold, coral, look richer in that light, while cool greys can turn flat. It is worth bringing a photo of the room in its everyday light to the showroom, so the cloths can be judged with that in mind.
More windows, more choices to plan
A house with many windows is easier to get right with a plan. We can set out a scheme for the whole house, one approach at the windows and a colour family for each room, so you can do it in stages and know every room will fit. We keep a record of the window treatment and each room’s fabrics, so a room done next year can be matched to the ones done this year without anyone having to remember a colour name. Many households start with the living room and the main bedroom, the two rooms they use most, and fill in the rest as time allows.
Ready to Get Started? Book Your Free Quote
Call the Swansea store for a free quote, or come and see the samples in person.
Great Road and the Large Lots
The houses off Great Road sit on large lots, often with woods or open land around them. Privacy is rarely the issue; light, views and the seasons are. Rooms are generous, windows are often big, and the outdoors is very much part of the room.
Colours from outside
With trees and fields filling the windows, many households borrow their palette from outside: soft greens, bark browns, the gold of autumn leaves, the grey-blue of a winter sky. Pillows and bedding in those colours make a room feel part of its setting.
Big rooms, generous pillows
Large rooms suit larger pillows and more of them. A deep sofa facing a big window can carry generous squares at the back and smaller ones in front, in a mix of the window cloth, a companion print and a texture.
A fireplace wall
Many of the larger houses off Great Road have a big living room with a fireplace at one end and the windows along another wall. The seating gathers around the fire in winter and turns toward the view in summer. Pillows in warm, heavier cloths suit the fireside chairs; lighter cloths suit the sofa that faces the windows. Keeping both in the same colour family lets the furniture move without the room looking mismatched.
Benches by the back door
Large-lot houses often have a mudroom or a side entry where boots come off and dogs come in. A bench there with a couple of pillows in a tough, washable cloth, in a colour taken from the kitchen or family room curtains, gives a working space a welcoming touch. Choose a darker mid-tone and a pattern that hides mud.
Sun across the floor
Big windows let sunlight travel deep into the room, and on a large lot with no neighbours to block it, that sun can reach the sofa for most of the afternoon. Pillows and upholstery in its path fade over time, the window-facing side first. We will steer you toward cloths and colours that handle it, and suggest keeping the more delicate fabrics for chairs set back from the glass.
Before, During and After
Here is what to expect from an order with us. We keep in touch at every stage.
- Before: you call through the button or send the form, name the rooms, and we book a free quote.
- Before: we talk through the house, how many windows each room has, and whether you want one look at the windows throughout.
- During: you visit the showroom and hold pillow and bedding cloths up against the window fabrics.
- During: we measure every window in your home.
- During: you approve a quote that lists each piece, and the order is made.
- After: our installers fit the window treatments, and we stay in touch until everything is finished.
The finishing
Fabric finishing is the part people notice without knowing why: how the pillow edges are done, where a motif sits on the face, whether a stripe lines up with the stripe at the window. We go through each one with you before anything is cut.
Washable bedding
Bedding is washed constantly. If the cloth you want for the bedroom curtains is delicate, we suggest a launderable fabric in a matching colour for the duvet cover and keep the curtain cloth for a pair of shams.
Upholstery
Our upholstery is limited and always tied to the window fabric. Instead of naming particular furniture, we prefer to hear about yours. Describe it or bring in a photo and you will get an honest answer.
Looking after it all
Turn pillows that sit in sunlight, and swap them between rooms once in a while. Zip-off covers make family-room pillows easy to keep clean. Launder bedding as its cloth allows, which we explain when you choose. Call before treating any stain.
The windows themselves
For curtains and panels, see custom drapes in Lincoln; for shades that can run through a whole colonial, see Roman shades for Lincoln homes. Our Lincoln window treatments page lists every service in town, and the main custom fabric decor page covers our full range of fabric work.
About Window Works
Window Works is a family store, founded in Swansea in 1988 and run today by the second generation. For over 37 years it has worked in homes across the SouthCoast of Massachusetts and the Rhode Island East Bay, from mill houses with narrow openings to new colonials with a window on every wall.
- Experienced specialists in window treatments, who plan fabric for the whole house
- Measuring in your home and installation by our own team
- We keep in touch until the job is done
- Warranties offered on the products we sell
The Swansea showroom is the easiest place to compare cloths in person.
Questions from Lincoln
My mill house windows are very narrow. How do I bring in pattern?
Use the pillows and the bed. A narrow window shows only a strip of fabric, so a pillow or a duvet cover in the same or a companion cloth lets the pattern be seen properly.
My colonial has a lot of windows. Should every room match?
Most households keep one look at the windows for the whole house and vary the pillows and bedding from room to room.
What colours suit a house on a wooded lot?
Many people borrow from outside: soft greens, bark browns, autumn golds and winter blues.
Do you take on upholstery?
Some, chosen around the window fabric. Tell us about the piece and we will let you know whether it is something we can do.
How do I get a free quote?
Use the call button or the form and tell us which rooms you have in mind.
Get in Touch
To start on custom fabric decor in Lincoln, RI, use the call button to book a free quote, arrange measuring in your home, or ask about installation. The form works too, and we will come back to you. If you want to see the fabrics first, directions to the showroom are on the contact page. Window Works holds a 5.0 rating on Google.