{window treatment wednesday}

Simple. Durable. Environmentally friendly. Not your mother’s blinds!

Natural Elements is the latest introduction from Hunter Douglas Window Fashions.  This new collection of precious metals blinds is now available at Hirshfield’s stores. The 2″ slats are a spring-tempered alloy offering superior resiliency. This alloy is made from 95% recyclable aluminum. It is lightweight, easy to lift, with minimal stack. Another cool feature is called MagnaView. Even though the slat is 2″, the view-through is comparable to a 4″ slat. When tilted open, the slats nest together, doubling your viewing pleasure.

This is an example of MagnaView™ where the slats nest together.

Hunter Douglas offers 22 different slat finishes in three collections:

• Riverstone™ Collection – Earthy and natural, works well with organic materials.
• Metallic™ Collection – Shimmery and fashionable, accents furnishings and fixtures.
• Matte™ Collection – Sophisticated and classic, blends with any decor.

Three different lift systems are available. Topping off the treatment is a wood valance in 12 popular colors and finishes. Decorative tapes are also an option.  Natural Element blinds are a great complement to granite, brick, and marble. Windows, especially above a kitchen sink, can be a challenge due to splashing and dirt accumulation. However, this blind is easy to wipe down as it bounces back to shape after handling. I can also see the Natural Elements Metallics used in lofts giving the space an edgy vibe. You can control your light and privacy needs and still pull them up if you want a completely unobstructed view. These blinds will make a striking statement at your windows.

Come and check out these not-so heavy metals at one of our Hirshfield’s locations or have one of the Shop at Home designers out to your home.

Guest post by Bonnie West, designer with Hirshfield’s Shop at Home

651-366-696

I think all window treatment posts need a Gladys Kravitz ending!

{window treatment wednesday}

HELP! What to do with these windows?

A customer (me) needs some window treatment advice for her family room windows. This room was painted just about a year ago (Benjamin Moore Gray 2121-10/ Acadia White AC-41) and I still haven’t figured out the windows. I keep thinking I’ll get to the store with my photos to discuss my options, but that hasn’t happened. So here goes.

Currently, I have Duette shades on my windows and I’ve enjoyed and appreciated the privacy they have offered all these years. My house sits very close to the street and the opaque Duette shades have prevented the Galdys Kravitzs’ from seeing into my home. I had a valance on the windows, but it’s not going back up.

My thought is I’d like to have some sort of woven wood shades. I like the added texture a natural shading brings to the party and I feel it will play nicely with the gray wall color. The room also has hardwood floors and carpet, and I’m hoping a bamboo, grass or reed shade will help tie in the different flooring colors.

Here are some questions I have:

Can I put up natural shades and also leave up the Duette shades for privacy in the evening?  Will they be able to function separately and will there be room?

If I can’t leave up the Duette shades would you suggest an inside or outside mount? I have approximately an 1 1/2″ for an inside mount.

Do any of the natural woven shades offer a privacy backing?

Will my windows look bare without a valance?

I’m looking forward to the recommendations by my very knowledgeable Hirshfield’s co-workers. I’m confident they will point me in the right direction and I’ll find the perfect window treatment which will meet my needs.

The impetus for finishing this project? Next on my list is a new coat of paint for my bedroom, which means the stained baseboards need to come off and replaced with the new and improved painted baseboard trim. I’m slowly (three years in) switching out the trim in my home. Home improvement? It’s a vicious cycle, but we all love it. Don’t we?

{window treatment wednesday}

For more than thirty years, Hirshfield’s Shop At Home window fashions designers have been welcomed into countless homes to provide practical and decorative solutions for every size and shape window imaginable. From simple wood blinds to custom-built shutters; and tailored valances to elegant draperies, a visit from Hirshfield’s Shop At Home practically guarantees a perfect balance of light control and privacy needs with your budget and decorating objectives.

Charlotte Moss

Often times, a simple throw pillow or two in a living area can make a world of difference; so much can be accomplished with the right touch of fabric. And that‚ is what makes custom designed bedding so much fun. After all, you spend one-third of your life in the bedroom. It should be as unique and individual as you are.

Bedding design is only limited by imagination. It can have a masculine tone with a deep color palette combined with pin stripes, nautical themes, woodland motifs, or as plain and simple as a monk’s cot.

The feminine version might include elements of lace, bead work, fringe, and sheers fabrics such as voile or tulle in soft pastel colors.

The components of bedding are spreads, quilts, comforters, duvets, shams bed skirts and the infinite variety of decorative pillows.

Charlotte Moss

But whatever style, theme or palette, it all begins with fabric.

Pick and choose, mix and match, use stripes with flower prints or plaids and solids. Then integrate detailing such as flanges, fringe, buttons, pleating, tucking and beading to give bedding its own unique personality. Imagine a soft supple suede bed skirt or an embossed faux leather skirt with silver bolo tie embellishments, how about monogrammed linen shams trimmed in hand-made lace or a merino wool throw? Choose natural fibers such as linen, silk, wool and cotton. They contribute to both texture and comfort. Who can resist the softness of velvet or the luxury of silk? Have a furry member of the family that sleeps with you?  Use pin stripe corduroy, washable and durable, or a cotton with buttons and a few tuck pleats to add character.

Bedding sets the ambiance for that final experience of sliding in between the sheets. Let Hirshfield’s Shop At Home help you create the bedroom of your dreams.

Guest post by Kathryn Gravening from Hirshfield’s Shop at Home

Images:

{window treatment wednesday}

Decorative hardware can be used to enhance many different styles of custom window treatments. Any decor style from traditional to contemporary to casual or eclectic can be found to suit your decorating scheme. Choosing the right drapery hardware is not only important for the design of your treatment but also the function of your treatment.

Does your drapery hardware need to function so that you can move draperies with ease or do you need a pole to hang panels or valances from?

If needing to move panels back and forth there are a few things you should consider when selecting hardware. Heavier pinch pleated draperies are best suited for traverse rods which allows you to open and close your panels across a window by using a draw cord. These rods are typically supported properly, so that the rod can hold the weight of the drapery.

Drapery panels can also be hung by using clip rings, tabs and grommets. This type of drapery is hung onto a decorative pole and requires you to draw the panels by hand. One thing to consider is that if you have a wider window to cover, your rod should have a center support. Hand draw draperies will not move over a center support, so a one way draw will not work. Consider using this type of treatment with a split draw drapery. Hand draw draperies do not always move easily back and forth and require the user to “dress out” or fix the panels to look nice in their resting position.

Decorative hardware is also used to hang stationary side panels and fixed treatments like open swags. For this application there is a wide variety of holders, poles and end pieces or finials available. For the more challenging window designs, there are even specialty brackets that can create a bay or bow rod.

Decorative drapery hardware is available in a limitless array of materials, styles, colors and finishes. Most decorative poles are constructed of wood, brass or iron and are capped at the ends with decorative finials. Selecting the right hardware can make or break the overall appearances of your custom window treatment. Many times I have been in a home furnished with beautiful custom draperies or valances and the overall appearance is compromised by unattractive hardware.

Working with a Hirshfield’s Window Treatment Specialist such as myself, you can achieve a custom home decor that provides a desired function with a unity of design. Call me!

Guest post from Andrea Mandel, Hirshfield’s Shop at Home

Images:

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{window treatment wednesday}

FASHION IN MOTION

Virtually every Hunter Douglas product can be outfitted with a motorized system. The system appropriate for your custom window coverings depends mostly on the type of product you purchase. If you have to step into the bathtub to raise or lower your window treatment, you’ll want to check out these motorized options for your windows. Some systems raise and lower window treatments and adjust slats, vanes and louvers, while others move the window covering from side to side, rotating vanes and louvers.

Now through September 4, 2012 Hunter Douglas is offering a mail-in rebate on their motorized blinds and window shades. Stop in at your neighborhood Hirshfield’s and have one of our window treatment experts show you the very impressive motorization options.

Hunter Douglas offers the most innovative technology in the industry and Hirshfield’s offers the most knowledgeable staff. Plus, Hirshfield’s has been in business for 118 years and if anything should go wrong, you know Hirshfield’s will take care of the problem.

{window treatment wednesday: shop at home for window fashions with Hirshfield’s}

“The right window treatment is really the jewelry on the dress. It brings the whole look of the room together.”
- Kathryn, Hirshfield’s Shop at Home

You know Hirshfield’s is your Minnesota resource for all the best window fashions – from elegant and durable wood blinds to the sophisticated luxury of Silhouettes and Luminette Window Shadings from Hunter Douglas. But if window treatment shopping just doesn’t fit into your schedule or your project requires a little extra attention, let a Hirshfield’s window treatment expert come to you!

With Hirshfield’s Shop at Home, a Hirshfield’s design professional will bring our window fashions library – which includes the latest colors and styles – right to your home. What better way to see just how your new window treatments will look than in the privacy of your own home in the rooms you are decorating!

Hirshfield’s Shop at Home services include window treatments, custom draperies, shutters, bed fashions and more.

{friday finds: hunter douglas – it’s a sale}

Don’t forget…Hirshfield’s Hunter Douglas Window Treatment sale ends Saturday, March 10, 2012. 

{woven woods}

Hunter Douglas Provenance 

House of Turquoise – Lucy Penfield

House of Turquoise

Cote de’Texas

Palmer Weiss 2010 Showcase Home

Hunter Douglas Provenance

Hunter Douglas Provenance

House of Turquoise – Lucy Penfield

A little texture goes a long way! Improve the view of your room with au courant woven woods.  Made from natural fibers like bamboo, grass, reeds, and woods, they add another layer of color and texture to your room.

Hirshfield’s has a large selection of natural woven shades at price points to suit everyone’s budget. Stop in and work with our window treatment experts.  I love listening to them talk customers through the process of selecting the right treatment for their lifestyle and budget. They know the right questions to ask to make sure you are completely satisfied with your window treatment purchase. I may be biased, but the window treatment professionals at Hirshfield’s really are the best in the business!

{celebrate the season: window treatment sale at hirshfield’s}

With window treatments from Hirshfield’s, you get style for your windows and savings for you! Right now at Hirshfield’s, you can save $25-$300 per unit on select Hunter Douglas window treatments.

{happy customer}

A note of appreciation to Dawn Feda, Hirshfield’s Shop At Home, for a job well done.

Good Morning Dawn,

I’ve been meaning to email you since my window treatments were installed–  I love them—you are amazing at walking in and determining just what my tastes are and then finding the materials and designs to compliment

Please pass my email on to your superiors or whoever—you are a real talent

And also—please note that your installer was careful and pleasant to have in my home as well

Thanks again and I will definitely recommend you and contact you on my next project

Regards!

Kathy

Thank you, Kathy, we appreciate your kind words and we appreciate your business.