Roman Shades

Roman Shades in Westfield

Fabric with a lift system, stacked where you decide

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Quick Answer

Below are the questions people ask about this specific product line. Read the drawbacks as carefully as the benefits, because in this trade the drawbacks are what people remember two years on.

  • Service: Roman Shades for Westfield homeowners
  • Service area: Westfield, IN and surrounding areas
    • It depends what's broken. Hardware repairs on existing blinds and shades usually come together quickly. Replacing an entire custom product means starting the fabrication clock again, which is two to five weeks in most cases.
  • Insured and bonded
  • Serving Westfield, IN since 2008
Roman Shades Services

Expert Roman Shades for Westfield Homes

A Roman shade is fabric with a lift system behind it, and in a new Westfield house that's often exactly what a room is missing. The stock here is large and hard surfaced: 51.1 percent of single family parcels carry 3,000 square feet or more, ceilings run high, floors are wide plank, and walls are painted drywall wrapped straight to the glass. Rooms like that sound as hard as they look. A fabric shade at every opening does more for how a great room feels than any hard product will.

Fold style is the design decision and it changes the whole read. A flat Roman is the most architectural and the most modern, and it suits the square set openings and black frames on a current elevation. Relaxed gives a soft curve at the bottom rail. Hobbled keeps the folds stacked and visible even when the shade is down, which reads traditional and uses more fabric. London is the most decorative of the four. We show all four in the actual room, because the difference is obvious in person and invisible in a catalog.

The thing to plan for is stack. A Roman shade stacks in folds at the head, and a hobbled style stacks deeper than a flat one at the same drop. On a Westfield opening with a wide flat transom above it, or where the head sits close to the ceiling, that stack can cover glass you wanted to keep. We measure the stack allowance and show you where the bottom of the stack lands before anything is cut, because fabric is the one product on this list with no adjustment after fabrication.

When to Call

Signs You Need Roman Shades

If you notice any of these in your Westfield home, it is worth booking a measure. None of it is urgent, and none of it fixes itself either.

A large new room feels hard and echoes

A hard product looks wrong over a bay or seat

You want softness without full drapery panels

A dining room needs something more finished than a blind

Existing fabric shades have faded on the sun side

A wide flat transom needs a soft treatment beneath

The room has drapery already and needs a partner

Stack height above the glass is tight and visible

Our Process

How Westfield Window Treatments Handles Roman Shades

Every job follows the same six-step process. Transparent, thorough, and done right the first time.

1

Pick the fold style

Flat, relaxed, hobbled or London, shown in the room rather than described. Flat reads modern and suits square set openings and black frames. Hobbled uses more fabric and keeps folds visible when down. The choice affects yardage, stack depth and price, so it comes first rather than after the fabric selection.

2

Choose fabric and lining

Face fabric, lining and where wanted an interlining or blackout lining, chosen together because they behave as one assembly. Lining changes how the fabric hangs, how much light comes through, and how it ages on a sunny elevation. A beautiful unlined face fabric on a west window is a fade complaint waiting to be filed.

3

Measure and set the stack

Three widths, three heights and a diagonal, then the stack allowance worked out for the chosen fold. We mark where the bottom of the stack will sit against the glass and show you, because on an opening with a transom above or a head close to the ceiling that's the detail people regret. Mounting above the opening buys back the glass.

4

Confirm the dye lot

Every fabric window in a room comes from one dye lot, without exception. If the house is being finished in phases, we identify which rooms see each other and order that fabric together even where installation is months apart. A lot ordered later reads slightly different in the same product and name, and on fabric that difference is visible.

5

Specify the lift

Cordless lift is the default and the only sensible choice in a room a child uses. Motorization is worth pricing on tall or numerous shades. Where a continuous cord loop is used at all, the chain tensioner is fitted and anchored, because that's a required safety device on the standard rather than a cosmetic part.

6

Install and dress the folds

Brackets level across the run, then the shade run to full drop and lift and the folds set by hand so they stack evenly. Fabric arrives with fabrication creases in it, and a shade that isn't dressed at install keeps them for months. This is the part that separates a fabric job that looks right from one that looks like it was hung in a hurry.

Real Project Photos

Roman Shades in Westfield

Photographs from real roman shades jobs completed by our crew in Westfield and surrounding areas.

Custom shades measured and installed in Westfield
Scope of Work

What Roman Shades Includes

Every Westfield job is documented item by item. Here is what the crew covers.

Three widths and three heights taken at every opening, then a diagonal check so the shade hangs level

Mounting depth read at the top of the opening to see whether the stacked folds clear the trim on an inside mount

Stack height calculated from finished height, fold count and lining, then shown to you before anything is ordered

Outside mount height set above the opening wherever the stack would otherwise sit across the glass

Fold style specified room by room: flat, relaxed, hobbled or London

Fold count and fold depth written on the order so the bottom fold doesn't come up short

Lining specified per elevation, light filtering or room darkening or none, and stated in writing

Interlining added where the face fabric needs body or where the room wants weight and quiet

Pattern repeat measured so the motif lands at the same height on every shade in a room

Fabric run direction decided against the width, since a wide shade may need the goods turned

Ring rows and dowel pockets drawn to the fold spacing instead of a factory default

Lift chosen as cordless, a continuous cord loop with a tensioner, or a motor

Cord safety handled to ANSI/WCMA A100.1-2022, with cordless specified anywhere a child can reach

Mounting board wrapped in the face fabric where the board itself will show from the room

Return depth dimensioned on outside mounts so the sides close off against the wall

Brackets fastened into framing or into anchors rated for a lined shade's weight, not into bare drywall

Shades steamed on site so the creases from folding and shipping fall out of the cloth

Folds dressed by hand and the shade cycled a few times so every fold trains and breaks in the same place

Pricing

What Roman Shades Cost in Westfield

National category figures put stock shades at roughly $60 to $600 per window and custom-fabricated shades at roughly $250 to $2,600 per window. Those are national ranges published for a category, not a price for any address in Westfield, and Westfield Window Treatments quotes from a measure rather than an average. Romans usually sit in the upper part of that band, because what you're buying is yardage and sewing rather than cloth wrapped on a tube. Fabric moves the number first and it's sold by the yard, so a large pattern repeat adds cloth before anyone cuts. Lining and interlining come next. Then fold style, since a hobbled shade eats noticeably more fabric than a flat one of the same size. Two Hamilton County windows of identical size can land far apart on cloth alone.

By Product

How Roman Shades Differ by Product

Every product in this trade behaves differently in a room. Here is what that means for this work.

Flat Roman: One uninterrupted face of fabric when the shade is down, with folds appearing only as it rises. It shows a print or a weave better than any other style, and it's the one we specify in rooms that want a quiet, tailored line.

Relaxed Roman: Built without a dowel in the bottom fold, so the hem carries a soft curve instead of a straight line. It suits a kitchen window over a sink or a casual room, and it forgives a slightly unlevel opening better than a flat shade does.

Hobbled Roman: Permanent cascading folds stay stacked down the whole face whether the shade is up or down. It reads soft and traditional, it uses considerably more yardage, and it stacks much taller when raised. Plan the mount height around that.

London shade: Gathered at two points with soft tails falling at each side, usually hung as a stationary treatment or one that gets raised rarely. It's a decorative shade for a powder room, a stair landing or a window that never needs daily operation.

Dowel and ring construction: Rods sit in sewn pockets across the back and rings carry the lift cord. Pocket spacing sets fold depth, and drawing it against the finished height is how you avoid a runt fold at the bottom of an odd-height window.

Cotton sateen lining: The standard backing. It gives the shade body so folds hold their shape, it slows fading of the face fabric, and it puts the same neutral face toward the street from every window on an elevation.

Interlining: A soft flannel layer between face fabric and lining. It thickens the fold, quiets the room a little, adds real insulating bulk at a cold January window, and it turns a thin decorator fabric into a shade with weight.

Cordless lift: A spring-assisted mechanism raises and lowers the shade by hand with no loop hanging anywhere. It's the default in nurseries and any room a child uses, and on a lined Roman it wants correct spring sizing for the actual fabric weight.

Motorized Roman: A battery or hardwired motor lifts the shade on a remote or a schedule. It earns its keep on a shade above a stair, over a sink or on a tall window, and battery wands need changing about once a year.

Wrapped mounting board: The board the shade staples to, covered in the face fabric so it disappears when the shade is mounted outside the opening. Without it you see raw lumber above the shade from anywhere in the room.

Light Control

See What Each Fabric Does To The Light

Pick a fabric below and the window updates. It's a drawing rather than a photograph, so read it as a rough guide to what each family does in a Westfield room, and to what it doesn't do.

Fabric type

Sheer, 10 percent openness

Ten percent of the weave is open, so you keep the view and most of the daylight. Glare drops a little. After dark, once your lamps are on, someone outside can read shapes through it, which is why this belongs on a view window rather than a bedroom.

Openness factor is printed on the fabric card, so you can compare one line against another before you order anything.

Keeps the viewNot private after dark

Solar, 5 percent openness

The usual pick for a west window or a covered porch. You can still read the yard through it, glare comes down noticeably, and the fabric intercepts a good share of the sun before it reaches you at four in the afternoon.

It also cuts the UV landing on floors and furniture. NFRC puts UV at roughly 40 to 60 percent of fading damage, so this slows fading rather than stopping it.

View and glare controlSlows fading

Solar, 3 percent openness

A tighter weave. The room goes dimmer and the view drops back to an outline. Choose it where the sun is the problem and the view is second, which around here usually means a west wall in July. That's a common call on this side of Indianapolis.

Openness affects how much you see out, not how private you are. A 3 percent fabric still shows silhouettes at night.

View becomes an outlineStrong glare control

Solar, 1 percent openness

Close to a solid fabric with a little view left in it. This is the strongest glare control in the solar family.

The trade is that it darkens the room on a gray January day too. Indianapolis averages a January high near 36F and the light is flat, so think about how the room reads in both seasons before you commit.

Darkest solar optionDim on gray days

Light filtering

No view through it. Daylight comes through the face diffused, so the room stays bright without a hot spot across the television or the kitchen island. This is the default for living spaces.

It isn't private in reverse at night. With the lamps on and the sun down, silhouettes still show.

No view through itBright without the glare

Room darkening

A denser fabric, usually with a liner behind it. Most of the light coming through the face is gone.

Light still arrives around the edges on an inside mount, so a room darkening shade gives you a dim room rather than a dark one. If someone in the house sleeps during the day, say so at the measure and we'll scope it differently.

Dim, not darkEdges stay bright

Blackout

The fabric itself passes essentially no light. What you'll still see is the perimeter. Lutron publishes an inside-mount light gap of about 3/4 inch per side on its Roller 20 and 64 shades, along with a standard factory deduction of 1/16 inch per side, and shades over 120 inches tall or past a 4:1 height-to-width ratio get larger gaps than that.

So if you need a genuinely dark bedroom, that gap has to be dealt with on purpose, either with side channels or by going outside mount. We tell you which one your opening can carry while we're still standing in the room.

Dark facePerimeter needs a plan

Openness factor is a measured fabric spec, so you can compare it line to line. The category names are not measured. One maker's room darkening can behave like another maker's light filtering, which is why the sample books come to the measure and get opened in the room they're going in, at the hour that room has the problem.

Common Questions

Roman Shades FAQ

Questions we hear most often from Westfield homeowners considering roman shades.

Flat is the most architectural: a clean plane when down, folds only when raised, and it sits best against the square set openings and black frames on a current Westfield elevation. Relaxed adds a soft curve at the bottom rail and reads more casual. Hobbled keeps the horizontal folds visible even at full drop, which is a traditional look and uses noticeably more fabric. London is the most decorative and belongs in a dining room or a formal space rather than across a whole house. Look at all four in the room, because photographs flatten the difference completely. Fold style also affects how the shade behaves at half height, which is where most shades actually sit day to day rather than fully up or fully down.
More than most people expect, and it varies by fold style. A flat Roman stacks tightest. A hobbled Roman at the same drop stacks considerably deeper because the folds are permanent. On a typical opening the stack sits over the top few inches of glass when fully raised. Where that matters, and it matters most where a wide flat transom sits above the window, the fix is mounting the shade above the opening on the wall so the stack lands on drywall rather than on glass. We measure that allowance and mark it at the quote. Mounting above the opening has a second benefit on a modern square set window, since it puts the hardware on drywall rather than trying to find depth that isn't there.
Almost always, for reasons that stack up. Lining protects the face fabric from ultraviolet exposure, which slows fading on a west or south elevation, and Westfield has a lot of west elevations with nothing shading them. It gives the shade body so it hangs and folds properly instead of collapsing. And it controls how much light comes through, which is the difference between a decorative shade and a functional one. Blackout lining takes it further and is what a bedroom needs, with the same caveat about mounting that applies to any blackout fabric. Lining also adds a small amount of stack depth, which is worth accounting for on an opening where the head sits close to a wide flat transom.
With blackout lining and the right mount, close to it. Inside mounted, light comes down both sides exactly as it does with any product, so a blackout lined Roman on an inside mount is a dark shade with two bright lines beside it. Outside mounted with generous overlap onto the wall, or with side channels, it performs. There's a second consideration with Roman construction: the lift cords pass through rings on the back of the shade, and on a blackout job the ring stitching can transmit pinpricks of light. Worth knowing in a nursery. In a new Westfield bedroom on a bare lot, we'd normally specify the outside mount and show you the overlap dimension rather than describing the result in words.
It fades, and the honest framing is that a shade slows fading rather than preventing it. NFRC guidance puts roughly 40 to 60 percent of fading damage down to ultraviolet radiation, with visible light, heat, humidity, fabric age and dye chemistry making up the rest. On a west Westfield elevation with no canopy the exposure is unmitigated, so a lined shade in a fabric with some resilience is a materially better choice than an unlined delicate one. Ask about the fabric's behavior in sun before you fall for the pattern. Rotating a shade between two similar windows is sometimes suggested and rarely works, because the two will have aged differently and the swap makes both of them obvious.
They do different things and plenty of rooms want both. A Roman shade covers the opening and stays within it, which suits a window that needs light control without visual bulk, or a window with limited wall beside it. Drapery frames the window, softens the wall around it and handles a much taller opening gracefully. In a big new Westfield great room, a Roman at each window with drapery at the door wall is a common and sensible split. On price, drapery runs $300 to $4,000 per window nationally against a Roman sitting in the custom shade band. In a big open plan, a Roman at each window with drapery only at the main opening also keeps the fabric budget where it does the most visible work.
Then match becomes the problem. Fabric is dyed in batches and a lot ordered a year later can read visibly different in the same product and colorway, and the existing shades will also have aged in the meantime. If there's any chance a room grows, the cheap protection is ordering the fabric for the future openings now and having them fabricated later, or at minimum recording the dye lot at the time of order. On a house being finished in phases, this is the single most useful thing to decide early. Recording the fabric name, colorway and lot number at the time of order costs nothing and is the single most useful thing for anyone extending a room later.
Not hard, and they do need attention. Dust settles on the horizontal folds of a hobbled shade far more than on a flat one, which is a practical point in favor of flat in a house with a lot of glass. A vacuum brush attachment run down the face is the routine. Most Roman fabrics are not washable as an assembly, so a spill is a professional cleaning question rather than a bucket question. In a dining room or a kitchen, that's worth weighing when the fabric gets chosen. Flat folds also collect noticeably less dust than hobbled ones, which is worth weighing in a kitchen or anywhere a shade sits near cooking.
More than most people picture, and this is the part nobody asks about until it's hanging. A raised Roman gathers into a stack of folded cloth at the top, and that stack has real depth. A lined shade on a tall window can take up a foot or more of height when it's all the way up. On an inside mount, that stack sits over the top of the glass all day. The fix is knowing the number before you order, which is why we calculate it at the measure and show it to you.
Start with the room rather than the catalog. A flat Roman is the cleanest and shows a pattern best, so it goes in rooms that want a tailored line. A relaxed shade has a soft curve in the hem and reads casual, which suits kitchens and cottage-style rooms. Hobbled keeps its folds all the way down and looks traditional, but it uses more cloth and stacks taller. A London shade is decorative and mostly stationary. We bring samples of the same fabric made three ways so you can see it rather than imagine it.
Inside looks cleaner and shows off your trim, but it needs depth, and the stack still lands over your glass when the shade is up. Outside mount is what we reach for when the view matters, because the board can go well above the opening and the whole stack sits on wall instead of window. Outside also closes off the light gaps at the sides. In a Westfield room with a view worth keeping, outside mount is usually the right call even though it covers a little trim.
A room darkening or blackout lining stops light coming through the cloth, and that's genuinely most of the light. What it can't do is stop light coming around the shade. An inside-mounted Roman leaves a gap at each side, and light walks straight through it. For a bedroom that has to be dark, you want an outside mount with generous overlap, or a blackout roller with side channels underneath and the Roman on top for looks. We'd rather say that now than after you've paid for lining.
Yes, and in most houses you should. Cordless lift uses a spring mechanism you operate by grabbing the hembar, and motorized removes the question entirely. ANSI/WCMA A100.1-2022 is the product safety standard this trade works to, and inner cords that aren't compliant are treated as a substantial product hazard under 16 CFR 1120.3. On a heavy lined shade the spring has to be sized to the actual fabric weight, so tell us about the lining before the order goes in, not after.
Wider than you'd think and narrower than you'd like. Fabric shades get heavy fast, and past a certain width the cloth starts to sag between the rings and the lift gets hard to work. On a wide opening we'll usually split it into two shades on one board, matched at the pattern so they read as a pair. That also keeps each shade at a weight a person can raise without a fight. The exact limit depends on the fabric and the lining, which is why we decide it at the window.
Because you're buying cloth by the yard and then paying someone to sew it. A shade that takes four yards of a mid-priced fabric and a shade that takes seven yards of an imported weave aren't in the same conversation, and the second one hasn't even reached the sewing table yet. Pattern repeat adds yardage on top, since motifs have to land at the same height across a room. Fold style adds more. We figure yardage during the quote so the number isn't a surprise on the order.
They will if the shade was built and dressed properly. Fold spacing is set by the dowel pockets and ring rows, so it's baked into the construction rather than something that drifts. What does go wrong is a shade that was never trained: it arrives folded flat from the factory, gets hung, and the shipping creases live in the wrong places forever. We steam on site, then dress each fold by hand and cycle the shade so the cloth learns where it bends.
In a kitchen, yes, with sense about placement. Fabric near a cooktop takes on grease and cooking smells, so we keep Romans on the window over the sink and off the window beside the range. In a full bathroom with a shower running daily, fabric holds damp and the folds can hold it longer. A poly shutter or a moisture-tolerant shade does better in that room. A powder room with no shower is fine, and a London shade there looks terrific.
Vacuum the face with a brush attachment a few times a year, working down the folds rather than across them. Steam wrinkles out instead of pressing them. For anything worse, use a cleaner who handles fabric window treatments specifically and will take the shade down and rehang it. Do not put a lined Roman in a washing machine. Face fabric, lining and interlining shrink at different rates, and the shade comes out with a wavy hem that nothing fixes.
A roller is the working answer: it rolls onto a tube, takes almost no height when it's up, and handles glare and privacy cheaply. A Roman is the design answer, because folded cloth softens a room in a way a flat panel of fabric on a tube never does. Rollers win on tall windows where stack height would eat the view and in rooms where you raise and lower every day. Plenty of houses use both, with rollers on the working windows and Romans where the room is meant to feel finished.
Sometimes, and plan as if you can't. Decorator fabric runs in dye lots, and a bolt woven a year from now can sit slightly off the one your shades came from. On the same wall in daylight, that difference shows. If you know a second phase is coming, buy the yardage now even if the sewing waits. Either way we record the fabric name, the lot and the finished sizes on your file, which gives a reorder a real chance instead of a hope.
It's a soft flannel layer sewn between the face fabric and the lining, and it does three things at once that are hard to get any other way. It gives the fold depth and a rounded edge instead of a sharp crease. It quiets a hard-surfaced room. And it puts real bulk between the room and a cold window in January, which you feel standing near the glass. It also adds weight, so the lift and the brackets get sized for it.
Yes, and it's a common way to finish a room. The Roman does the working part, handling glare and privacy at the glass, while the panels add height and softness at the sides. Two things to check at the measure: the drapery rod needs enough projection to clear the raised stack of the Roman, and the shade's mounting board has to sit where the rod brackets won't fight it. Get the order wrong and the panels rub the shade every time they move.
Areas We Serve

Roman Shades Across Westfield

We measure and install in every one of these Westfield neighborhoods. Each has its own page with the build eras, window conditions and mounting notes for that section.

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Office
1417 Commerce Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46201
Hours
Mon-Fri 8a-6p
Service Area
Westfield, IN and Surrounding Areas

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Call (317) 863-9966
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