June 19, 2011. Paul Hixon
credit: Helga WeberFeatures Of Roman Shades
For people looking for the ultimate in modern shade design, roman shades represent the pinnacle of simplicity. With most interior designers suggesting contemporary window treatments to enhance the appearance of your home, they are growing rapidly in popularity.
What makes them so unique is their “back to basics” style that is reminiscent of the shades used to block the sun from spectators in the Roman Colosseum in the early millennium. Back then, shades where made of a simple fabric stretched between two wooden poles. Today, the same singular fabric design is used with a subtle upgrade to the drawing mechanism.
Custom made roman shades can be made to fit perfectly in your window opening creating a seamless treatment of your window free from any obtrusive curtain rods or brackets. The shade folds underneath itself when drawn just like the original roman shades in the first century, creating a wonderful cascading effect that seems to flow from the wall.
Benefits And Disadvantages
Roman shades are host to a variety of benefits such as interior mounting brackets that are hidden from view, or the superior light control and privacy they provide for your home. However, some find the roman shade design to be a little to boring for their tastes. One compromise between traditional curtains and modern shades is a variation on the roman shade called balloon shades. Balloon roman shades install and operate just like any other interior mounted window treatment, however instead of hiding neatly when drawn, they balloon outwards into the room. As opposed to roman shades which embrace the simplicity of their design, balloon shades create wonderfully expressive works of art in your windows. They have a three dimensional characteristic about them as opposed to the very one dimensional nature of modern shades which many people find very appealing.
Updated June 19, 2011. Published June 7, 2011. Paul Hixon
