Roman Window Shades

Roman window shades are one of the most popular categories of window coverings.

When you redecorate a room of your house, it just isn’t finished until you’ve come up with window covering such as roman window shades and fabric roller shades to complete the look.  These can be hung all on their own for a more functional effect, or they can be combined with other elements such as drapes, valences, curtains, swags, scarves, or other decorative pieces that can be layered.

In order to actually hang roman window shades, you haven’t got a difficult project ahead of you.  Essentially, they hang outside of the sash of the window, requiring them to have a tension rod which is attached to the frame of the window with screws.  The blind itself slips onto the rod which hangs within the window frame. 

If you are going to be putting them up yourself, make sure that you hang the rod as close to the top of the window frame as possible and that all of the windows in the room have the same hanging measurements such as the depth into the frame and how far down from the top it has been hung.  If you fail to measure this distance, there will be a visible difference from one blind to the next and it won’t give as much of a professional, finished look.

Roman Window Shades - Lots To Choose From

When it comes to the appearance of roman window shades, you can choose from just about any color, shade, and material you choose.  They can be cloth, similar to fabric roller shades, or they can even be made out of inexpensive bamboo, which is very popular because it is stylish, durable, and yet very inexpensive.

If you have the sewing skills and already have the necessary hardware, it is even possible to make your own roman window shades.  Just make sure that you choose a fabric that will allow for the right amount of light blockage for your needs.  Remember, thinner materials and those with loose weaves will allow for more light to flow through than cloth with a tight weave and that is quite heavy or that is double-layered.

The design of the roman window shades you make will rely on several pockets which contain a type of small stiff board or cardboard.  The various pockets are what are used to draw the blinds up or lower them down.  Though they draw up into a layered look, they should appear flat when they are hanging down completely. 

In order to make it possible to draw up the blinds properly, you need to simply run the strings through the small pieces of board located within each of the pockets.  This string-in-pocket technique lets each of the pockets draw up, folding one neatly under the other.