Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Measuring your windows for cellular shades

If you decided to tackle a New Year's Resolution of giving your home a facelift, one easy way to do that is to change out the window dressings in several key rooms. Cellular shades are a popular choice for window treatments because they offer the ease of mechanical window blinds plus the wealth of design options in terms of fabric style, color, texture, as well as light filtering capabilities. In order to purchase cellular blinds, however, you need to take some measurements in order to get the right size. Once you decide how you want the finished look of the cell shades to be in a particular room, it is fairly straightforward to get the measurements needed for placing an order for new cellular blinds.

Take a look at the wood trim surrounding your windows first as well as the windows themselves. If you are not planning on doing a complete window remodel, then you might have to live with less-than-attractive window trim or windows. However, you can get cell shades that are larger than the window opening and mount them outside the frame using an outside mount. This hides any unflattering features behind the cellular blinds, which can improve the look of your entire room tremendously. With a mount that is outside the window frame, you can measure a few inches wider than the window frame to determine your cellular shades' width measurement. The length measurement should be the length of the window, plus the length of the head rail and bottom rail, which is typically a little under two inches total.

For taking measurements for cell shades that will be used inside the window frame, bear in mind that the glazing in the window may not be perfectly rectangular or square. If this is the case, it is best to take three measurements across the window: one at the bottom, one at the middle and one at the top of the glazing. Use the smallest measurement as your width measurement. Next, take the length measurements by measuring the length of the glazing from the right side of the window and then again from the left side, and the largest measurement is what you need to use for the length of the new cellular shades.

Armed with these measurements, you are now ready to improve the look of your rooms by shopping for some new cellular blinds.