Woven Wood Shades for Homes in Seekonk, MA

Made for a Wide, Shallow Window

The picture windows on Seekonk’s split-levels are a shape of their own: very wide, not very tall, and often sitting low on a living room wall. Shelf sizes rarely fit them, and that is a big part of why woven wood shades in Seekonk, MA are made to measure. A shade made for that exact opening covers the glass edge to edge without gaps and folds away without swallowing half the view.

Around Newman Avenue and Arcade Avenue the streets are lined with ranches and split-levels, many with that same broad front window. Toward the Providence line, newer houses bring larger glass, open plans and taller rooms. Along the Route 6 corridor, some houses sit close to a busy road. A woven shade suits all of these, but the weave, liner and mount change from one to the next.

• Woven wood and bamboo shades, with or without a liner
• Every window measured in your home and installed by our team
• Weaves to compare at the Swansea showroom, a short drive south

The Woven Shades We Make for Seekonk Houses

Natural bamboo

Close, even bamboo strands with a calm texture. A good choice for the living room picture window, where the shade is the first thing seen from the street.

Rolling woven styles

On a short window, a woven shade that rolls up rather than folding keeps a slimmer bundle at the top and leaves more glass clear.

Lined for road-facing rooms

Bedrooms close to Route 6 or a corner street usually take a privacy or room-darkening liner behind the weave, plus a neat top edge.

Picture Windows and Woven Wood Shades in Seekonk, MA

Most questions about woven wood shades in Seekonk, MA start at the living room picture window, because it is the window that matters most and the one most likely to have been left bare or covered with something that never quite fitted.

The shape causes two problems. The first is width. A single shade across the whole window gives an unbroken run of texture, which looks calm from inside and from the street. But a very wide shade is heavier to raise, and you can only lift it all at once. Two or three shades side by side, each sized to its own part of the window, are lighter to handle and let you raise one section for the view while keeping the others down against the sun. If the window has mullions or posts dividing it, matching the shades to those divisions usually looks the most natural.

The second problem is height. A woven shade folds into a stack when it is raised, and on a short window that stack can cover a fair share of the glass. There are three ways round it, and we look at each window to decide which fits:

• Mount the shade on the wall above the frame, so the raised stack sits on the wall rather than on the glass
• Use a rolling woven style, which gathers into a slimmer bundle than a folding one
• Choose a finer weave, which stacks tighter than a thick, chunky one

Often the answer is a mix of the first two. We check how much wall there is between the top of the frame and the ceiling when we measure, because some split-level living rooms have very little.

Split-levels, half floors and windows at every height

A split-level puts rooms on several half floors, and the windows change with each one. The main level has the picture window and the kitchen. The upper level has bedrooms with standard windows. The lower level, set partly into the ground, often has short, high windows in a family room or den.

Each level asks something different of a woven shade. The lower-level windows are short and often get little direct sun, so a pale, open weave left unlined lets in all the light there is while still softening the view of the yard. The upper bedrooms usually want a liner for privacy and for darker mornings. The main level is where the texture is most on show, and where the picture window sets the tone for the house.

Many owners like the same weave on every level, even when the liner and the style change, so the house still feels like one place as you move up and down the short flights of stairs between floors.

Ranches off Newman Avenue and Arcade Avenue

The ranches in these neighbourhoods are simpler: one floor, with the living room, kitchen and bedrooms all at ground level. That makes privacy a bigger question, because every room is at eye level with the yard or the street.

A woven shade with a privacy liner on the street-facing windows keeps the rooms screened at night without making them dark by day. On windows facing the back yard, where no one is looking in, many people leave the shade unlined for the warmer, patterned light it gives. The kitchen window over the sink is usually better with something that copes with steam, such as a faux wood blind, while the woven shades carry on through the living and sleeping rooms.

Ranch living rooms often have the same broad window as the splits, and the same choices apply: one shade or several, and a mount that keeps the stack off the glass.

Houses along the Route 6 corridor

Some Seekonk houses sit near the commercial stretch of Route 6, with traffic, parking lots and signs within sight of the front rooms. These houses bring the same picture windows and bedrooms as the rest of town, but with more light and movement outside after dark.

Choosing woven wood shades in Seekonk, MA for a house like this is mostly about the liner. A privacy liner on every window that faces the road keeps the rooms screened from passing cars and the glow of lit signs, and a room-darkening liner in the front bedrooms helps with the light that carries on late into the evening. By day, the weave still shows from inside, so the living room keeps its warm texture rather than feeling shut away. At the back of the house, away from the road, the shades can usually go unlined.

Newer houses toward the Providence line

The newer construction toward the Providence line brings a different set of windows: larger, more regular glass, family rooms open to the kitchen, and sometimes a two-storey room with windows stacked one above the other.

Large, regular windows are easy to dress with woven shades, and a run of them in one weave gives an open-plan room a warm, consistent look. In a tall room, the upper windows are often best left bare or given a fixed treatment, with woven shades on the lower windows that people can actually reach. We will look at how the room is used and where the sun falls before suggesting anything for the high glass.

What the Weave and the Liner Do to the Light

Under the questions of size and mounting, a woven shade comes down to how it handles light, and that is decided by the weave and the liner together.

The weave. Natural materials such as bamboo, woods, reeds and grasses are laid side by side and stitched together. A close weave turns strong sun into an even, honey-coloured glow and gives good daytime privacy. A more open weave lets more light and more view through, and scatters small points of light across the floor. Paler materials keep a room bright. Darker ones give a warmer, dimmer light that suits a den.

The liner. A liner is a layer of fabric sewn behind the weave. Unlined, the shade shows its texture from both sides and filters the light, but it shows shapes inside a lit room at night. A privacy liner solves that and keeps a soft light by day. A room-darkening liner blocks most of the light, which is what a bedroom facing east or a room near a bright street light needs.

On a broad Seekonk picture window that faces west, the afternoon sun can be strong enough to fade a sofa and make the room too bright to use. A close weave, or a light liner on that window alone, takes the heat out of it while the rest of the house stays unlined.

How We Handle a Seekonk Order

We stay in touch with you from the first call until the job is done.

1. Book a free quote by phone or with the form, and tell us which windows need attention.
2. A specialist comes to your home and measures every window, along with the wall space above each one for the stack.
3. For a wide picture window, we look at whether one shade or several suits it best and show you the difference.
4. You choose the weave and liner for each room, at the showroom or while we are with you.
5. Your quote arrives with each window listed.
6. Your shades are made to the measurements we took.
7. We install them, check that a row of shades lines up evenly, and show you how each one works.

Starting with the picture window

Plenty of Seekonk orders begin with just the living room. The picture window is the one people notice every day, and once it is dressed the rest of the house can follow at your own pace. If you start there, choose the weave and colour with the whole house in mind, so the bedrooms and the lower level can be matched to it later without the front of the house looking pieced together. We are happy to measure only the windows you want to do now.

Picking a colour that sits with the house

Natural weaves are never perfectly even in colour, which is a large part of their charm, but it means a sample in the hand can look different from the same weave in the window with sun behind it. At the showroom, hold a sample up to the daylight at the window rather than judging it on the counter.

In a split-level living room with a brick fireplace or wood panelling, a mid brown or honey weave picks up those warm tones. In a newer house with white walls and pale floors, a light bamboo or a soft grey-brown keeps the room fresh. On the front of the house, where several windows are seen from the street at once, one colour across all of them looks planned.

The top edge and the controls

A valance in the same weave can hide the headrail and give the top of the shade a finished line, which suits a picture window with no drapes. Where a shade is mounted on the wall above a shallow frame, a valance also makes the extra height look intentional.

We set the controls for each window on the side that is easiest to reach, clear of furniture, and at a length that works for the room. If there are small children in the house, mention it when we measure, so we can talk through the safest set-up.

Woven shades alongside other treatments

A woven shade does not have to be the answer for every window in the house. A Seekonk ranch might have woven shades in the living room and bedrooms, a faux wood blind in the kitchen and a vertical blind on the patio slider. A cold back bedroom over a garage might be better with a cellular shade, which holds air in its cells to help the room keep its heat; our cellular shades in Seekonk page explains how they work.

The patio slider deserves its own mention, because almost every ranch and split-level in town has one. A woven shade on a door used several times a day has to be raised each time someone goes out, and that wears on it. A treatment that draws to the side, such as a vertical blind or a panel track, is usually the better fit for the door, with woven shades on the windows beside it in a colour that ties the two together.

Woven shades also pair well with side drapes in a living room or main bedroom, where the shade handles the light and the drapes add colour and can be drawn at night. You can see all our services for the town on the window treatments for Seekonk homes page, and every weave we offer on the main woven wood shades page.

Looking after woven shades

Woven shades need very little care. A soft brush or a vacuum with a brush attachment, run gently down the shade every so often, keeps dust out of the weave. Houses close to Route 6 may see a little more road dust settle on the street side, so those shades benefit from a dusting a bit more often. Spot clean with a barely damp cloth and dry it at once, and keep woven shades away from steam.

If a cord or a lift fails on a shade you already own, we can often repair it rather than replace it.

The Store Behind the Shades

Window Works has been a family store in Swansea since 1988 and is now in its second generation. Over 37 years it has dressed windows in homes all over the SouthCoast and across the line into the Rhode Island East Bay.

• Experienced window treatment specialists
• Measuring in your home, so every shade fits its opening
• Installation by our own team
• One store to call, and we keep you updated until the job is done
• Warranties offered on what we sell

Every set of woven wood shades in Seekonk, MA is measured, ordered and fitted the same way, whether it is one picture window or every room in the house.

Try the Weaves in Person

Our showroom in Swansea is a short drive from Seekonk. Come in to compare bamboo and mixed wood weaves, feel the difference between a fine weave and a chunky one, and see a lined sample next to an unlined one against the daylight.

If you bring the width and height of your picture window, or just a photo of it, our specialists can show you how one shade compares with two or three. The Norman range is in the showroom as well.

Visit the showroom

When You Are Ready

The first step is a free quote. Press the call button to book measuring in your home or ask about installation, or send the form and we will be in touch. If you want to see the weaves first, the Swansea showroom has them on display, and directions are on the contact page. Window Works holds a 5.0 rating on Google.