Vertical Blinds for Homes in Dighton, MA

Old Sash and New Glass Under One Roof

Many Dighton rooms have two ages of window in them, and that is the main thing to plan for with vertical blinds in Dighton, MA. A farmhouse on Main Street or a cape on Somerset Avenue may keep its original period sash in the front rooms, while a kitchen or family room added later brought in a slider or a wide stretch of modern glass. Sometimes both sit in the same room, a pair of old double-hung windows on one wall and a slider on the next.

The slider is a job for vertical blinds or a panel track. The old sash usually is not. The skill is in making the two look as if they belong together, so the room reads as one rather than as an old house with a new piece bolted on.

• Vertical blinds and panel tracks for sliders and modern glass
• Coverings for the old sash planned alongside them
• Measured in your home and fitted by our installers

The Openings We Cover in Town

Sliders in an addition

The vanes pull back off the moving panel in one sweep and turn to soften the light the rest of the time.

Panel tracks on river-facing glass

On the Taunton River lots, wide fabric panels slide across big glass and tuck away to one side, keeping the river in view.

The original sash beside them

Period double-hung windows suit wood blinds, shades or shutters, chosen in a colour that ties them to the vanes on the slider.

Blinds in Dighton

Matching Vertical Blinds in Dighton, MA to an Older Room

Nobody wants an addition that looks stuck on. When we plan vertical blinds in Dighton, MA houses, we look at the whole room, not just the opening. What colour is the trim on the old windows? How high are their tops? What is on the floor? The answers decide the colour of the vanes, the height of the track and sometimes whether vanes or panels are the better choice. Getting those details right makes the slider covering look like part of the house.

One room, two kinds of window

The common case is a kitchen or family room that was extended. The old part of the room keeps its period sash: narrow, tall, often with a little wave in the glass and deep, painted trim. The new part has a slider to a deck or patio, or a run of tall modern panes. Covered separately, with whatever was to hand, the two halves fight. Planned together, they can look like one design.

That usually means choosing a single colour and carrying it across both. A wood blind or a cellular shade on the old sash and vertical vanes on the slider in the same soft white, cream or stone will read as one decision from across the room. If the old windows have drapes, a vertical blind that sits quietly behind matching side drapes on the slider ties the two ends of the room together even more closely.

Lining up the tops

Older houses often have windows set lower or higher than modern doors, and a slider in an addition may stand taller than the old sash beside it. If the track over the slider is mounted at the top of the door frame while the old windows have their coverings at their own frame tops, the room ends up with a stepped line of headrails at different heights.

Where the wall allows, we can mount the track so its top lines up with the tops of the coverings on the old windows, or carry it up to the ceiling where that looks cleaner. A level line across the room is one of those details that people rarely notice when it is right, and always notice when it is wrong.

Uneven floors and out-of-square openings

An older house settles. Floors slope a little, door frames lean slightly, and an addition joined to the original building may not be perfectly level with it. A vertical blind is very honest about this: if the floor drops toward one end of the slider, the vanes will show it, hanging close to the floor at one side and well above it at the other.

That is why we measure the drop at both ends and in the middle, not just once. Where the floor slopes, the vanes can be cut to suit, so they hang evenly clear of the floor across the full width. The track is levelled when it goes up, even if the door frame is not.

Farmhouses along Main Street

The farmhouses along Main Street are among the older houses in town, with their front rooms built around period sash. Their additions tend to be at the back or side, and that is where the sliders and wider glass are. Because the addition is usually the room most used day to day, the kitchen or family room, its slider covering gets far more handling than any other window in the house.

For that door, simple operation matters. A wand that draws and turns the vanes, mounted on the side you reach first, and a stack that sits by the fixed panel so the moving one is clear, make the blind easy to live with. Smooth vanes are a sensible choice where muddy boots and dogs pass through, and they wipe clean when needed.

Capes on Somerset Avenue

The capes along Somerset Avenue are smaller houses, and space is tighter. When a slider has been added at the back of a cape, often in the kitchen, the wall beside it may be short, with a cabinet or a corner close by. The stack has to go somewhere, and in a tight space the narrow stack of vertical vanes is an advantage over the layered stack of a panel track.

The upstairs rooms of a cape, under the roof, sometimes have a slider onto a small deck over a porch or garage. Those rooms have sloped ceilings, so the track has to be planned around the slope. We check this when we measure and suggest a wall or ceiling mount that keeps the vanes hanging straight.

River lots on the Taunton River

The houses on the Taunton River lots face the water, and many have had rooms rebuilt or added to take in the view. There, the glass is wider and the light is stronger. Afternoon sun comes across the river, and the water throws it back up into the room. Vertical vanes turn to catch that glare while leaving the river in sight between them, and they close fully on a summer evening when the light is low and straight in.

Panel tracks are also well suited to a river room. Drawn back, their panels stack into a corner and leave the glass clear, so the view is not reduced. A light-filtering fabric keeps a room comfortable on the brightest days without shutting the river out.

Additions that run hot and cold

An addition with a lot of new glass often behaves differently from the old house it is attached to. It warms up fast on a sunny afternoon and cools quickly at night. Vertical blinds in Dighton, MA additions help with the first: vanes turned against the sun in the warm part of the day keep the room from overheating and protect the floor and furniture from fading. For the cold evenings, a vertical blind is not insulation, and we will not pretend it is. Lined side drapes drawn across in winter, or a panel track in a heavier lined fabric, do more to keep warmth in.

Baseboard heat under the glass

Additions often have baseboard heaters or a floor vent running along the wall under the glass. A vertical blind hanging over a heater needs to stop short of it, so the vanes do not rest on it and the warm air can rise. We note any heaters when we measure and set the length of the vanes to suit. On a slider, the heater is usually beside the door rather than under it, but the fixed panel and the stack may sit right above it, so we plan the stack with that in mind.

How We Take an Order from Dighton

You will hear from us at each stage until the work is done. A typical order runs this way.

1. Ask for a free quote with the call button or the form, and mention whether the room mixes old windows with new.
2. A specialist comes to measure the slider or wide opening, the old sash beside it if you want those covered too, the floor at several points and the wall above.
3. We suggest how to tie the two together: colour, track height and whether vanes or panels suit the room.
4. You see fabrics and colours at the Swansea showroom and make your choice.
5. Your quote lists every opening, old and new, separately.
6. The coverings are made to the sizes taken in your home.
7. Our team installs them, levels each track, checks the vanes clear the floor and the door, and shows you how everything works.

Vanes or panels in an older house

Vertical vanes turn, so you control light and privacy without drawing the blind. Panels do not turn; you slide them across, and the weave sets the light. In an older house, vanes in a textured fabric have a softer, more traditional look than you might expect, closer to drapery than to an office blind. Panels have a more modern, tailored look, which can suit a newer addition designed to feel distinct from the old house.

There is no wrong answer. It depends on whether you want the addition to blend into the old rooms or stand a little apart from them. We will show you both and talk it through.

Texture and colour for period rooms

Period rooms tend to have warm, slightly aged colours: off-white trim, wide floorboards, plaster walls. A cool, bright white vane can look too new against them. Fabric vanes in an ivory, oatmeal or warm grey sit better with older woodwork. In an addition with a modern finish, the same colour can still work, and it is what carries the link between the two halves of the room.

Drapes as the bridge

When the old windows in a room have drapes, using the same drape fabric at the slider is one of the strongest ways to link old and new. A vertical blind or panel track handles the light and privacy behind side drapes, and the drapes carry the colour and pattern across the room. Window Works makes drapes as well as blinds, so both can be measured on one visit. Our drapes in Dighton page has more on that.

A garden room between the house and the yard

Some of the older houses have a garden room or a sunroom built where a back porch used to be, often with sliders on more than one side. Rooms like that are almost all glass, and the aim is usually to keep them feeling open. Vertical blinds or panel tracks on each slider, all drawing to the corners, let the room be as bright and open as it was built to be on a fine day. When the sun is strong or the evening draws in, they come across and turn the room into a sheltered sitting space. Choosing the same colour on every wall keeps the room calm when everything is closed.

When the addition has French doors

Some additions use French doors rather than a slider. Because those swing open, a vertical blind above them would get in the way. Drapes on a rod wide enough to clear both doors, or coverings fixed to the doors themselves, are the better choice there. We will tell you which we would suggest when we see the door.

Low-density lots and night-time privacy

Dighton’s housing is spread out, and many houses have no near neighbours behind them. The slider at the back may look onto a field, a wood or the river, with nobody to see in. At night, though, a lit room still shows from the road and from across the water, and a bare slider becomes a dark mirror from inside. Closing the vanes, or drawing a room-darkening panel across, gives the room a finished, private feel in the evening even where privacy is not a daytime concern.

Older vertical blinds you already have

Some Dighton additions were fitted with vertical blinds years ago that are now dropping vanes, sticking or refusing to turn. Before replacing one, ask us. A new wand, restringing or work on the headrail can often bring it back. We can look at it on the same visit when we measure for anything else. You can see all the treatments we make for the town on our window treatments for Dighton homes page, and the full range on the main vertical blinds page.

Why People Choose Window Works

Window Works began in Swansea in 1988, and the second generation of the family runs it today. In over 37 years we have worked in farmhouses, capes and river houses right across the SouthCoast and the Rhode Island East Bay, including plenty of rooms where old windows meet new.

• Specialists in window treatments, not general retail
• Measuring in the home, with old and new openings planned together
• Installation by our own team
• Constant contact with you until the job is done
• Warranties offered on what we sell

At the Swansea showroom, a short drive south, you can see vertical blinds for Dighton, MA rooms beside panel tracks, wood blinds and shades, and judge how they sit together.

Visit the showroom

When You Are Ready

Begin with a free quote. The call button puts you through to the Swansea store, where you can book measuring in your home and ask about installation, or send the form and we will get back to you. To see the vanes, panels and fabrics first, visit the showroom; the contact page shows the way. A photo of the room showing both the old windows and the new opening is the most useful thing you can bring, because it lets us suggest colours that link the two before anyone comes out to measure. Window Works has earned a 5.0 rating on Google.