Phasing Window Treatments Room by Room in New Plainfield Homes

Plainfield Window Treatments

A new Plainfield home comes with a builder allowance for window coverings and a long list of decisions the allowance doesn't cover. When to measure, how to mount around a drywall return, when to phase the job, and what to do about a two story wall of glass all matter more than which fabric you pick first.

What a builder allowance actually buys

Builder blinds are a stock product cut down on site, and that's not a scandal, it's a supply decision. A machine shortens the headrail and trims the slats and bottom rail to fit, which leaves a cut edge instead of a factory one, and hardware inside the headrail doesn't recenter when the rail gets shorter. Color and opacity choices are short too, usually one white and one light filtering fabric for the whole house.

Stock coverings run roughly $60 to $600 a window nationally. Custom coverings measured in the home and installed run roughly $250 to $2,600. Builder allowances are calculated against the first number, which covers a Plainfield house's secondary rooms just fine and covers almost nothing about a dark bedroom or a glare-free office.

Measure the house that got built, not the plan

Treat a plan dimension as a starting guess, not a number to order from. Drywall thickness, corner bead, trim reveal, and paint each take a bite out of a framed opening, paint being one more layer once everything else is already dry. A thirty six inch opening on the drawing can finish a half inch off in either direction, and rarely finishes the same width top and bottom.

Wait until the walls are drywalled and trimmed, and the paint is actually dry, before measuring. Better still, wait until the punch list closes too, since a Plainfield builder will reset trim and shim sills during that final pass. Drapery has its own rule: it gets measured after finished flooring goes in, because the floor sets the hem. Hard coverings skip that step, since they hang from the top of the opening.

The two story great room window wall

A two story window wall in a Plainfield house deserves its own plan, starting with whether the upper units need covering in the first place. North facing and comfortable, that glass can often stay bare. West facing and unbearable by afternoon, the upper band is the entire reason the room struggles. Once you know the answer, remember that nothing at that height is hand operable, which makes motorization practical rather than a splurge.

Battery motors run roughly $100 to $300 a window less than hardwired ones, and that gap gets closed fast by the annual battery service a wand commonly needs, especially on a wall that requires a lift just to reach it. Hardwiring while the walls are still open sidesteps that entirely.

Bigger isn't always better up there either. A very tall shade gives up more light control at the edges, and one major manufacturer notes larger gaps on shades 120 inches and taller or near a four to one height to width ratio. Splitting into an upper band and a lower band, operated separately, usually wins over one oversized shade. Solar fabric is the typical choice for the view, with openness factor, roughly one to ten percent, setting the tradeoff between glare control and how much view stays visible.

Phase it. Privacy first, then the rooms you actually live in, then the decorative layer once the furniture's in place. The great room wall can wait until you know what the sun does to it. Plainfield Window Treatments will walk a new Plainfield house with you and build a plan you can spread over a couple of seasons. We're insured and bonded. Call (317) 999-5154 to set up the first measure.

Phase the house instead of doing it all at once

Nothing says a new house has to be finished in one order. Privacy comes first, bedrooms, bathrooms, any room at eye level from the street, and an office where a screen faces the window. Cheap paper shades cover everything else for a season and peel off without damaging fresh paint.

Next come the rooms you spend real time in, bought as complete rooms so the fabric comes from one dye lot instead of several. Drapery and top treatments wait until last, both because they're easier to choose once furniture is in place and because drapery can't be measured until the finished flooring goes down.

The one risk in waiting is a fabric mismatch. A white bought in 2008 isn't guaranteed to match one bought eighteen months later, and that gap is obvious in afternoon light. Record the product line, fabric name, color code, and mount type on each order, and a Plainfield homeowner finishing a house over two seasons still ends up with rooms that match.

Trim style and mounting decide what's possible

Two different trim conditions show up in the same new house, and they change everything about mounting. Full wood casing gives you a sill and an apron to work with. Drywall returns give you nothing but drywall wrapping into the opening, no wood at all.

A drywall return opening usually has enough flat depth for an inside mount. An outside mount is the harder call, since drywall by itself won't hold a bracket under real load, meaning the framing above the opening has to be hit or a mounting board goes in first. Drapery hardware carries the same issue with more weight riding on it.

The cheapest time to solve this in a Plainfield build is before the drywall goes up, adding blocking wherever a drapery rod is likely to land. It takes a builder a few minutes during framing and it's a real project to add after the fact.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do we do about the two story great room windows?

Break it into separate questions. Do the upper units need covering at all? If they face north and the room is comfortable, leaving them bare is a legitimate answer. If they face west, they're usually the whole problem. Operation comes next, since nothing at that height is hand operable, so motorization is practical rather than a luxury. Hardwiring while the walls are open beats an annual battery service on a wall that needs a lift to reach, and splitting the wall into two bands usually behaves better than one giant shade.

Should I just use the builder allowance?

Use it, and understand what it buys. Allowances are usually calculated against stock product cut down on site, which runs roughly $60 to $600 a window nationally, while custom coverings measured in the home and installed run roughly $250 to $2,600. The allowance covers secondary rooms perfectly well. It doesn't cover a dark bedroom, a glare-free office, a two story window wall, or drapery of any kind. Many people take the stock package for the back of the house and buy properly for the rooms they use.

My windows have drywall returns and no wood trim. What does that change?

Mostly the mounting. An inside mount usually still works, since a drywall return opening often has plenty of flat depth for a headrail. An outside mount is the harder one, since drywall by itself won't hold a bracket under load. That means hitting the framing above the opening or installing a mounting board first. Drapery hardware runs into the same problem with more weight on it, which is why blocking behind the drywall is worth asking for while the house is still open.