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Product Spotlight: Phantom Screens
We are proud to introduce a new product to our lineup, Phantom Screens provides retractable screen solutions for doors, windows, and large openings. All the retractable screens are custom made and professionally installed to provide solar shading, insect protection, fresh air ventilation, and retracts out of sight. This allows for the screen to be there when you need it and out of sight when you don’t.
Doors
There’s nothing like being able to leave your door wide open to enjoy the breeze, especially towards the end of a hot summer day. The retractable screen fits most door types, double-French doors, sliding patio doors, single out-swing/in-swing doors, and over-sized doors.
Windows
The trouble with traditional fixed window screens is that they’re always there – compromising your view, making window cleaning difficult and detracting from the aesthetics of your home. So when your home is basking in sunshine you can fling your windows wide open and welcome the breeze! The screens are made to fit all window types including single-hung, double-hung, casement, awning etc.
Large Openings
Imagine having motorized screens that disappear at the touch of a button, or being able to screen a folding glass wall. Imagine being able to move seamlessly between indoor and outdoor space – without the intense glare of the sun or annoying mosquitoes. Patios, verandas/lanais, porches, and balconies are just a few examples of openings you can use the Executive screens in. The executive screens merge perfectly with the décor to complement any architectural style. These retractable screens can be recessed from view or mounted on existing structures. The screens can be integrated into every type of architectural style including wood, brick, stucco, natural stone, and concrete.
There is so much that is possible with Phantom Screens! Stop in to our showroom today to discuss options for your home.
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Product Spotlight: Vahallan Papers
Vahallan strives to be innovative and their passionate staff continues to create truly unique wall coverings. Their products transform any wall into a work of art that becomes the focal point of any space.
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How Color Can Change Our Mood
Jude Stewart, author of the upcoming book ROY G. BIV: An Exceedingly Surprising Book About Color, recently wrote an article for the design website Houzz. Her article, as well as her book which will be released mid Sepember, give insight into how different colors can impact how we feel in a space.
The element of color fills many different roles in design: it captures the attention, leads the eye, and soothes the senses. While no new colors are being created, there are limitless combinations available for the creation of new color palettes. It is no wonder that color choice can be a daunting subject for so many homeowners.
Stewart first touches on the classic combination of red and blue. While the idea of two bright primary colors next to each other is not appealing, there are many ways to tone down and combine the colors in an appealing way. Red is generally associated with accuracy and edginess while blue is associated with creativity and calm. The lesson to take from this, Stewart states, is to play both angles at once. In spaces that have multiple functions paint each color in an area that is appropriate to its effects.
The next part of her article is focused on calming colors in the bedroom. According to a survey, blue is tho color that promotes the most sleep in the bedroom while purple is the color associated with the least amount of hours of sleep per night.
Finally, Stewart touches on the color pink. She addresses the question “can the color pink actually weaken us?” In the 1980s the theory of the tranquilizing effect of pink gained popularity and was used to paint the insides of the cells of correctional facilities. This was confirmed to have a calming effect on the inmates. It has also been used in the locker rooms of opposing teams in an attempt to debilitate the opposing team. Pink also can have an empowering effect. Its use as the official color of the fight against breast cancer proves just that.
With her article, Stewart makes it obvious that color is an aspect of the home that impacts the person in ways that often are not thought about. The importance of the selection of color is of great importance to the interior design community. For this reason, the profession of color consultant was created. color consultants work closely in collaboration with homeowners that have a hard time with the vision for their homes. These professionals create specialized palettes for entire homes with their client’s tastes completely in mind.
All information from houzz.com
https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/15074434/list/All-the-Ways-Color-Invades-Us
https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/6697384/list/17-Things-Color-Consultants-Want-You-to-Know
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Upgrades That Can Help a Home Sell
As the Summer begins, so does the home selling and buying season. Buyers are looking for homes with special details that set them apart from all the other houses on the market. Often, adding a few well placed upgrades can increase the value of a home for sale. These upgrades also add potential for the home to sell faster. This is a good option to consider if the home has been on the market for a while already.
One upgrade that is beneficial in any space is the addition of more natural light. Installation of skylights in the home can make a room brighter and look bigger. No leak, solar powered, fresh air skylights paired with remote controlled, solar powered blinds can also qualify for up to a 30% federal tax credit.
Kitchen and bathroom upgrades can also make a difference when it comes to selling your house. If the basics like cleaning, repainting, and replacing outdated hardware has already been done and the home still isn’t selling it may be time to invest in some bigger upgrades. New appliances add a great deal of value to the home, and the cost can be more than made up for in how many more buyers look at the home. A new tile back splash or new flooring can also have a big impact.
Living rooms and family rooms also greatly impact buyer’s decisions. After the basics like a new paint job and new window coverings have been completed, the next step is to upgrade the fireplace. It the room already has a fireplace consider changing the facade or mantle. If it is wood burning consider converting it to gas. Adding a gas fireplace is also a possibility, and can often be done for under $5000.
Information from the Loveland Reporter-Herald
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Freshen Up Your Home with a Splash of Color
Painting a room can create an easy and immediate change, and is a cost effective solution to make a room look completely different. Here are a few tips on livening up any room.
Identify a focal point. Select one bold item to center your design. This can be artwork, a rug, or even a piece of furniture that you love.
Use a color palette. This step makes it easy to pick paint colors. Find a palette that contains the color of your focal point and go from there. There are many websites that create color palettes and most paint companies can help with it as well.
Coordinate transitions. Color transitions can be high or low impacts, depending on what style you enjoy. For high impact transitions use a bold color with its neutral counterpart. For low impact use soft, light shades throughout.
Highlight the unexpected. Paint unexpected pieces like furniture,, banisters, or door frames. This works especially well if you want to keep the walls neutral.
Use colorful patterns. Painting vertical stripes in a room can help it to look taller, while horizontal stripes can help small rooms feel larger.
Information from the Loveland Reporter-Herald
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Hunter Douglas Wins Most Awards Ever at WCMA Product Competition
For the 18th consecutive year Hunter Douglas has won more awards than any other company in the Window Covering Manufacturers Association (WCMA) Product Awards, the benchmark of industry excellence. This year the window fashions leader outdid itself, capturing an unprecedented 34 honors out of the 56 conferred.
Hunter Douglas also earned the coveted Product of the Year for the 13th year as well as the prestigious Judges’ Award reserved for a submission selected by the panel that exhibits measurable benefit or standout aesthetic appeal to end-users. The company also swept two product categories and won 10 out of 13 Merchandising Awards.
“We’re very pleased that the Window Covering Manufacturers Association independent panel of judges has given such a strong endorsement of our innovative products and programs,” said Marv Hopkins, Hunter Douglas President and CEO. “We’re grateful for these honors and look forward to providing our many exciting new products and programs to our loyal customers throughout the U.S. and Canada.”
Product of the Year went to the Platinum™ App for Hunter Douglas motorized window treatments. Offering precise control from a mobile device, this free App provides a user-friendly interface with a personal touch. You can move all the window coverings in the home or a room at the same time or one at a time, in real time. Or use the timer feature to schedule it for later. Customized slider bars for each product style make operation slide-to-set simple. Choose to operate by scene (activity), by room, or by time. The Platinum App is a taste of home automation, with design style to boot, at a fraction of the cost. The App also garnered Most Innovative Overall Concept in the Motorization Category.
In the Cellular Shades Category, the 2013 Duette® Honeycomb Shades Collection was named Best Style Concept. The industry’s largest and most comprehensive offering, the collection includes five new highly insulating Architella® fabrics with the cell-within-a-cell construction. New Duette Architella Trielle™ is the most energy-efficientHunter Douglas window covering with its unique construction that creates five pockets of insulating air in a new 1 ½” pleat size. Renewal™ boasts more than 25 percent recycled content. Batiste Semi-Sheer is the first view-through honeycomb in Architella. India Silk is a luxuriously woven fabric with a subtle texture paired with a slight shimmer. Opalessence™ is highlighted with mica in copper, silver and gold hues. The popular Elan fabric also has an expanded offering. In addition, there are exciting new options for covering skylights and specialty shapes as well as enhancements to the Vertiglide™design option.
Honorable Mention for Best Style Concept was awarded to new fabrics for Alustra® Duette® honeycomb shades. Intriguing textures mixed with innovative construction, Alustra Duette honeycomb shades feature two new fabrics that offer a unique solution: Architella Macon™, a woven, textured sheer layered over a color-coordinated inner cell that creates dimension and style and enhanced energy efficiency, and Architella Myst™ with a subtle metallic sheen that coordinates beautifully with the exclusive Alustra hardware finishes.
New Solera™ Soft Shades was honored with Best Innovative Overall Concept in the category. These shades combine a soft look with added dimension and a unique cellular construction. Solera shades flow over the window in a cascade of soft pleats that beautifully filter light while adding drama and sophistication to a room. The on-trend fabrics in the collection are available in both light-filtering and room-darkening opacity. The cellular shape allows for increased energy efficiency and the color continues inside each cell to give the shades added depth. It features Hunter Douglas proven lifting systems and internal lift cords ensure there are no exposed cords on the back of any Solera shades for enhanced child safety and a clean look from outside the home.
Not surprisingly, Duette® Architella® Trielle™ walked away with Most Innovative Overall Concept in the Green Products – Energy Efficiency Category. This new proprietary product provides similar light transmission as original Duette Architella shades, but with 20 percent more energy efficiency by adding an additional cell within a honeycomb cell, creating six fabric layers and five separate air pockets for insulation.
Best Style Concept in the category was awarded to Koolblack™ Technology from solar fabric leader Mermet, a Hunter Douglas company. This technology enhances solar reflective properties in dark color fabrics. Fabrics made with KoolBlack reduce solar heat gain by more than 20 percent versus common dark fabrics.
Another Duette Architella fabric, Renewal™ with over 25 percent recycled PET, won Best New Style Concept in the Green Products – Sustainability Category.
In the Green Products – Health and Environmental Safety Category, Most Innovative Overall Concept went to Vignette® Modern Roman Shades Tiered™ Top-Down/Bottom-Up with LiteRise®, which offers safe and convenient performance with a touch of a finger. The product neatly stacks from the top, the bottom or anywhere in between with no loops or pooling cords. Unlike traditional Roman shades, a clean back exterior free of cords and grommets further enhances child safety.
Best New Technical Innovation in this important category went to Applause® honeycomb shades with SimpleLift™, the perfect solution for those desiring a Hunter Douglas product with cordless operation at an opening price point. It features intuitive operation with a contoured, integrated bottom rail.
Duette® honeycomb shades with SkyLiftTM, a new skylight shade available in manual, battery-powered and hard-wired motorized options that covers larger window openings than previous systems – up to 80 square feet, captured Best New Technical Innovation in the Specialty Applications and Miscellaneous Products Category.
Best Style Concept in the category was awarded to Duette® honeycomb 1 ¼” and 1 ½” Pleat Sizes on Specialty Shapes. These new arches, circles and angles offerings allow an entire room to be completed with a 1 ¼” or 1 ½” pleat size.
Honorable Mention for Best Style Concept went to Alustra® Screen Shades, which redefine traditional solar screens and are available as Alustra Roller Shades and Skyline® Gliding Window Panels. There are two new fabrics, Bolero reflecting a subtle damask design that softly filters light and provides a unique look at the window and Samba, an exquisite light-filtering textured weave inspired by rhythmic heritage,
Hunter Douglas swept the Roman, Roller and Pleated Shades Category, winning a total of six awards.
Vignette® Modern Roman Shades Tiered™ Top- Down/Bottom-Up with PowerRise® 2.1 Platinum™ Technology walked away with two accolades in the category: Most Innovative Overall Concept and Best New Technical Innovation. This product offers easy, motorized operation with a touch of a button and for ultimate, precise control, it can be operated using the Platinum App. The product neatly stacks from the top or the bottom with no pooling cords or loops.
Design Studio™ Roman Shades with UltraGlide® earned Honorable Mention for Best New Technical Innovation. Unlike anything available from a custom workroom, the cord-forward, retractable UltraGlide system offers easy, click-and-walk-away operation, delivering Roman shade customers enhanced child safety and unprecedented functionality in soft window fashions.
Honorable Mention for Best New Style Concept was awarded to the new “modern meets classic” Hunter Douglas Pleated Shades Collection. It features an all-new fabric collection with a smaller 20mm pleat size, updated hardware and proven lifting systems.
Hunter Douglas also swept the Shadings and Sheers Category, winning Best Style Concept for the 2013 Nantucket™ Window Shadings Collection. This refreshed collection introduces an entirely new fabric and proprietary lifting system. The East Bay™ fabric smartly combines a colored front sheer with a linenprinted vane fabric. Nantucket with LiteRise® enhances views with child-friendly, cord-free operation.
Last, but certainly not least, Parkland™ Wood Blinds received Honorable Mention for Best New Style Concept in the Wood and Faux Wood Blinds Category. Parkland wood blinds eliminates the need for dealers to select between two wood blind programs. It provides one single offering with the finest wood blind quality, operating systems, premium upgrades and wood species on the market, while maintaining competitive price points along with higher-end selections and oak and cherry options.
Information from Hunter Douglas Press Release
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New and Exciting Fabrics from Wesco
Custom draperies are a great way to add appeal and interest to any home. Draperies can be used to make a room warm and inviting or to add grandeur to a space. The correct draperies can make a room that feels too large look smaller or make a small room look larger.
The Wesco Fabrics new collection “Opportunity Knocks” is a collection of jaquards that range from contemporary to transitional. The wide range of patterns makes it easy to find a textile to match the style of any home.
These are just a few of the many styles and colors of samples from the new Opportunity Knocks collection. These versatile fabrics are suitable for many uses including draperies, bedspreads, and more. Some of the styles in the collection are even reversible.
Colorado Blinds and Design can create any drapery imaginable in whatever fabric you choose from our collection of fabric samples. Come into our showroom today to view these and many other beautiful fabrics. We have over 4000 samples in our fabric room and out knowledgeable staff can help you find exactly what you are looking for.
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Custom Window Coverings
Custom window coverings are a great way to add interest to any space. They can help to bring attention to a beautiful view or interesting window shape. The fabrics used can tie the different colors in a space together or add a pop of color. A new window treatment can be a cost effective way to revitalize a space that has begun to feel boring. Draperies, cornices, and valances can be made to fit any size or shape of window. This cornice with side panels is just one of many styles that can be applied to the windows in your home.
