One of the nicest things ever is when the gloomy, dark weather of winter leaves and the bright, warm weather of summer returns. In our neck of the woods we start to get excited when the weather starts to warm, but we also cringe because we know what’s coming: an unbearable wall of heat. The summers in Arizona can definitely be brutal, but you can ensure that your home is cool and comfortable for every member of the family, with the right outdoor shades.

Let’s Talk About Outdoor Shades

Outdoor shades, or patio shades, are a great idea for someone who is looking to make use of their home the entire year. As you know, most of the time, patios are often too hot to use during the middle of the day in Arizona, but with the best outdoor patio shades you’ll be able to relax and enjoy the scenery while also staying cool. Shades for the patio can not only help with temperature regulation, helping to keep the patio much cooler, but it can also help to block the harmful UV rays that can cause so many health issues. If you have children in your home and they want to use the patio during the summer months, with some great patio shades, you’ll be able to let them play to their hearts’ content without having to worry about the heat or the UV exposure.

It’s also important to remember that patio shades can help keep the rest of your home cool as well. Even if you keep the door between the patio and the home shut, the heat can still seep through the walls and through the door itself. With shades, however, the rest of the patio cools enough that it will help keep the heat from entering your home, which helps, greatly with lowering your cooling costs as well.

Before you deem your patio to be too hot during the hot summer months, check with Gallery of Shades. We have a variety of the best outdoor patio shades or blinds for patio use that will fit your budget and your lifestyle.

Roman shades come with many advantages.  They’re stylish window treatments that fit the window tightly. They’re flexible in terms of the number of colors and designs that work well, making them some of the best window treatments for a wide variety of situations and window placements. Custom Roman shades for the home are simple and practical, and elegant and refined all at the same time.

Refined Aesthetic

Roman shades can be raised and lowered easily with a pull cord. They’ve been around for a long time without going out of style. They’re some of the most essential window coverings, fitting in both futuristic and traditional looks with ease.

The most stylish window treatments might be custom Roman shades cut into a teardrop style or those with a looped appearance. These can create a soft rhythm of light that adds to the texture and attractiveness of a room without being distracting. Roman shades look modern without necessarily being pronounced. They do not interrupt the flow of the room; they add to it.

Less Intrusive Look…

This is what makes Roman shades some of the best window treatments. They don’t announce themselves unless you want them to. They’re very soft, both in feel and in the quality of light they allow through. You can vary this depending on the opacity of the shade you choose. Roman shades don’t section light the way blinds do, and they aren’t as tough to maintain in good quality. They’re more functional.

…or Bolder Vision?

Because they are so clean and practical, you can also make bolder statements when you buy Roman shades. Choices that complement the look of the rest of the room work just like other window treatments. Yet Roman shades can also go a step further than many when you make wise choices in bolder or deeper colors. This can help set the aesthetics of a room and give a hue to the the light that comes in. This is one of the greatest advantages of Roman shades for the home – they allow broader choices of color and look better than window treatments that are less regular in shape.

When you buy Roman shades, look at Vignette options if you have very tall windows. Vignette Roman shades from Hunter Douglas avoid the stack of material that occurs when drawing the shades all the way up on windows that are substantial in height.

If you would like to learn more about Roman Shades, contact our design consultants at Gallery of Shades today.

Custom curtain panels are beautiful ways to highlight a feature of your home, the scenery outside, and the light itself as it comes in. They should look good and be useful in practice. Curtains for your home are there to darken the room. Rely on custom window panels to get the best look. What should you know about the best way to hang them so that they’re a beautiful feature?

Choose the Right Measurements

Before everything else, make sure your curtain choice is appropriate. Make sure curtains for your home are long enough. Sometimes people choose curtains that don’t get close to the floor. This just gives an unfinished look, and it doesn’t make the wall behind the curtains look good. Curtains should either float slightly above the floor or spill some material onto the floor so they get that pooling, gown look.

Similarly, make sure the window panels themselves are wide enough. Curtains should be decorative and functional. Even if you never close them, they should look functional. When your curtains close, they shouldn’t be pulled completely taut either. They should still have a bit of slack in them.

The Rod Determines the Look

Beyond the curtains, let’s tackle the rod first. Make sure the rod is wide enough. It shouldn’t be just barely wider than the window. This makes curtains look like a temporary hanging, not a feature of your home. The rod should have room beyond the width of the window. This also helps leave some material at the edge to block light coming around the curtain.

Consider rods that wrap around to the wall. This helps draw them across and then back against the wall itself, which blocks in more of that light coming around the side.

You don’t have to show the machinery behind the curtains if you don’t want to. Custom curtain panels can come with options that allow you to hide the rod itself. You can show the rod if it’s a stylistic choice and it serves an aesthetic purpose. Just be aware that you have options.

The Aesthetic of Height

Curtains should be hung high enough to cover window and frame. You’ve probably been in someone’s house where they hang the curtains below the top part of the window frame, or inside the frame altogether. Hang the rod about two-thirds of the way from the top of the frame to the ceiling. You can go lower, but never lower than halfway between. Hanging it within, or even just above the frame does not look good.

Be willing to consult experts if you need help, or have beautiful curtains hung for you. Custom curtain panels can add a significant element of your home’s look. You’ll appreciate them every day, so make sure they bring you as much joy as possible.

Contact Gallery of Shades today to have one of our design consultants come to your home for a free consultation.

Bay windows are beautiful features that let extra light in and add to the sitting space in a room. They’re great places to relax, and they’re one of those few features that makes a room feel more refined and informal at the same time. It can be difficult to find just the right look in window treatments for bay windows. With or without a window seat, what are the best bay window coverings? Which add luxury rather than taking it away?

Silk Panels

Silk panels are classic window treatments for bay windows that never go out of style. When used for bay windows, they can help accentuate the space the windows create. They’re also ideal for framing the light and the view you see out those windows. Neutral or metallic tones (golds, silvers) are ideal for bringing out the light. Classic silk designs can also be remarkably attractive.

Bay Window Valance

Valances are an option that are very clean in form. By following the shape of the window closely, they can bring out the form of bay windows. Bold colors can set off the light well. By covering the top of the windows, they create a more horizontal feature out of your bay windows. Our vision has more horizontal than vertical perception, so this can actually make a space feel even larger.

Of course, they won’t cover the entire window, and you may still wish to use drapery panels as well.

Roman Shades

Shades for each section of the bay window are ideal for adjusting exactly the amount of light you want to let in. These bay window coverings also segment the space in an attractive way. You may choose to have just the roman shades or you can add drapery panels to frame them.

Wood Blinds

These can be very attractive window treatments for bay windows. Lean toward larger blinds. You can use separate blinds for each section of the window but consider broad blinds with hinged elbows. This allows you to control all the blinds with a single mechanism. It’s a cleaner, more sophisticated look. It is better used for bay windows that are more decorative than functional.

For a bay window that you’ll be sitting at or adjusting often, panels, valances, or shades are more functional and less intrusive. Contact Gallery of Shades today for more information on our offerings and to schedule a free in-home design consultation.

Honeycomb shades, also known as Duette shades by Hunter Douglas, are a great way to control the amount of light in a room, but they go farther than that. They’re more environmentally friendly than traditional blinds and can help save energy costs. The secret is in the shape. Wondering why the honeycomb shape provides better, more efficient shades? Take a look at the beauty of Duette honeycomb shades and motorized honeycomb shades:

How the Honeycomb Works

Regular shades are useful, but can become frustrating to control. They don’t necessarily allow you to finely control the light in a room the way you want. Honeycomb shades are made of unique shapes where each fold “honeycombs” in and out.  Each honeycomb maintains a pocket of air that helps insulate your home. They also have light control options. These options allow you to make the shade itself more sheer or more opaque.

Finer Control Makes More Comfortable Living

This combination of elements in the best honeycomb shades allow you to finely control how far the shade extends up or down a window. A shade can come from the top down, bottom up, or rest squarely in between. This is perfect for blocking out direct sunlight but still allowing indirect sunlight. Additionally controlling for opacity allows you to finely modify the amount of light in a room so that it’s perfect.

How to Automate Shade Coverage

The Hunter Douglas PowerView honeycomb shades are the best to look at if you might buy honeycomb shades. Power honeycomb shades even allow you to preset different factors on your phone. Your shades can travel with the sun all day. This can help prolong the lifespan of furniture and floors by blocking the direct sunlight that causes sun damage over time – but still allowing the indirect light that makes a room feel bright and comfortable. The shades can also darken as you drift off to sleep, gently turning the outside light down over time.

By blocking out light in this specific a way, you can also reduce energy bills. The sun’s worst can be blocked from your home throughout the day, increasing the efficiency of air conditioning by protecting your interior from absorbing the sun’s warm rays. You’ll also get a kick out of noticing how they move to block the most intense light across the day. Combine this with the insulating properties of the honeycomb air pockets and you can waste much less on energy costs.

Irregular Windows

Because of their honeycomb structure, Hunter Douglas PowerView motorized honeycomb shades aka Duette shades are also ideal for irregularly shaped windows. Some homes have unique window shapes that are angular. The best honeycomb shades can perfectly fit a window where one side of the window is smaller or larger than the other. Power honeycomb shades can also handle windows like these.

To buy either motorized honeycomb shades or regular honeycomb shades in Scottsdale, contact with Gallery of Shades about the best choices for your home. It’s about time shades adjusted themselves whether you’re there or not, so that you don’t have to worry about wasted energy and sun damage to your furniture and floors.

What’s the difference between vertical and horizontal blinds? What are the best blinds for home decor out of the two? The difference is pretty clear, but choosing the right type will depend a bit on your home.

Horizontal blinds are the best blinds for a home with tall, narrow windows. The type of window that’s halfway up a wall and the first thing we think of looking out of is perfect for horizontal blinds. The best blinds for a home where sliding doors are involved are vertical blinds, and that marks the biggest difference between the two. Let’s find out why:

Horizontal Blinds

The strength of these blinds are that they roll up from the bottom. This is mechanically ideal. Because the most direct sunlight is midday sun, being able to cover the top of the window without covering the bottom helps block out the most intense sunlight while still letting in less intense, indirect light.

In tall and narrow windows, these blinds can remain light in weight because they’re made of lighter material. This makes them physically easy to pull up with a cord-and-pulley. Thin slats are effective and easy to maintain.

Horizontal blinds also offer finer control of the amount of light you let in. Because the types of windows they suit are often in living spaces, offices, and bedrooms, you need this finer control in order to make private spaces feel most comfortable.

Vertical Blinds

Long, vertical blinds are ideal for sliding glass doors. Because they need to extend from the floor to very near the ceiling, each slat hangs independently. They’re shaped to overlap as effective blinds. Horizontal blinds that extend this far would become too heavy to easily pull up via cord-and-pulley. There’d be more mechanical problems with the blinds operating correctly. Vertical blinds don’t have these issues. This makes them more ideal.

Vertical blinds can be tougher to clean and maintain because there’s more surface space to clean and some of the materials they’re made from can fade over time. They also don’t offer the fine control that horizontal blinds do when it comes to getting the exact right amount of light in. When opened, vertical blinds tend to let more light in than horizontal ones do. This usually isn’t as much of a concern in spaces where sliding doors are installed.

What are the best blinds for your home? It turns out the difference between vertical and horizontal blinds and the best blinds for home depends on where they’re being used. Many homes employ both in different spaces according to need, and this is always the best approach.

Window valances cover the top of your window with a decorative complement. Window valances are also useful from a practical perspective. Wondering why? It’s simple. They hide visible hardware, bring out a certain look, make an otherwise plain window remarkable, and help block sunlight. Take a look at how custom window valances manage to do each:

Hiding Hardware

The best valances for windows start with the practical. They cover the hardware that makes your blinds or curtains work. Sometimes hardware from a previous treatment has left a mark. At the wrong angle, you or a guest can spy the way blinds or curtains are connected and operate, or what used to be there. This can ruin the aesthetic the blinds or curtain provide. By covering the top portion, a window valance reinforces the strong look of your blinds or curtain.

Bringing Out Look

A window valance also complements the window treatment it’s matched with. By selecting valances and treatments that set each other off in a striking look, you can make a room feel more bold. By selecting valances and treatments that each “smooth” the other’s look, they can each feel more natural in a room. The best valances for windows do something for the treatment underneath that makes them more beautiful and changes how people perceive them.

Changing a Plain Window

Custom window valances that aren’t paired with blinds or curtains can be decorative. A plain window without decoration can often look lonely. Plain, undecorated windows make a room and home look sparse. The window valance is an easy way to cheers it up and make the room more visually interesting.

Blocking Light

You can also order a window valance to help block light. You may want to leave blinds or curtains open at certain parts of the day. This helps provide light to a room, but that light may be a little too intense. By covering the top portion of a window, a valance blocks the most direct midday sunlight while still allowing light into the room. As the sun gets lower, you’ll get more direct light but it won’t be as intense – since this is the evening sun low against the horizon. In this way, custom window valances are a smart and attractive way to modify the nature of how a room receives light.

When you order a window valance, it’s smart to select custom window valances for the best effect. To learn more, contact Gallery of Shades in Scottsdale today.

Plantation shutters are high quality, wooden shutters. They’re mounted in a solid frame. These are superior to blinds and curtains in many regards. It’s easy to close them with a tilt rod that can turn the shutters up or down. Wood plantation shutters add an element of functionality along with being a beautiful window treatment option.

More Even Lighting

This shares a number of similarities with blinds, but wood plantation shutters offer far more control over the amount of light you let in. With blinds, curtains, and drapes, the amount of light is controlled by how far up or to the side you bring the particular treatment. This can leave one harshly lit area and a dark area, with no middle ground in between them.

You can turn blinds, but only so much before they hit their limit. Wooden shutters have no such limitation, and they more evenly intersperse light and dark when you leave them half-open. This allows for a much more evenly lit environment, which is calmer.

Easy to Clean

Wood plantation shutters are also much easier to clean, since their elements are larger and quicker to dust. Blinds fold and have dozens of places where you have to ferret out clinging dust. This can be a pain. What takes a minute to clean on wooden shutters can take five minutes if you want to clean blinds just as thoroughly.

Air Flow

They can also help control air flow, encouraging air from one room into the next. Tilting them up or down can even help you siphon cool air in or hot air out. They won’t insulate as well as curtains, however, so balance your choices.

Aesthetic and Texture

Wood plantation window shutters have a sturdy, solid look that never fails to impress. They always lend an air of class and make the aesthetic of a room feel considered. Their look also achieves a texture that other window treatments just don’t achieve. Their repeated horizontal lines are pleasing to look at. Not only this, but they help encourage a guest’s eye across a room. They’re particularly beautiful in conjunction with tile, wood, and luxury vinyl floors, where this texture can help bring out the stately look these floors can achieve.

What do you want to consider when you buy blackout curtains? It’s frustrating to get home and realize they don’t fit well enough, or they let light in from their edges. You don’t want them too bunched up, but you also don’t want to find your curtains coming up short. The best blackout curtains are a perfect fit that help you protect and even insulate your home.

Curtains or Drapes?

Drapes can contain blackout features, but they’re typically not as effective as blackout curtains. These curtains have their blackout features built in. The fabric is thick yet can still be lighter than drapes, which need multiple layers to hang as tightly and block out as much as curtains. This makes curtains a far more ideal choice as a blackout option

Light & Heat

Blackout curtains serve a number of needs. They protect your floor and furniture from sunlight damage, preserving their look and value. They can protect you from UV rays if you’re sitting near the window or door. They can darken an area very completely so that you can watch a movie or take a nap undisturbed. This greatly increases the quality of your sleep by blocking any light coming in.

The blackout shades and curtains will also help to insulate, which means they can keep cool air in, rather than allowing a hot window to sap it away.

Range of Colors

When you buy blackout curtains, you won’t be able to find light or pastel varieties. They need to be dark in order to block out light effectively. That said, the full range of darker colors are available, and can complement just about any room well. Besides, dark reds and blues are always in.

Easy Installation

Installation is free from hassle. Wraparound rods help draw the curtains all the way around to reduce light coming in from the sides. The curtains will be slightly larger than the window frame in order to cut off reflected light from getting in.

The best blackout curtains are available at Gallery of Shades. A wide variety enable you to add to the aesthetic of any space. Give us a call today to schedule your free in-home design consultation.