An Avon Buyer's Guide to Roller and Solar Shades for 2008

Avon Window Treatments

Roller shade quotes are hard to compare because the product hides its cost. From six feet away, the cheap one and the expensive one are both a flat rectangle of fabric. The difference sits in the tube, the fabric grade, the way the roll is covered and the lift. Here is what each of those adds in national terms, and which upgrades actually earn their place in an Avon home.

The Anatomy of a Roller Shade

Strip a roller shade to its parts and there is not much there: fabric wrapped around a tube, held by brackets. Turning that tube is a clutch and bead chain most of the time. Some shades use a cordless spring instead, and a growing number use a motor. A hembar rides the bottom hem to keep the fabric weighted and square. Because the machine is so simple, every dollar and every flaw traces back to a handful of choices.

Regular roll feeds fabric off the back of the tube, closest to the glass, so the roll almost disappears. Reverse roll feeds it off the front, which pushes the roll toward you and opens a wider gap at the edges. Pick reverse roll to clear an obstruction, a crank handle or a deep sill, and settle it at the measure appointment, before anything is cut. Then there is what covers the tube. Exposed saves money and depth. A fascia hides the hardware and lines a run of Avon windows up at one clean height. A full cassette seals it completely, with room for a light blocking pocket. Get the brackets level and the shade behaves for years. Get them even slightly off and a wide shade telescopes, drifting sideways with every turn until fabric drags on a bracket.

What Roller Shades Cost

Stock roller shades run roughly $60 to $600 a window nationally. Custom shades, measured and installed, run roughly $250 to $2,600 a window nationally, moved up that range by fabric grade, tube size, roll covering, and lift choice. A bead chain clutch sits at the low end. Cordless spring costs more and struggles on very large shades. A motor is usually the biggest line item, though battery power runs roughly $100 to $300 a window less than hardwired nationally and only asks for a battery change about once a year.

Custom fabrication normally takes two to five weeks anywhere around Avon. A promise of something much faster usually means a stock size, not a shade built to your opening. A few costs show up later rather than on the invoice: dye lots that shift between orders, cord tensioners that must stay fastened to the wall, and a service call once an out of level shade starts to telescope. A written quote naming the fabric, the openness rating, the lift, and the mount deduction heads most of that off.

Getting a Room Actually Dark

An inside mount shade always ships a little narrower than its opening, since the fabric needs room to move without dragging on the frame. The deduction is small on paper, close to a sixteenth of an inch a side, but the gap you actually see once it is hung tends to run closer to three quarters of an inch a side once bracket hardware is in the mix. Go taller than about 120 inches, or build a shade much taller than it is wide, and the gap only grows.

Room darkening and blackout get used like they mean the same thing, and they do not. Room darkening cuts most, not all, of the light through the cloth. Blackout, coated on the back, blocks light through the fabric itself. Neither stops light sneaking in around the fabric, the part that determines whether a room goes fully dark. A dark room takes a system: blackout fabric, side channels that trap the edges, a pocket or cassette sealing the top, and a bottom fit close enough to the sill that no light bar shows. Put it in a nursery or media room without hesitation. A guest room used a few nights a year is usually fine with fabric alone.

Solar Screen Fabric and Openness Factor

Openness factor measures the open space in a solar screen's weave, expressed as a percentage. Common ratings run 1, 3, 5, 10, and 14 percent. Lower numbers cut more glare and show less of the outdoors.

Color affects performance as much as the rating does. Dark fabric absorbs scattered light, sharpening the view and cutting glare hard. Light fabric reflects more heat but scatters light on the inside face, which hazes the view. For a typical Avon living room, 3 or 5 percent in a medium to dark tone is a safe default. Reserve 1 percent for a window where glare alone is the problem. Two limits are worth knowing up front. Solar screens do not provide nighttime privacy, since the effect relies on daylight brightness and reverses once your lamps are on and the sun is down. And screens reduce and slow fading from sun exposure without ever stopping it, since ultraviolet is only one part of what fades a fabric.

Choosing Roller Shades Room by Room

The mistake we see most often is not a bad shade. It is one good shade doing several different jobs it was never built for. A solar screen in a bedroom will not keep you private at night, and blackout over a good view just hides the reason the window is there.

• Living and family rooms: a 3 to 5 percent solar screen in a medium to dark tone, tied together with one fascia across a run of windows.
• Kitchens: vinyl or vinyl coated fabric near the sink or range, since a woven screen holds onto grease.
• Bedrooms: full blackout hardware for a day sleeper or a nursery, room darkening under a lined drape otherwise.
• Home offices: a 1 to 3 percent dark screen, cutting monitor glare without losing the window.
• Bathrooms: nighttime opacity above everything else, checked from the yard after dark.

A wide slider usually looks better with two shades sharing a single fascia than one oversized shade with a tube heavy enough to sag. Around Avon and Avon Estates, the houses that feel finished are the ones where somebody picked a roll treatment for the whole main floor at once.

Spend the free money first. A darker screen fabric costs nothing and outperforms most upgrades on the quote. After that, buy fascia where you sit and channels only where darkness is the point. Avon Window Treatments quotes per window in writing and works from national price ranges. We are insured and bonded. Call (317) 854-7158 and we will measure your Avon openings.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between regular roll and reverse roll?

Regular roll brings the fabric off the back of the tube, closest to the glass, which hides the roll and keeps the shade tight to the window. Reverse roll brings it off the front, pushing the fabric farther into the room. You need reverse roll to clear an obstruction, like a crank handle or a deep sill. The trade off is a wider light gap and a more visible tube, so it gets decided at the measure rather than after the fact.

Is blackout fabric enough to make a room dark?

On its own, no. Blackout fabric stops light through the cloth but not around it, so an inside mount still leaks along both sides and across the top where the fabric leaves the tube. The sill is a third leak point. A dark room needs the full system: blackout fabric, side channels on the frame, a cassette or pocket at the top, and a close fit at the bottom. Skip the channels and blackout fabric alone will not get you there.

Should I choose a fascia or leave the roll exposed?

Both are legitimate choices. An exposed roll costs less and needs less mounting depth, and it looks right in a plain, modern room. A fascia hides the tube and gives a finished edge, and it matters most across a run of several windows, since shades never roll to quite the same diameter and a continuous fascia hides that difference. The trade is depth: a shallow opening may only have room for brackets alone.