To continue with our story from yesterday, we decided to steer away from the Renter’s School of Window Treatments (cheap blinds) and enlist the help of the professional window treatment designers at Roberts Drapery Center in Mt. Prospect for our living room and dining room windows.

Let me point out that, although I was introduced to Roberts Drapery Center by a friend, I did not (and will not) receive any compensation or discounts in exchange for endorsing their services. If I were unhappy with their services, I simply would not be posting about them. But from personal experience (and also being married to a third-generation family business owner), I believe there are advantages to patronizing independent, family-owned businesses like Cheryl’s (and my husband’s, for that matter!) who work hard, provide a quality product and honest service. No, you’re probably not going to pay Wal-Mart prices (chains aren’t always cheaper either), but you will pay a fair price. In return they’re going to stand behind their product and services, and you’re going to get the personalized attention and dedication that you probably won’t find in a chain. Should there be a problem, you can bet that they’re going to do everything in their power to fix it — family businesses don’t stick around for 50+ years if they don’t treat their customers well!

Okay, okay, I’ll get down from my soapbox now and just show you some pictures.

First, the bare windows (beautiful woodwork though!). The wall color: Benjamin Moore’s Firenze, AF-225 in Aura (flat finish). The ceiling, although hard to see in this shot, is Honeymoon, AF-345, also in Aura (flat finish).

Same view, with the Dupioni silk flat roman shades. The pattern is Essence in Seascape, made by J. Ennis. Like I mentioned, the shades are top-down, bottom-up, so we can let the sunlight in like this and keep our privacy. It makes such a huge difference!

I normally wouldn’t go with something in the blue family, but I thought I needed to get out of my own comfort zone for a change. The blue-green looks great with the wood too. And like I said earlier, there are so many colors in these shades that practically any wall color would look good with them. But I chose the Tuscan-orange Firenze to go with our cherry bookcases. I felt that using a similar color would make the bookcases appear more built-in.

For the living room, I didn’t want the shades to compete with the art glass windows so I went with a solid neutral Cream, also in Dupioni silk. The shades cover the lower sash only. You can see how they look both open and closed in this shot.

I used the same ceiling color (Honeymoon, AF-345) in both rooms. The wall color is Benjamin Moore Azores, AF-495, and matches the shades in the dining room (even though it may not appear that way in the photos). The wall color pulls out the subtle blues that are in the fireplace bricks, and many people think the fireplace is a little less obtrusive this way, which is a good thing.

All in all, we’re thrilled with the window coverings and the way the rooms turned out. Finishing touches will be to hang artwork and (hopefully) make some pillows to add some pattern to the living room sofa. Yay!

Tags: Aura paint, Dupioni silk, independent businesses, professional help, roman shades, window treatment