Capes, Colonials and River Glass
Somerset packs three quite different kinds of house into one town, and that is the main reason window treatments in Somerset, MA are worth having made to measure. Around Brayton Point and Riverside, and along the streets off County Street, the capes and ranches went up through the middle of the last century. In Somerset Village the colonials still hold their original narrow double-hung sash. On the Taunton River lots, later renovations opened the main rooms to the water with wide window walls.
Each of those asks a different question. The village sash is tall and slim with old trim worth keeping on show. The mid-century houses mix a broad front window with smaller bedroom windows and the odd slider. The river walls are the widest glass in town and often the brightest. A blind, shade or drape that suits one rarely suits the others without being sized and chosen for it.
- Every treatment made to the opening it hangs in
- Measuring in your home, installation by our own team
- The showroom a short drive over the river in Swansea
Every Service We Offer in Somerset
Custom blinds
Wood, faux wood, aluminium and vertical blinds, each one sized to a village sash, a ranch bedroom or a river slider.
Plantation shutters
Interior shutters with a louvre size and frame style chosen for the room, a natural fit for colonial dining rooms.
Drapes and curtains
Our genuine specialty. Lined or sheer, pleated or plain, made up in the fabric you pick.
Cellular shades
Single and double cell fabric that holds a layer of air at the glass, so a draughty room keeps its warmth.
Roller shades
Roller and solar screen fabrics that cut glare off the water and keep the view.
Roman shades
Flat, hobbled or relaxed folds, led by the fabric, for a bedroom or a breakfast nook.
Vertical blinds
Verticals and panel tracks for sliding doors and the wide window walls on the river lots.
Woven wood shades
Natural weaves, with or without a liner, that warm up a ranch living room.
Custom fabric decor
Pillows, duvet covers and some upholstery, made to tie back to the fabric at your windows.
Norman window fashions
The Norman range of blinds, shades and shutters, which we carry and keep on show at the Swansea showroom.
Motorised blinds and shades
Blinds and shades that raise and lower by remote or wall switch, handy on a high or wide window.
Blind and shade repair
Restringing, new cords, wands and headrails for blinds and shades you already own.
Window Treatments in Somerset, MA, One House Type at a Time
The quickest way to plan window treatments in Somerset, MA is to start with the house rather than the product list. The age of a building tells you a lot about its windows: how deep the frames are, whether the openings repeat from room to room, and where the awkward ones are likely to be. Here is how we approach the three kinds of house that make up most of the town.
The village colonials and their original sash
The colonials in Somerset Village kept the narrow double-hung windows they were built with. Those windows are tall for their width, the sills are often shallow, and the casings around them are usually the best woodwork in the room. A good treatment respects all of that.
Our first question at a village window is whether there is enough depth for an inside mount, with the blind, shade or shutter set within the frame so the casing stays on show. Old frames vary, so we check every window rather than assuming the house is consistent. Where the depth is not there, an outside mount sized exactly to the casing still looks tidy, and drapes hung from a rod above the trim can frame the whole thing.
Plantation shutters suit these rooms especially well. A shutter panel fitted to an old sash looks as though it came with the house, and the louvres let you angle the light without lifting anything. Roman shades in a plain linen or a small print are another strong choice, softer than a shutter and easy to raise clear of the glass. In a colonial front room, a pair of lined side drapes over either one adds weight and colour without hiding the window.
Brayton Point, Riverside and the streets off County Street
The capes and ranches in these neighbourhoods were built in the decades after the war, and their windows are more regular than the village sash. Regular does not mean identical, though. Most of these houses combine a wide front window in the living room, two or three matching bedroom windows, a small window over the kitchen sink and, in many, a slider out to the back yard.
That mix is why measuring in the home matters so much here. The living room window may take one wide blind, two blinds side by side, or a cellular shade that covers the whole run in a single piece, depending on whether there is a centre post and how you want to raise it. The bedrooms usually look best with a matching set, so the house reads evenly from the road. The kitchen window often suits faux wood blinds or a café-style shutter that keeps the lower half private while the top stays open.
Upstairs in a cape, the bedrooms often sit under the roof with dormer windows set into the slope. The wall comes in close around these windows, so a compact headrail and a treatment that stacks small earns its place, leaving more glass clear when the blind or shade is up. A top-down, bottom-up cellular shade is worth a look in a dormer bedroom, because it lets daylight in over the top while the lower part stays covered.
Taunton River lots and the wide window walls
On the river lots, many houses gained wide window walls in later renovations, opening the living room or the kitchen to the water. These walls are the reason a lot of Somerset houses have one room that is lovely by day and hard to live with on a bright afternoon or after dark. They are also the windows most often left bare, because nothing off the shelf comes close to fitting them.
The treatment depends on how the wall is built. Where it is a single sheet of glass or a slider, vertical blinds or a panel track measured across the whole width draw to one side and turn to angle the light. Where it is a row of separate windows, a matching row of roller or cellular shades, each made to its own pane, usually looks cleaner. Solar screen roller shades are worth considering on the brightest walls: they take the edge off the glare while keeping the river in view, and the openness of the fabric decides how much of the view you keep.
Choosing Room by Room
In most houses, window treatments in Somerset, MA end up as a mix of types, because each room asks for something different. Thinking about how a room is used, rather than which product photographs well, is the surest way to get it right.
Bedrooms usually want darkness first. Lined drapes, a room-darkening roller shade or a cellular shade with a blackout fabric keep early light out, and fitting them close to the frame stops light creeping round the edges. In the ranch bedrooms facing the road, privacy matters as much as darkness.
Living rooms tend to want soft light through the day and privacy in the evening. Blinds tilted open, woven wood shades with a light liner, or shutters with the louvres half open all filter the light without shutting the room off. In the village colonials, drapes often join them for the look of the room.
Kitchens and bathrooms need materials that cope with steam. Faux wood blinds, shutters and some roller shade fabrics wipe clean and do not mind the damp. Wood blinds and most fabric shades are better kept to the drier rooms.
Sunrooms and river-facing rooms are about glare and heat. Roller and solar screen shades, cellular shades and, on a slider, verticals or a panel track are the usual answers. Many of the main rooms on the river lots use more than one of these together.
Home offices need light that does not fall across a screen. Blinds with the slats tilted upward bounce daylight off the ceiling, and a top-down shade lets light in high while keeping the desk in shade.
Ready to Get Started? Book Your Free Quote
Call the Swansea store for a free quote, or come and see the samples in person.
How a Somerset Order Comes Together
We keep the process plain and we stay in constant contact with you until the job is done. A typical order runs like this.
- You use the call button or the form, tell us which rooms you have in mind, and book a free quote.
- We arrange a time for measuring in your home. A specialist measures each window, checks the frame depth and notes anything that needs care, such as a crank handle, a slider, a dormer or an out-of-square village sash.
- You choose materials, fabrics, colours and controls, with samples at home or by visiting the showroom to compare in person.
- You receive a quote that lists each window, so it is clear what is being made for which opening.
- Your treatments are made to the measurements taken in your home.
- Our team installs them, checks that each one raises, lowers, tilts or draws as it should, and shows you how it works.
- If anything needs another look afterwards, you call the same store and we follow it through.
Somerset is just across the river from the Swansea store, so scheduling a measure or an installation is straightforward, and the showroom is close enough to drop into on the way to something else.
Fabric at the Window and Around the Room
Drapes and curtains are the store’s genuine specialty, and in Somerset they earn their keep in two ways. In the village colonials and the larger river houses, lined drapes add colour, softness and insulation to rooms with plenty of character. In the mid-century houses, a simple pair of side panels can turn a plain picture window into the focus of the living room.
We start with the fabric. Linen, cotton, velvet, sheers and blends all hang differently, take light differently and wear differently, and the showroom is the place to feel the difference. Then come the heading, the lining, the length and the way the drapes stack when open. A pinch pleat gives a tailored look in a dining room, a softer heading suits a bedroom, and a sheer behind heavier panels gives you daytime privacy with the room still bright.
Drapes also work alongside a harder treatment. A blind or a shade behind side drapes handles light and privacy while the fabric frames the window, and that pairing suits many Somerset rooms. Because we make both, they can be chosen together and measured on the same visit. You can see more on our main custom drapes page.
Custom fabric decor carries the same fabric further into the room. We make pillows, duvet covers and some upholstery, so a sofa cushion or a bed can pick up the colour or pattern you chose for the window. It is a simple way to make a room feel finished rather than furnished piece by piece.
Motorised Options and the Norman Range
Some Somerset windows are simply hard to reach. A high window above a stair landing, a shade behind a deep kitchen counter or a long run of shades across a river window wall can all be motorised, so they raise and lower by remote or by a switch on the wall. One switch can move a whole row of shades together, which suits the wide renovated walls well. It also removes cords from the window, which many households with small children prefer.
The store also carries the Norman range of blinds, shades and shutters, and keeps it on show in the Swansea showroom. If you have seen Norman products and want to compare them in person, or would like them measured for your Somerset home, we can show you the options side by side with everything else we make.
Repairs on Blinds and Shades You Already Own
Not every window needs something new. If a cord has frayed, a wand has stopped turning the slats or a headrail sticks on a blind or shade you already have, our team can look at it. Restringing and replacing cords, wands and headrails is often all that is needed to bring a treatment back into use. Somerset sits close to the Swansea store, which is why repair is part of what we offer in town.
Keeping the House Looking Like One House
When more than one room is being done, it helps to plan the whole house before choosing room by room. From the street, the front windows of a cape or a colonial read as a set, so it usually looks best to keep one colour and style on every window that faces the road, even if the rooms behind them use different materials. A white faux wood blind in a front bathroom can sit beside a white shutter in the living room and look like one decision from outside.
Inside, open plans need the most thought. In a ranch where the living room, dining area and kitchen run together, treatments in matching colours keep the space calm even when the kitchen uses a moisture-proof material. On the river lots, where one window wall may face several rooms at once, the same shade fabric across the whole run keeps it tidy.
You do not need to do the whole house in one go. Many orders start with the rooms that need it most, and later rooms are matched to them. Our window treatments page shows the full range.
What Sets Window Works Apart
Window Works has been a family store in Swansea since 1988, and it is now in its second generation. For over 37 years it has served the towns on both sides of the Taunton River, Somerset among them, along with the rest of the SouthCoast and the Rhode Island East Bay.
- An experienced team of window treatment specialists
- Tailored solutions for each home, never a one-size answer
- Measuring in your home, so every treatment fits its opening
- Installation by our own team
- In constant contact with you until the job is done
- Warranties offered on what we sell
A single kitchen blind and a whole house of drapes and shutters are measured, ordered and fitted in exactly the same careful way.
Just Over the River in Swansea
Our showroom in Swansea is a short drive from anywhere in Somerset. It is the easiest place to compare window treatments for a Somerset home before you commit: run a fabric through your fingers, try the lift on a cellular shade, see how a shutter louvre opens and hold a wood slat beside a faux wood one in daylight.
Bring a photo of the room, a paint chip or a cushion if you have one, and our specialists will help you narrow the choice. The Norman range is on show there too.
Questions from Somerset
Will a shutter or blind fit the narrow sash in a village colonial?
Yes. We check the depth of each frame when we measure. Where there is room, the treatment sits inside the frame so the casing stays visible. Where there is not, we size an outside mount to the casing so it still looks neat.
What can go on a wide window wall facing the river?
It depends how the wall is built. A single wide pane or a slider usually takes vertical blinds or a panel track. A row of separate windows usually looks best with matching roller or cellular shades, one per pane. Solar screen fabric cuts glare while keeping the view.
Do you make drapes as well as blinds and shades?
Yes. Drapes and curtains are our specialty, and we also make pillows, duvet covers and some upholstery to match. Drapes can be paired with a blind or shade and measured on the same visit.
Can you fix a blind I already have?
Often, yes. We restring blinds and replace cords, wands and headrails on blinds and shades you already own. Tell us what has gone wrong when you call.
Is the quote free?
Yes, quotes are free. Use the call button or the form, tell us which rooms you are thinking about, and we will arrange measuring in your home.
Talk to Us About Your Windows
The simplest next step is a free quote. Use the call button to talk to the Swansea store, arrange measuring in your home or ask about installation, or send us the form and we will get back to you. If you would like to see the samples first, the showroom is just over the river, and the contact page has directions. Window Works holds a 5.0 rating on Google.
Window Works serves 25 towns across the SouthCoast and the Rhode Island East Bay; you can see them all on our service areas page.