Hardware and motors
The hardware, the top treatments, and the windows you cannot reach
Decorative traverse rods, finials and tiebacks, valances, arches and eyebrows, and Somfy motorization for the glass that is too high or too wide to work by hand.
Chapter 01
Drapery fails at the fixings, not the fabric
Lined drapery is heavy, and the weight is carried by a rod, some brackets and whatever those brackets are screwed into. That last part is where it goes wrong. A rod fixed into plasterboard with the wrong anchor holds for a season and then starts to pull, and you get a sag in the middle of the run and a bracket slowly tilting out of the wall. On a wide window the rod itself can deflect even when the fixings are sound, which is a support problem rather than a fixing one.
The other common fault is a traverse mechanism that has been asked to do more than it was built for. A decorative traverse rod is a working machine: the carriers ride in a track and the cord pulls them along it. Overload it, or let a carrier jump its track, and the panel stops drawing smoothly. Once people stop drawing a curtain because it is a fight, the curtain has stopped doing its job.
Three cellular honeycomb shades drawn across tall sunroom windows
Hardware, top treatments and the shapes nobody stocks
We carry Kirsch alongside the rest of our lines, and we treat the hardware as part of the specification rather than an afterthought bought separately. Decorative traverse rods where a panel has to draw daily, finials chosen to suit the room, and tiebacks fitted at a height that actually holds the fabric rather than just decorating the wall.
Valances and cornices are the top treatments that finish a window and hide a headrail, and because we build to order we can make one that matches a run of blinds or shades rather than approximating it. The same applies to window arches and eyebrows. A half round or an angled top is a template job, and the reason so many of them end up boarded over or left bare is that they cannot be ordered from a chart. Ours are made at the shop on Highway 16.
Custom solar screens sit in this part of the work too, particularly on porches and sunrooms where the shading is doing a structural job on the room's comfort rather than a decorative one.
Chapter 03
When a motor is the right answer
Motorization is not a luxury item so much as a fix for a specific problem, which is a window that is genuinely hard to operate. Anything above a stairwell qualifies immediately, because there is no safe way to stand under it with a wand. So does a tall run of glass in a sunroom, a wide bank of windows where a manual pull means walking the length of the room, and any window behind a fixed piece of furniture.
We carry Somfy. A motor also removes the operating cord entirely, which is worth raising in a house with small children or pets, and it lets a whole run of shades move together so a room of windows keeps one line instead of five slightly different ones.
The decision is usually easiest to make out loud, with the room described. Call (501) 230-2631, or the alternate line on (501) 230-1230, and tell us which windows are the awkward ones. Estimates are free, delivery is available, and there is a limited lifetime warranty on the products we supply.
Suzie's Blinds. Somfy motorization. Licensed and insured. Call (501) 230-2631.