Vertical Blinds for Homes in Cumberland, RI

Subdivisions, Colonials and Valley Falls

Cumberland’s housing falls into three broad groups, and each one gives a vertical treatment a different job. The colonials around Diamond Hill and Arnold Mills usually have a slider or a pair of glazed doors at the back, off the kitchen or the family room. The newer subdivisions off Mendon Road were built with bigger glass: family room sliders, wide windows facing the yard, and two-storey entry windows that are the hardest reach in town. Valley Falls has older housing, with smaller rooms and back doors that have often been changed over the years.

That spread is why vertical blinds in Cumberland, RI are planned house by house. A slider in a Mendon Road family room may want a panel track in a soft fabric under a high ceiling. A colonial kitchen door may want practical solid vanes. A Valley Falls back door may need measuring at several points because its frame has moved.

• Vertical blinds and panel tracks for sliders, patio doors and wide glass
• A specialist measures every opening at the house, including the high ones
• Our own installers fit what you order

Where Verticals Work in Cumberland

Family room sliders

The most common opening in the newer subdivisions. Vanes turn to soften the sun over the yard and gather aside when the door is in use.

Wide glass in a great room

Where windows and a slider run across one wall, a single long track ties them together into one even surface.

Tall rooms and high glass

Two-storey rooms bring height and hard-to-reach glass. We plan the mount and the controls so the treatment can actually be used.

Vertical Blinds in Cumberland, RI Subdivisions

The subdivisions off Mendon Road were laid out with families and big rooms in mind. A typical house puts a family room across the back, often open to the kitchen, with a slider to a deck or patio and windows either side. Some have a two-storey family room or great room with tall glass, and most have a two-storey entry at the front with a tall window above the door.

Vertical blinds in Cumberland, RI houses of this kind are mainly about the back of the house. The family room slider is the busiest door in the house, used for the deck, the grill, the dog and the children, and the blind on it has to cope. It needs to gather quickly to the side, turn easily to manage the afternoon light, and hold up to being pushed aside by people and pets in a hurry.

Open plans and matching treatments

In an open plan where the kitchen, eating area and family room run together, the vertical blind on the slider is seen alongside every other window in the space. It looks best when it is part of one plan: the same colour as the blinds or shades on the windows, and the same mounting height wherever possible. A vertical on the slider and horizontal blinds on the windows in a matching white or neutral is a common combination. Panel tracks on the slider and roller shades on the windows in related fabrics is another. Our custom blinds in Cumberland page covers the horizontal options, and our roller shades in Cumberland page covers the shades.

Great rooms with tall glass

Where a family room rises through two storeys, the glass often does too. A slider at floor level may have fixed windows above it, or there may be tall windows either side reaching well up the wall. A vertical treatment can cover the slider and the lower glass, with the track mounted at a height that still lets you reach it. The upper glass is a separate question, because no blind is easy to work at that height by hand.

The Two-Storey Entry Window

Every town has its awkward windows, and in Cumberland it is the two-storey entry. The newer subdivisions often have a tall window above the front door, sometimes with an arched or half-round top, lighting a foyer that rises through both floors. It is the hardest reach in town: too high to touch from the floor, often above the staircase, and seen from the street as part of the front of the house.

A vertical blind is not usually the right answer for that window. The opening is tall but rarely wide, the arched shapes do not suit a straight head track, and once fitted, a vertical would need a long control running down to a reachable height. Shades fitted to the shape, or a fixed treatment that is set once and left alone, usually suit it better. Where the window does need opening and closing day to day, operating it by hand is the real problem. We also sell motorized blinds in Cumberland, worked by a remote or a wall switch, which take the reaching out of high windows.

We mention the entry window here because it often comes up on the same visit as the family room slider. Measuring it needs ladders and care, and it is worth planning both together so the front and the back of the house look consistent.

Colonials around Diamond Hill and Arnold Mills

The colonials around Diamond Hill and Arnold Mills follow the familiar two-storey plan: formal rooms at the front, a kitchen and family room at the back. Their front windows are evenly spaced double-hung sash, and those suit horizontal blinds, shades or shutters. The vertical treatment belongs at the back, on the slider or the glazed doors from the kitchen or family room to the yard.

In these houses the back door often faces the garden and the woods beyond rather than another house, so privacy is less pressing than light. A colonial’s family room may get strong afternoon sun through the slider, landing on the television, the sofa and the floor. Vanes angled partway soften that light while keeping the view of the garden. When you want the room dim, they close fully.

Some colonials have a pair of French doors instead of a slider. A vertical treatment can still work on those, mounted high enough above the frame for the doors to swing clear and stacked fully to one side when the doors are open. If the doors are used constantly, a treatment fixed to each door, or side drapes on a pole, may be easier to live with, and we will show you the options. Our custom drapes in Cumberland page covers drapery.

Decks, sun and the view to the woods

Many of the subdivision lots back onto trees, and the deck off the family room looks into them. That view is part of why the houses were built the way they were, and a treatment that hides it all day would defeat the point. Vertical blinds in Cumberland, RI family rooms are useful precisely because they do not have to be all open or all shut. With the vanes turned almost edge on, the trees stay in view and the room keeps its daylight, yet the low sun that slants in late in the day is broken up before it reaches the screen or the sofa. In winter, when the leaves are down, the same room can get far more light than in summer, and the vanes adjust to that just as easily.

Children, pets and a door in constant use

A family room slider in a busy house may open dozens of times between breakfast and bedtime. A wand control that both draws and rotates the vanes lets anyone clear the door in a second, and it keeps loose cords out of the reach of small children. The vanes are best set to finish a little above the floor, clear of muddy paws and toys, and a solid vane springs back into line if someone barges through it. These details sound small, but they decide whether a vertical blind still works well after years of family life.

Older Houses in Valley Falls

Valley Falls has the oldest housing in this part of town, with smaller rooms, narrower windows and back doors that have often been altered or replaced. A vertical blind suits a back door or a slider put in during a renovation, and it is rarely the answer for the older sash.

Older houses reward a patient tape measure. Long years of settling are common in this kind of stock, and they leave doors a touch out of plumb and thresholds that rise or fall from one jamb to the other. Because a row of vanes ends in one ruler-straight hem line, any lean in the floor shows straight away. Our specialist takes the drop on the left, the centre and the right, finds the lowest point and works from there, then checks that the fixing surface above is sound. Sometimes the plaster over an altered doorway hides very little to screw into, and the ceiling joists make a better home for the track.

Some Valley Falls houses have had a back porch enclosed, with a door from the old kitchen into the new room and another from the new room to the yard. The outer door is the one that suits a vertical treatment, since it faces the weather and the light, while the inner door can usually be left bare or dressed with something simpler. Measuring both on the same visit lets us suggest a treatment for each that looks related.

In a smaller room the stack matters as well. Vanes gathered beside a narrow door can take up a fair share of the wall, so we may suggest a panel track, whose panels stack thinner, or a draw that parks the vanes where they block the least light.

The Order, Start to Finish

We stay in touch throughout, from your first call until the treatment is hanging and working. In Cumberland an order usually runs like this.

1. Use the call button or the form to book a free quote, and mention every opening you have in mind, including any high ones.
2. A specialist measures each opening in your home. For a slider that means the width and height, the wall or ceiling above, and the wall either side for the stack. For a high window it means ladders and extra care.
3. We go through the options with you: vanes or a panel track, the fabric, which side it gathers to and how it is operated.
4. You choose colours, either with your own rooms around you or at the showroom.
5. You receive a quote with every opening listed.
6. Each treatment is made to the measurements taken at the house.
7. Our installers fit it, test it, and show you how it works.

Vanes, Panels and Fabrics

Vertical vanes are narrow strips that turn on a head track. Turning them gives fine control over light and privacy without drawing the blind back, which suits a family room slider facing the sun. Solid vanes wipe clean and stand up well to heavy use. Fabric vanes have a softer, woven look and suit living rooms and bedrooms.

Panel tracks use a few wide fabric panels on a multi-channel track. They slide past each other and gather flat at one end. They do not turn, so light and privacy come from the fabric and how far the panels are drawn. In a modern family room or great room, a panel track gives a calm, clean line across the glass, and in a tall room the long panels look closer to drapery than to a blind.

Fabric choice runs from sheers that blur the view and fill the room with soft light, through light filtering fabrics that give more privacy, to room-darkening fabrics for a bedroom or a media room in the basement.

Colour in a big room

Family rooms and great rooms are large, and a vertical treatment across a slider or a run of glass is a big area of colour. White and soft neutrals keep the room bright and let the treatment recede against the walls. A warmer neutral or a grey can tie the treatment to the floor or the furniture and hides marks on a busy door. A paint chip or a cushion brought to the showroom makes the choice much easier. In a two-storey room, remember that the treatment is also seen from the landing above, so a colour that works from the sofa should also look right looking down from upstairs.

Basements and walk-out lower levels

Many Cumberland houses on sloping lots have a walk-out lower level, with a slider from a finished basement to the yard. Those rooms are often used for television, exercise or guests, and they tend to want less light rather than more. A fabric vane that closes tightly or a room-darkening panel track suits them well. The slider at grade level is also the door most likely to be used for muddy boots and dogs, so a solid vane is worth considering if the room is more practical than formal.

Why Window Works

Window Works has been a family store in Swansea since 1988, now run by the second generation. For over 37 years we have measured and installed window treatments in houses throughout southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and Cumberland is one of the 25 towns our team covers.

Our specialists measure in your home, including the high and awkward windows, and our own installers fit the result. You deal with one store throughout, and we keep you informed until the job is done. Warranties are offered on the products we sell, and the showroom carries vertical vanes, panel fabrics and the Norman range.

Visit the showroom

Every vertical option we make is on the main vertical blinds page, and everything we offer in town is on our Cumberland page. If an existing vertical blind has lost a vane or its wand has stopped turning, mention it when you call, because it may be a repair rather than a replacement.

Book Your Visit

Begin with a free quote for vertical blinds in Cumberland, RI. Call the Swansea store with the button on this page to arrange measuring in your home or ask about installation, or send the form and we will reply. If you would like to see vanes and panels side by side before deciding, the showroom is open to visit, with directions on the contact page. Window Works has a 5.0 rating on Google.