When it comes to creating a luxurious home, the elements that first come to mind most often include pools, spas, elaborate outdoor settings like decks and patios, expensive kitchen appliances or technological features.

All of these can be great for making daily lives of occupants easier and adding ways for them to enjoy their space more fully. However, these more obvious luxurious elements can distract from items that can be quietly lavish and have a major impact on the interior and exterior appearances of the home.

One of the most overlooked features of a home is windows and treatments for them, including everything from shutters and blinds to curtains, drapes and shades.

Window treatments are important as they not only impact the aesthetics of the home but also contribute so much to light, the temperature throughout the home, impact energy efficiency and improve privacy within the home. The best way to ensure that window treatments work well for the home they are in is to get them custom made for the specific windows they are meant for.

"When we have things custom made [for customers], we [first] make a selection, whether it's blinds, shades, shutters or drapery and valances," says Anita Yoder, interior designer and founder of Heritage Design Interiors. "There's a lot of selections made for what best suits the client's needs. If it's drapery and valances, there's a lot of fabric styles and trim, and selections are made to coordinate with the client's decor. And then of course everything is custom fitted, which means we're measuring the window or the area. We have [the treatment] fabricated for those specifications, and then we take care of the installation for the client."

In comparison to the kinds of blinds, shades, curtains and rods that are ready made for purchase in stores, these custom-made treatments fit the windows they are installed on better and can have more features that create ease in use and create more options for how they can be used, with most of these features not being available in ready-made products.

"What's nice about a lot of the custom window treatments is that you can get things motorized or room darkening. There's a lot of different options with linings, and the way they operate, whether you want a cordless system or motorized. So a lot of those features are not available in your ready-mades," Yoder says.

Another feature of some luxury window treatments is internal blind systems, which can also be applied to sliding and hinged patio doors.

"Those are good for people who want that built-in privacy ready to go without having to go forward with getting additional treatments," says Sarah Jammer, legal compliance director for Jammer Doors. "They can be built into the glass itself, and then the blinds themselves are really great especially if you have younger children or pets. They're built into the tempered safety glass. They're shielded from damage, dust and just general wear and tear because they're internal. But they also offer a practical solution for blocking out sunlight, enhancing privacy, and they're very easy to maneuver and manipulate with the mechanisms being built into the door or window. So it's a one-stop shop type of thing."

These integrated blinds are UV resistant, so can be helpful in improving energy efficiency and blocking out light and heat, though Jammer emphasizes that if energy efficiency is a major concern for the homeowner, they should consider upgrading their windows to newer models, which will have a larger impact on efficient energy use in the home.

Treatments can also help keep out sound, and some styles allow for the tops of the blinds to be open while the bottom is closed.

"The Duet and some other styles of shades, you can have it pulled top down or bottom up. What's nice is you can pull the shade down from the top and have the bottom covered, and then you can see the sky and the view, but the bottom part is closed, like a cafe. So you have nice privacy," Yoder says.

Besides the functional use window treatments can have on making a home more comfortable, they also have a huge impact on the appearance of the home, meaning treatments are subject to changes in interior and exterior home design styles and trends.

Yoder notes that at Heritage Design Interiors, she and the other designers at the company have seen a change in style in recent years, with trends and client tastes swinging back toward pattern and color over the more neutral colored interior design trends that were prominent for so long.

"Some of the trends you're starting to see in the overall design are moving away from white with white with an accent of white, to color and pattern coming back," she says. "So you're starting to see more of that. Even the finishes [are changing]. For example, it's been popular for a while, but it's going to continue to be popular: brushed brass or gold to polish is a trend. So that's moving away from everything being black finish."

For homeowners who still want that more minimalistic look, Jammer's windows and doors with the built-in blinds allow for that.

"It's a very modern look, but it offers that ability to provide privacy or shade when necessary. So it's more of a clean line, modernized look without taking away from the beauty of the window or the door," Jammer says.

As for the exterior of the home, window treatments can also enhance the architecture of the home. Those with historic homes tend to try to keep their treatments in line with the time period their home is from, while those with modern homes will gravitate toward newer finishes, patterns and materials.

Consistency in design in window treatments throughout the home is the best way to ensure that they complement the home's architecture and design in an aesthetically pleasing way.

"Let's say you have a two-story Colonial. You do not want to have wood lines on two windows on the second floor and verticals on the first floor; you want to make sure they're consistent. It could be wood lines or the woven woods for that more natural look, which is popular, you just want to be consistent so the house doesn't look junky from the outside," Yoder says.

The same goes for the lining of the house's windows, keeping it consistent throughout the home and complementary with the style of the home.

"You can take a plain room and paint your walls, get an area rug, maybe add some color and pattern here and there, with neutral furniture. Well, by adding some window treatments with some color, you can really pull everything together and liven up the room," Yoder says. "It can go the other way too. If you have busy wallpaper or a lot of artwork that has a lot of color and pattern, and maybe rugs with a lot of pattern, sometimes less is more. Sometimes even just say a nice rod with panels is enough. ... It's great when you start a project to just look around and ask, 'What are the other elements in the room?' Step back and look at how it's going to feel when you walk into the room."

RESOURCES
Heritage Design Interiors, Inc.
New Holland, Pa.
(717) 354-2233
HeritageDesignInteriors.com

Jammer Doors
Lawrenceville, N.J., and Yardley, Pa.
(609) 883-0900
JammerDoors.com

Published (and copyrighted) in House & Home, Volume 26, Issue 3 (Fall 2026)
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