Shedding Light on Wonderful Window Treatments
Choosing the right window treatment for your Hamptons home is bound to raise many questions. We turned to Linda Nuszen, President of Windows & Walls Unlimited in Southampton, for her expert answers.
The Question: We are trying to decide on a window treatment for our living room and can’t make up our minds between blinds, shutters and woven wood shades? What are the real differences?
Linda Nuszen, President of Windows and Walls Unlimited, says: They are both beautiful, they really are. You choose a shutter when you want to make a statement. When you don’t want something to disappear in the room and draw attention to it, that’s when you choose a shutter.
A shutter also is better in a room when you want to open the window and let air in at night. Out here in the Hamptons we have wonderful breezes and beautiful nights. If you don’t want to use your air conditioning and open your windows, shutters are perfect because they won’t rattle or move around. And what’s great is that we can install them using material that won’t get compromised by the weather.
Shutters are an investment in your home. Once you do shutters, you’ve not only added tremendous function, you don’t have to do anything else. When you order a shutter it’s like buying furniture for your windows, it’s timeless, it’s classic, it’s not something you are ever going to do again.
Another advantage to shutters it that often times people want privacy and a view at the same time. A great thing about shutters is you have the option of closing the louvers on the bottom so you have privacy, and opening the louvers at the top so you can have your view. It’s very much like having your cake and eating it, too.
Another advantage to shutters is that there are no strings, nothing is dangling—it’s just clean, clean, clean. And with shutters you have different size louvers, so the wider the louver, the more you can see outside. And that’s why I think we are all here on the East End—you want to be able to experience the outdoors as much as possible.
We also do blinds very often. They are much more budget-conscious and offer a very clean look. In certain applications, if you don’t want your window always covered, you do have the option to raise them. The biggest thing is that blinds are less expensive, making them a very viable and wonderful thing to do.
If blinds and shutters cost the same, I would say shutters win out because there are a few more advantages to a shutter.
If we are talking about wood, then we shouldn’t overlook the woven wood shades. That’s for when we are looking for a more organic feeling in the home. They act like a roman shade where they fold up. What’s so nice about this product is that there are many different styles to pick from and they are very affordable.
When you use this shade, you are adding a lot of decoration and warmth to the room, and they give a lot of privacy. They are also very beachy, casual and cottagy, which is wonderful for our style of living. We find that there are a few basic words that come up often when we decorate—cottagy, organic, beachy and casual. Those are four very strong words. If we are looking for organic, the woven wood is the treatment to go for.
Have more questions about window treatments for your home? You can contact Linda Nuszen and Windows & Walls Unlimited in Southampton at (631) 287-1515, by email at [email protected] or online at www.wwunlimited.com.
Windows & Walls Unlimited 375 County Road 39, Suite B, Southampton, NY 11968