INTERIORS : New Views on Window-Dressing

Jeannette Clark put up with the old Venetian blinds and drapes over the arched picture window in her living room for about a year. Then one day she yanked them down and left the architecturally impressive window bare.

She liked the look so much she took down her other window coverings, exposing the natural woodwork of the side windows in her vintage house in Orange. Then she and her husband, Dennis, began collecting stained glass. Looking for a place to display it, they hit on the idea of suspending some of the pieces in front of their own windows--creating a kind of stained glass screen.

“I don’t like curtains anyway,” she said. “I like to look out.” Her sentiments reflect a national trend away from the traditional drapery treatments that many of us grew up with. Even the pinch-pleat draw drape that has served so well for so long has fallen out of favor, say designers and others in the window covering trade.

What do Americans want when it comes to window coverings?

Viewing power, said David Weiss, senior market research analyst with the St. Louis-based National Decorating Products Assn. The trade organization for decorative product retailers includes more than 3,000 members who carry window coverings. “A large segment of the population wants to see outside,” said Weiss. “Otherwise, why have windows?”

Weiss believes there is a national trend toward such alternative window coverings as swags, shutters with top treatments and new products that create a soft, sheer look in blinds.

In Southern California, light and space and view--if you have one--are everything. Tract home builders have even started using glass block, last popular in the 1930s, to give both privacy and light in bathrooms, and high clerestory windows in living areas to create balanced light.

“That’s what people want,” said Susan White of White Design in Corona del Mar.

Personally, White likes to see outside.

“If I didn’t have to use window coverings, I wouldn’t. If a house has nice architectural elements, why cover them up?” she asks. In her own house, White has no coverings on her bedroom window, which looks out on a courtyard and has complete privacy.

Still, there are good reasons to have some sort of covering on many windows: privacy and sun control are at the top of the list.

Cost is a major factor in what people decide to cover their windows with and that’s why mini-blinds are so popular, White said. The ubiquitous blinds make a lot of sense because they are inexpensive and can be adjusted with a twirl of a slender rod.

But many of her clients’ homes have large expanses of glass, some that look out over ocean views. To keep the view and to counter the sun-fading of fabric and carpets and the blinding glare that is hard on the eyes, she’s used these solutions:

* A retractable Roman shade, made of the same mesh material used in patio furniture upholstery and installed inside a kitchen atrium window to control the sun.

* Shoji screens, with wood grids and fiberglass inserts that look like rice paper, installed on sliding glass doors and over windows. The screens let light in, offer insulation and privacy and have the added bonus of covering up plain-wrap aluminum window frames. They go well with a contemporary look.

* Motorized outdoor awnings that let home owners control the amount of light that enters at different times of the year. Because of the angle, the low winter sun actually does more damage to interiors than the high summer sun, White said.

* Twig and twine shades in natural tones that filter the sunlight but still let you see the view outside. White said the shades are perfect for the California climate and create a soft, filtered effect.

Filtered light is something White believes people want today.

“They seem drawn to it; they seem more comfortable,” she said. On a recent job, she used a semi-sheer fabric, pleated very loosely and hung on an iron rod with braided iron rings. A wand pulls the drapes closed to give privacy and sun control in the master bedroom while the ocean view can still be seen through the fabric.

For another ocean-front dweller, White helped select upholstery fabrics with a slightly faded, sand-washed look because the client admitted that she loved her view so much she probably wouldn’t close her drapes much anyway.

In another case, a temporary solution became permanent. It was inexpensive as well. To see if she would like the look of an outdoor retractable awning, White sent a Newport Beach client to Pier 1 Imports to buy a roll-up bamboo shade.

“She loved the bamboo. After six months or so they get pretty shabby but she decided she would just buy new ones every so often. Her carpet is a sandy color, the furniture is in natural-looking fabrics and the bamboo shades worked well for her,” White said.

In inland Orange County, new home buyers Marilyn and John Wilson turned to a new window covering product that combines sheer fabric with blinds. The fabric slats of Hunter Douglas’ Silhouette product are encased in sheer material. The hardware system is concealed in an aluminum head rail, a single control cord tilts the blinds to control light and raises and lowers the material like a shade. The result is bare windows when raised like a shade, a subdued view of the world with the shade down and blinds completely open and a translucent look with the blinds closed. The Wilsons get soft, filtered light, can still see their foothill views and have privacy all at the same time.

Other alternatives to drapes can be as creative as draping old tablecloths in bright 1940s patterns across a window or as simple as tinting the glass for sun control and insulation and leaving the windows bare.

Window tinting, which is actually a film applied on the inside, is popular among new home buyers, according to Denise Duvall, owner of Suntec, a company based in Laguna Hills. The process also provides privacy in much the same way sunglasses work. You can see out, but others can’t see in, she said.

Mother Nature can offer alternatives to window coverings in the form of landscaping outside and the right kind of plants on the inside. Plants that can take lots of heat are a must inside because a sunny window acts like a magnifying glass, White said. A trellis coming off a patio cover or the eaves in some way can serve as a sunscreen for the interior, as can large patio umbrellas, she said.

A three-panel, free-standing screen placed in front of an otherwise bare window with interesting architectural features would be another solution, White suggested.

A trip to the fabric store and lots of patience can yield an interesting window-top treatment of loosely draped fabric wrapped around a rod, she said. But be prepared for frustration. “You think it’s easy, but it isn’t,” she warned. “Every little tuck and fold has to be engineered to make it look like it just happened.”

If you must have them, drapery treatments that are popular now include romantic puddled-on-the-floor drapes that are loose and drawn closed with wands. But they require some artful arranging, too. “They are not like the French pleat drape on the traverse rod where all you did was pull and they just pleated perfectly,” White said. “People have gotten tired of those but that’s what they want, perfect pleating. This look is very loose, unstructured, and you have to fiddle with them to get them to look that way when you put them back in place.”

Other window covering tips: Never use fabric that’s more than 50% cotton on a sunny window, and pay attention to how the window treatments will look from the outside.

Try standing out on the street and taking a good look at your windows. If you’ve got every window done differently, chances are you’ll see a distracting mishmash.

The stained glass window treatment at the Jeannette Clark residence is unusual in that it gives a visual treat outside as well as inside. The late Victorian glass, most of it from England, sends warming glints of red, blue and gold through the rooms when the daytime sky backlights the panes. At night, the neighbors get the view when interior lights shine outward through the colored glass.

Clark and her husband have lived with their minimalist windows for about 15 years, and have not grown tired of the effect. “If I had it to do over again, I would do it the same way,” she said.

Putting a Price on Shade

Non-drapery window coverings can cost from $8 to $800 a window, according to David Weiss, market research analyst. Mini-blinds are among the least expensive ways to cover windows, followed by wood blinds, shutters and drapes. Retractable outdoor awnings are one of the most expensive solutions.

Shoji screens run a little less than shutters, about $19 a square foot installed, according to Earl Hirahara, president and co-owner of LA Shoji.

Hunter Douglas’ fabric blind product is in the range of a high-priced shade, said Mary Closser, window fashions consultant with the company. Costs vary by dealer, but the manufacturer’s suggested retail price for a 40- by 60-inch window would be $393, she said.

The cost to tint a typical sliding glass door is about $125, according to Suntec owner Duvall. Shutters run from $25 to $27 a square foot, according to a spokesman for Sherwood Shutters in Santa Ana.

Free-standing screens at a Pier 1 Imports store ranged from $69 for a light-weight model on sale to $250 for a more substantial one made of four panels covered in an Oriental print fabric. In the middle range, a rattan three-panel screen was priced at $165.

Of course, if your windows are interesting all by themselves, going bare costs nothing at all. Or, in the case of the Clark family in Orange, no more than the price of the stained glass they were collecting anyway.