Window Treatments at Our Franklin Showroom

The Franklin showroom is where Blinds & Designs helps homeowners in Franklin and the towns around it choose Hunter Douglas shades, blinds, shutters and drapery. Bring a photo, a measurement or just a question, and we will help you sort out what each room needs, then measure, give you a free estimate and install with certified Hunter Douglas installers.

Find us on West Central Street

Blinds & Designs Franklin 456 W Central St, Franklin, MA 02038

• Monday to Friday: 9:30am to 5:30pm
• Saturday: 10:00am to 1:00pm
• Sunday: by appointment only

Walk in any time the Franklin showroom is open. For a Sunday visit, request a consultation or use the call button on this page to book a time first.

Request a Consultation

Antique houses around the common

The colonials and Victorians around the town common and along Main Street were built with tall, narrow sash. Those proportions are part of their charm, and the wrong treatment can make a window look squat or cluttered.

For tall windows like these, a shade that stacks neatly at the top keeps the full height of the glass on show when it is raised. Plantation shutters split into an upper and lower section let you open the top for daylight while keeping the bottom closed for privacy from the street. Where the original casings are handsome, an inside mount leaves the trim in plain view. Older frames are seldom perfectly square, so every window is measured on its own rather than assumed to match its neighbor.

Victorian parlors and dining rooms also suit layered looks: a Roman shade for light control with drapery panels on either side to frame the window. Wood blinds with a matching valance are another traditional choice that fits the period, and in a bedroom under the eaves a room-darkening honeycomb shade keeps summer mornings quiet.

Big entry glass in the newer subdivisions

The large newer colonials across the subdivisions off Route 140 are a different job altogether. Many have two-story entry glass over the front door and a stairwell window that nobody can reach without a tall ladder. That stairwell window is the hardest reach in town, and it is usually the one left bare.

Motorization solves it. A PowerView shade on a high window can be raised and lowered from a remote or a phone app, and it can follow a schedule so it closes against afternoon sun and opens again in the morning without anyone touching it. Honeycomb shades are a popular choice up there because the cells hold air and help the entry hall keep its warmth through a Franklin winter. For tall glass in a family room, banded or roller shades give a clean modern line.

Sidelights, transoms and great rooms

The same newer colonials tend to have narrow sidelights beside the front door, half-round transoms over the main windows and a great room with a wall of glass facing the back yard. Each one raises its own question. Sidelights need something slim that does not catch when the door swings, such as a fitted shade mounted on the door glass itself. Transoms and arches can be left open to the sky, covered with a fixed shade shaped to the curve, or matched with an arched shutter above a rectangular one.

Great rooms are about balance. You want the daylight and the view of the yard, but not the glare on the television in late afternoon. Sheer shades with soft vanes, or a light-filtering roller shade that drops only partway, handle that well. If several shades share one wall, motorizing them together means a single tap closes the whole run.

Products to look at in Franklin

Wood and faux wood blinds

Warm wood or moisture-friendly faux wood, with slats you tilt for privacy and light.

Wood blinds

Drapery

Panels and sheers to frame a tall window or soften a formal room.

Drapery

Woven shades

Natural textures that filter light and add warmth to a room.

Woven shades

Motorized shades

PowerView control for high windows and whole-house schedules.

Motorized blinds and shades

What happens when you come in

1. Tell us about the house. Which rooms, which way they face, and whether the windows are original or newer.
2. Narrow the choices. We show you the Hunter Douglas samples that suit those windows and explain the differences in plain terms.
3. Measure at home. We visit to measure every window and give you a written estimate, which costs nothing.
4. Installation. Certified Hunter Douglas installers fit everything, high windows included, and make sure each one works properly.

A Gallery dealer close to home

Blinds & Designs is a family business and a Hunter Douglas Gallery dealer, which gives you the full range of the brand’s shades, blinds, shutters and drapery in one place, along with installers Hunter Douglas has certified.

If you cannot get to the Franklin showroom, our vans carry samples and options so we can bring the showroom to you. We also offer interior design consultations, window covering automation and repairs on Hunter Douglas blinds and shades you already own.

In-home consultations

Towns we look after from Franklin

From West Central Street we serve Franklin, Bellingham, Medway, Millis, Norfolk, Wrentham, Plainville, Holliston, Milford and the Blackstone Valley towns beyond. Wherever you live in that stretch, an in-home consultation brings the samples to your kitchen table, so you can judge colors in your own light before anything is ordered, and our installers come to you for the fitting.

Your next step

Request a consultation for a visit at your home, or come to the Franklin showroom at 456 W Central St during opening hours.