Sculpting Sunlight along a Portland Fairway
“Marlys came in and we told her we wanted our home to be comfortable but elegant, and I think she just really listened.”
Sculpting Sunlight along a Portland Fairway
Many of our clients return to seek our help when they encounter life transitions and move to new homes.
Melinda and her husband Frank had worked with us more than 10 years prior and were now downsizing and moving to be closer to their son and his family.
Their new home was being built on a golf course, and its Great room featured an inspiring, sweeping view of the course and its surrounding wetlands.
The high costs of a great view
Somehow, great views always come with a problem that needs to be resolved. In this case, the sun poured into the Great room in the morning and needed to be controlled.
The challenge in cases like this is creating a design which meets several needs at once. The design needs to:
Look stunning and add inspiration to the room
Control light without losing too much of the view
Merge form and function for the best living experience
Also, this being new construction full of hard surfaces and flooring, there was a need to add sound absorption to the room.
Then, there was another problem to address as well – the effect on the room when the sun went down!
Grand, dramatic windows add so much beauty and grandeur to a room during the day, but we find they become a liability at night in terms of design.
Indeed, I was visiting their home in October, and after the sun went down, the grand Great room window to the outside world became a depressing “black hole.”
Many new construction homes struggle with this this effect, and the solution is surrounding the window with an attractive, inspiring design!
As you can see, there are many factors to balance in designing window treatments for a primary living space like a Great room. Much is at stake for the homeowners’ living experience for years to come.
Capturing the sun and crafting inspiration through custom window treatment design
The grand Great room windows needed a two-fold solution.
Shades would protect it from the morning sun.
Stationary side panels would add beauty and softness to the design while also absorbing sound.
Form and function would come together in this room, controlling the sun while still adding sophisticated coloring and texture through the fabrics on the side panels. These two factors would work together to create an inspiring space both day and night.
Selecting the perfect shades and adding a popular touch
Silhouette shades were selected for the lower Great room windows. We used extra-wide fabric vanes so they could see out better and tilt the vanes when the sun was coming up in the morning. This allowed greater control over the lighting and feel of the room.
Then, once the sun was overhead, they could roll the shades into the headrail. For the rest of the day, the shades would be out of the way so they could enjoy their view.
Melinda and Frank chose the popular option to motorize their shades. This truly adds an element of sophistication and convenience. With the push of a button, they had total control.
Motorization makes the shades easy to operate, but also, we have yet to meet someone who doesn’t like to show them off when guests come to visit! They simply feel elegant and luxurious as they travel quietly up and down across an inspiring view.
We used rechargeable battery wands so they wouldn’t have to throw out batteries every six months. Power sources are an important consideration in motorization, and there are many options to choose from depending on your priorities around convenience and environmental sustainability.
Finding the perfect fabric to harness the sun and ride on the breeze
As you can see in the video above, Melinda chose an open weave with metallic bronze tones. It created the updated, elegant look they were searching for.
They had been questioning if they wanted to do anything on the large Dining room slider next to the Great room. Ultimately, they decided they didn’t like having a “black hole” in that room at night, either.
We installed full draw draperies in the same fabric used in the Great room. The custom draperies were unlined which gives a softening look. More importantly, the unlined fabric struck the right balance of allowing light into the room while still filtering out the rising sun in the morning. The living room panels would always be in a stationary position.
There was an additional, whimsical benefit to adding the draperies in the dining room. You can see in the video above - the fabric flows with the breeze when the slider doors are open!
This had been part of Melinda’s vision for the space! She wanted to fill it with a flowy, breezy fabric, and her choice truly paid off.
These are the bonus wins we look for to enhance a homeowner’s everyday experience of the room. Little things like gentle, flowing motion provide a great deal of comfort and joy to a space.
The joy of sharing the design journey together
If there’s one thing we hope you take away from Melinda’s story, it’s the joy you can experience in working with a Custom Window Treatment Designer.
On your own, there’s a great deal of stress in the design process. It’s hard to know if the choices you’re making will pay off or if you’ll be stuck with something that doesn’t quite work or worse, disappoints. There are also stresses involved in dealing with manufacturers and installers.
Working with a Custom Window Treatment Designer allows you to focus on the fun stuff – the vision for the room. The process also gives you confidence that the design is one that will make you smile each time you pass through the room or settle in to enjoy a good book.
We believe homes are sacred spaces, and your journey of reshaping it should be a joyful one.
