Wood Shades: The New Eco-Friendly Window Covering Alternative

Sunshine Drapery sliding glass doors window treatment

Beauty and Going Green--All in One Product

It is possible to choose a window treatment that is a green product, suitable for the environment, without any harmful products in it and with the beauty of natural wood and grasses: bamboo and wood shades to the rescue. Many different chemicals and preservatives are including in the manufacturing of window treatments. Most people don't give this a second thought, or even a first, for that matter. But, if we want to be eco-friendly in recycling and conservation of trees and energy, we should choose sustainable products that are good for the earth as well as not harmful to our homes.

What Chemicals are In Some Window Treatments?

Standard window treatments, such as blinds, drapes, and shades, are often made from several types of synthetic materials. These include vinyl, which can also be called polyvinyl chloride, and polyester, nylon, and rayon. All of these materials are made from different chemicals, including phthalates, formaldehyde, chlorine, pesticides, and while in production, they pollute the air according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which includes them on the list of hazardous air pollutants. Employees that work in these environments can have severe health effects, including cancer, liver damage, kidney damage, and damages to the central nervous system. When you are choosing window treatments, it's best to find an alternative to these harmful materials and not allow them in your home to help both the environment and workers in the factories. The Scappaticci brothers know a thing or two about wildlife control. The lifelong animal removal specialists recently opened an Ann Arbor raccoon removal company to service the residents of Washtenaw County Michigan. Services are mainly for raccoons in the attic, baby raccoons and damage repairs such as attic restoration and raccoon feces removal.

What are Healthier Alternatives?

Healthily window treatments are made from all-natural products, such as wood, twigs, and vines, as well as drapes or sheers made from natural materials.

Wood Shades, Shutters and Blinds

When you are considering wood shades, shutters, or blinds as your choice for new window treatments, you should check the type of wood they are made from and also what kind of finish is on them. Hardwood is eco-friendly and much healthier as it doesn't aggravate people with allergies or asthma with sensitivities to other manufactured products. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifies wood products as sustainable if they have a low impact on the environment by protecting water, old-growth forest, natural forest cover, and the lack of using hazardous chemicals. Any products put on your wood products should be low VOC, meaning that they are water-based and made without solvents as a base, which is made using harmful emissions in a plant.

Woven Wood Shades

Woven wood shades are a fabulous choice of window treatments. They are made from natural vines and twigs. One of the most common items used in these window treatments is bamboo. Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing elements in the world, and they can grow up to 24 inches in a single day! This makes them super eco-friendly. It also has an extensive root system that allows it to prevent soil erosion, and it also multiplies underground to produce even higher window treatment products. You can find woven woods in a vast variety of grasses as well--giving you a multitude of all-natural and beautiful wood appearance in an enormous array of colors. Some of the woven grasses that are very popular are banana stems, arrowroot, rive reed, jute, abaca, ramie, palm, and water hyacinth. Woven woods also naturally filter the light from your windows and have excellent insulating properties for energy efficiency no matter what time of the year it is. They don't block all the light from a window, so if you use them in a window that gets a lot of light, you should consider having a liner placed on them. Liners make this window treatment very versatile as you can block the amount of light as you wish and even utilize a blackout liner for total control of your view while insulating your windows even more.

What are the Different Styles of Wood Shades and Blinds?

When you choose custom window treatments, you are selecting products in more categories because they are fabricated to your exact specifications. Roman window shades and roller & screen shades mount inside your window casing and give you a clean and tailored appearance as well as showcasing the beautiful wood grain or natural fibers in them. You can choose natural woven wood, a braided pattern, or even a fabulous intricate tortoiseshell pattern. By selecting the design and colors, you can also decide the formality of Roman and roller shades. There is a solution for every type of decor from farmhouse to formal and everywhere in between. As an example, papyrus weave is a refined and elegant weave to use in a modern or formal setting. It is hand-loomed with wood pulp fibers in textural patterns with soft hues of natural colors to invite a tranquil and serene mood to any room in your home. Grass weave is a textured collection of natural fibers that exude a relaxed and comfortable charm. In this type of wood shade, Jute, bamboo, seagrass, and river reed are woven in a broad range of designs that are Japanese refinement inspired and can be bold and chunky for less formal areas.

Add Innovative Ideas to Your Wooden Window Shades

Along with all of the different styles of wood window shades, you also have many other choices in fabulous designs to fit your needs completely. Top-down bottom-up is a manner in which you have two separate shades on one window. The top opens down, and the bottom opens up. This allows you to open the window treatments fully where they stack in the center of the window for the utmost in allowing bright and natural light into your space. You may also choose to leave the top open and close the bottom to serve as a cafe style window covering. In reverse, if you close the bottom and open the top, you still get privacy but also can let in some light at the top of your window. Cordless motorized window treatments are trendy to have a child and pet safe home. These may have a wand to control them, or they may pull down at the bottom of lift up from the bottom to close and open them. Either one is great because it doesn't use dangling cords for children or pets to get harmed by. For the best and most innovative, you can add motorization to your wood shades. You can program them into your existing security system to open and close automatically at preset times. Or, with the touch of a button on any smart device, you can open and close them when you want by overriding the program. This allows you to control window treatments in banks or singularly as you please and gives you the best results in energy efficiency. Wood shades are beautiful with natural tones, and they can be customized with scalloped trims, colorful fabric is woven in with the wood for accents to tie into your decor seamlessly. You have many choices and will feel great about going green in your home. And as always, when you choose custom window treatments, they are guaranteed to fit perfectly.