A lot of our projects involve unusually shaped windows. In fact, we get a lot of enquiries from people who have an unusually shaped window and just don’t know where to start. And it’s something we absolutely love — we love a challenge.
There are a couple of examples recently. One is something you often find in period properties, which is dormer windows and shaped dormer windows.
We had one particular example with a very small sash window, but above it was a triangular shape. This is reasonably common, and people often put a Roman blind on it. But because it was quite a small sash window — typically at the top of the house — there wasn’t a great amount of light coming in, and a Roman blind would probably have halved the light in the room. So a Roman blind really wasn’t the solution.
A roller blind — when you mention that to a client — their eyes roll, because it sounds boring and dull.
So what we did in this particular example was make a triangular-shaped decorative pelmet that fitted into the apex and came down only a small amount onto the straight part of the window — just enough to hide a roller blind behind it.
We made the roller blind in a fabric. Roller blinds don’t need to be made in roller blind fabrics — you can laminate most fabrics and put them onto roller blinds. Obviously not anything heavily embroidered, but a lot of decorative fabrics can be used.
What that meant was the pelmet did two things. One, it created a real feature and a sense of drama. Two, it hid what I’d call the more unpleasant parts of a roller blind.
We also added a very decorative tassel to the roller blind, which dressed the window absolutely beautifully. You can see this on our Instagram and on the inspiration pages of our website.
The result was that the client got the drama and beauty they wanted, without losing too much light. A roller blind takes up far less space than a Roman blind, which would have blocked a lot of the light.
The other thing I’d say about shaped windows is that we also find them a lot in new extensions, because architects typically want to maximise glazing.
We’ve just done one recently — in fact, we’re installing the curtains on Friday — where there’s a very oddly shaped piece of glazing in a kitchen that follows the slope of the roof. Those windows take a bit of thinking when it comes to how to dress them. Often we would template for something like that.
It’s also worth bearing in mind when you’re building shaped windows that we do need space to fix either a track or a pole. But we usually find a way to dress them beautifully and creatively.
