I have been writing this blog for about a year and often wondered if anyone was listening (reading??). Is it easy to find? How does one find my blog if you are not me?
Well, just this week we have updated our website and were able to have the blog page added to the website. This should make it much easier to find and to read. If you have any comments about the blog, you could send me a note from the contact page on the website. And you can still sign up to get the blog sent to your email whenever I post a new one.
Check out our blog page on our website. Happy reading!
www.janebatemaninteriors.com
There has been information in the news this past week about cord safety on roman and roller shades. Young children and pets can easily become entangled in a loose cord. It happens when kids are left alone for only a short time. Really, any shade or blind that has cords needs attention.
I think the current issue about cord safety comes from ready-made shades that you find in the discount stores. These shades are usually installed by the home owner. Instructions and warnings may or may not be there, but often they can be overlooked by the homeowner installer.
The shades we sell and install all provide ways to be safe. We have cordless shades that raise and lower by pulling on the bottom rail, not by a cord. We do have continuous cord shades, but they are always secured at the bottom. We have blinds that have two cords feeding into one tassel, but when any pressure is put on the cord, the tassel breaks into two pieces and is no longer a loop. Even vertical blinds have cords that are secured at the bottom of the cord loop.
Here are some absolutely easy ways to solve the cord danger problem:
NEVER put a crib or bed under a window.
ALWAYS secure the cord with a cord cleat or hold down attachment.
ALWAYS use a break away tassel so the cord will separate into two separate cords
Here is a notice I received from my supplier that you might find helpful:
It is also important to understand that this is not a recall in the traditional sense, but a “recall to repair.” The consumer does not actually return any product. Instead, they can contact the Window Covering Safety Council to obtain free CPSC-approved retrofit kits for roman shades and roll-up blinds. Consumers can contact the Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC) at www.windowcoverings.org or by calling (800) 506-4636.
Be safe. Give your child or grandchild a hug. Secure those cords.
This is certainly a good time to talk about energy efficiency. We have moved into the December days of cold. I use a small space heater in my lower level family room so I can keep the thermostat on my furnace lower in other parts of the house. But with the warm November weather I had forgotten to add the warm window panel I put over my sliding glass door for the winter.
This is an insulated backing that can be added to any fabric. It has thermal lining, batting and a Mylar film that really keeps the cold from moving into your room. I put it up two days ago and last night I noticed my family room was 3* warmer without any extra heat in the room and it was colder outside.
Insulation does matter. We often use insulated lining to add warm in the winter to fabric treatments but we can also add inner lining. We first started adding this felt-like inner lining to silk to give it more body but then it occurred to us to add it to other fabrics as well for insulation – either for keeping out the cold as we want to do today or to keep the heat out in the summer.
This is certainly a way to be “green” and add comfort to your life. Now I can still eat ice cream for my bedtime snack and not be cold.
Allergies and insulation – that is the problem my customer requested I help her solve this morning. And she wanted to solve both issues with the same product for her son’s bedroom. We added in safety as well.
Hunter Douglas has developed a new double cell cellular shade called Architella. There is a complete additional cell inside the outside cell that creates more dead air space and therefore more insulation. If we would add Mylar to the shade to make it room darkening as well, it would be even more energy efficient. Of course these shades are available in a variety of colors to match your wall, contrast with your wall, or add an accent to your room. The shades are always off white on the outside to give uniformity to the outside of your home.
The cellular shades have an anti-dust feature added to the fabric so dust is not attracted to the shades and they are very easy to care for. No static cling like the old aluminum blinds have. We also added the cordless feature. There are no external cords on this shade so it is safe for kid’s rooms. And this window is right by her son’s bed so there will be no worry about him getting tangled in the cords while sleeping.
Solving problems is what we do. We just happen to solve problems by suggesting a solution that performs well, can save you money, and will look good. I always enjoy spending money on things that look beautiful.
When I first started in business 30+ years ago, we put up sheers and draperies at almost every window. Now we rarely hang sheers as an under curtain, but instead we often use a “hard” treatment. This could be wood blinds, cellular shades, sheer blinds such as Hunter Douglas’ Silhouette shades, or roman shades.
Just this month a customer wanted to replace her 20 year old draperies with something new. So we took down the old treatments and installed Vignette shades – Hunter Douglas’ roman shades. What a difference that made! They look cool, crisp, clean and modern. Very flexible, they keep out the sun’s fading rays, yet let in the light. And they roll up out of the way when the sun is on the back side of the house.
Although they liked the look, it was a little stark after having draperies for so long, so we will add side panels and valances. These windows are on the front – a living room window and a dining room window on either side of the front door so we are treating them alike. The Vignette roman shades will control the light and privacy. The stationary side panels – hanging nicely beside the windows but will not traverse - and valances that are tailored with inverted box pleats will soften the look and frame the window.
They will have the best of all worlds – clean, tailored and soft – a perfect solution to a fading problem, a privacy problem, and a softness problem.
How do you clean those blinds? The problem is not only getting close to the slats but getting the dust off the blinds as opposed to just moving the dust around.
One of the best ways I think is to use a lamb’s wool duster. Sometimes the blinds seem to have static cling but the lamb’s wool duster seems to suck up the dust and get’s it off the slat. And it is easy to get the duster in-between the slats so you can get the top of one slat as you dust the bottom of the other slat.
Another way is to use a dryer sheet. Again, the issue is static cling and these sheets will get the dust off the slat rather than moving it around. Try to grip the top and bottom of a slat as you cup the dryer sheet in your hand so you can do double duty when you are dusting.
During spring cleaning, my mother would often take a dust cloth and old gold cleaner to clean the slat. This would get the dust off and put a coating on the slat to keep dust from collecting as quickly. Her blinds looked nice, but it was a lot of work.
I think if you use the lamb’s wool duster frequently it keeps the dust from collecting on the slats and makes the cleaning job easier. The easier the task is, the more likely you will clean your blinds regularly.
Today we are installing wood shutters in a customer’s home. She had originally been looking for new draperies, but after looking for a while, she just didn’t seem excited about the fabrics. So she put off doing anything for almost a year. When she came back in we decided to talk about different options. She has always wanted shutters, but she thought they wouldn’t look good in her 30 year old, ranch style home that has traditional 8’ ceilings.
It is amazing what we talk ourselves into believing. Sometimes it is hard to visualize something different at our windows when we have had the same thing up for 20 years or maybe even 30 years. That is why pictures and open houses can help us see different ideas and choices.
Certainly scale is important so we selected the 2 ½’ shutter louver, not the 3 ½” or the 4 ½” louver. She had a bay window but by using the correct shutter frame we can fit the shutter exactly to the bay window. She is next to some traffic so the top louvers can be opened so she can see out, but the bottom louvers can be closed so she has privacy when she sits at her table or when she watches TV. I like to be friendly with my neighbors, but I would rather not be able to wave to the neighbors from my living room when I am reading the paper. She has privacy and flexibility with shutters that she didn’t have with her draperies.
My advice is to not make up your mind about what you want at your windows before you come in, especially if you haven’t looked at all the new options available in the past 10 years. You might just find something new that will float your boat. .
October is Child Safety Month and that includes safety with window treatments. On the one hand you might say there really aren’t that many deaths of children with shade and blind cords compared to other illnesses, but really, isn’t one death too many??? And it is very preventable.
The issue is that children can get tangled in and strangle with the dangling pull cords on shades or blinds. The cord is the length of the shade until you raise the shade. Then the cord gets longer and becomes an easily reached hazard. Just recently in the news, I heard about some children dying because they became caught in the cords on their parent’s roman shades. That should never happen.
Obviously, keeping the child away from the cords is the answer. Move the cribs away from the windows so they can’t reach the cords from their bed. But as the child gets mobile, you need to keep the cords away at all times. Many of our shades and blinds have single cords or ‘’break away” tassels so that there isn’t a loop on which the child can choke. Many shades are cordless or operated by remote control (what is one more remote?) so there are no dangling lift cords. And when there needs to be a continuous cord on the side of the shade, the cord is mounted securely at the bottom so the child can not release it.
Children are very precious and there are many evils we can not prevent. This is not one of them. Custom window fashions are now designed with your child’s safety in mind.
We had a great open house last weekend celebrating 32 years in business with many new and previous customers coming to see what is new for fall. Elizabeth Benton, our District Sales Manager from Hunter Douglas, came to help us answer customer’s questions about their new Hunter Douglas products.
We set up a wonderful display of room arrangements with three different color schemes. The panel on the left showcases the chocolate and aqua color scheme that would look great in a living room. The middle panel highlights the chili pepper and biscuit scheme for a family room and the right panel shows the creme and loden colors with accents of saddle and henna red for a wonderful master bedroom. Although we specialize in window treatments and showcased suggested treatments, we also added furniture styles from our catalogs and paint colors from Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore.
Of course we had give aways and home made coffee cake. What a great way to celebrate 32 years in business and the fall decorating season!
As usual when I was watching a movie last night, I was looking at the window treatments. The couple is having a romantic dinner or they are having a family birthday party and I am looking at their windows. I am probably one of a few who does that, but I enjoy seeing if I can recognize the fabrics, identify the styles, and if I can gain new ideas.
My advice to anyone thinking of new window treatments is to see as many windows finished as possible. And noticing the window treatments and room decor is one way of doing that. It is always nice to see over-done rooms and in movies (and TV shows) they usually have the extremes of nothing at the windows or grandiose window treatments. We can always get ideas from the rich and famous even if we don’t use exactly what they have done.
Spring and fall parade of homes are another great way to get new ideas. They are usually decorated with furniture and window treatments. But always go to the houses that are higher priced. You will get better ideas from the more expensive houses and they are more likely to be furnished. Often they don’t care if you take pictures, and with digital cameras it is a great way to get a file of new ideas. Many times people bring their cameras in to me with pictures they have taken to give me a visual idea of what interests them.
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.