A window treatment is any modification or cover of the window.
The main aim of adding manufactured home window treatments is to enhance the room’s aesthetics.
The Three Manufactured Window Treatment Categories
Window treatments are split into three categories:
- Soft
- Hard
- Combo
Soft
Soft window treatments often made from soft materials such as drapes, curtains, sheers, swags, and valances.
Hard
Hard window treatments often made from hard materials like vinyl and wood.
Combo
Combo window treatments that combine both soft and hard materials.
Top Eleven Manufactured Home Window Treatments
These are some of the best window treatments for a manufactured home:
1. Roman shades
These treatments consist of a simple fabric that hangs flat when the window is closed and folds horizontally into neat pleats when the window is raised.
Roman shades are good for windows that slide up and down.
They offer all the privacy you need plus total control on the incoming light.
The best part is that they can be made from pretty any idle fabric you may be having at home – all you need is a DIY guide to make your own. They also provide superb insulation.
Roman shades are often installed in the conventional “slide-on-chord” design whereby a cloth is attached to a chord on which it slides during adjustment.
Many different types of materials can be used to make them including fabric, wood, and bamboo.
There are plenty of options on Wayfair and Home Depot.
2. Roller Shades
These window treatments are also referred to as roller blinds or roll up shades.
They can be the best choice if you are looking for an economical and easy way of adding style, color, and texture on your windows and the accompanying décor.
Roller shades are made from simple fabrics to support ease of use, affordability, and effective functionality.
Roller shades come in an array of designs. If you wish to get rid of UV light, for instance, you can choose a roller shade designed for blocking UV rays like Coolaroo® Spring Operated True to Size Hazelnut Cordless UV Blocking and Protection Privacy EXT Roller Shade 96 in.W x 72 in. L.
Alternatively, you can choose Levolor® Room Darkening Roller Shades to not only block the UV rays but also excess white light.
Home Depot offers a wide variety of roller shades to suit every need,
3. Drapery
Drapery is a fancy way of referring to curtains.
These window treatments can be used to add elegance and sophistication on your windows and still maintain a casual look.
They come in an array of sizes, materials, colors, patterns, and shapes. You might have noticed that most departmental stores have a special section dedicated to nothing but curtains – they are that special.
You will need to be particular with your choices because curtains designed for one thing, say, fire resistance, may not be well suited for noise absorption or dust retention.
There is always the right curtain for a specific need.
Drapery may be moved with cords, by hand, by a press-button pad, and if you love automation you can opt for remote-controlled options like Curtain Call® Electric Remote-Controlled Drapery System W/8′ Track Center Opening & Ceiling Mount Brackets CL-920A.
Again, you will need to be particular with your size specifications, the weight of the curtain, and even the size of the windows.
4. Sheer curtains (or Net Curtains)
Sheer curtains are made from translucent or sheer fabric. They are also referred to as privacy curtains.
The fabric’s sheerness may be expressed in 3 characteristics:
- barely visible,
- very thin, and
- extremely rare.
Virtually any translucent fabric or material can be used to make sheer curtains: nylon, rayon, silk, gossamer, etc.
Just like drapers, expect sheer curtains to be offered in a wide range of styles, textures, and colors all of which will be focused on increasing or decreasing the translucence of the window area.
Willa Arlo Interiors offer some of the cheapest yet quality sheer curtains on the market, including their Breckenridge® Geometric Sheer Grommet Single Curtain Panel.
Check Wayfair’s collection of sheer curtains.
There are plenty of cheap options on Amazon as well.
5. Austrian shades
Austrian shades are a sophisticated sort of shades that gathers into loose scallops when downed and tight scallops when raised.
These scallops, and the fact that most options you will find are lavishly decorated, makes them the perfect window treatment option for a luxurious room.
Check these examples made by Astoria Grand:
- Munsell Ultra Luxurious Fringed Austrian 52″ Window Valance
- Dunagan Luxurious Rod Pocket Austrian Valance with Onion Fringe Trim 52” Window Valance
If you want perfect Austrian shades that can bring the full luxury feel in your home, you will be forced to ask a designer to make custom varieties for you.
That’s because most of the options offered on Amazon and Wayfair don’t come with comprehensive scallops that characterize the true Austrian shades.
6. Shoji Panels
Do you fancy Japanese indoor decoration? If you do then Shoji panels would be just the right shade option for your windows.
The best thing about Shoji panels is that they can serve as dividers, window coverings, and doors.
So, if you want to add a style on your windows that will be reciprocated all over the home, you might want to try out these versatile panels.
The windows need to be very lowly positioned (almost the same level with the rest of the floor) for these panels to look good on them.
Japanese homes tend to have windows and doors of almost the same size, so you might want to style your home that way before adding Shoji panels.
The Screen Gem Shoji Screen 6 ft. Cherry 3-Panel Room Divider and the Oriental Furniture 7 ft. Natural Shoji 2-Panel Sliding Door can be good starters for your home improvement projects.
Amazon has a whole lot of them.
7. Pleated blinds
These shades are made from pleated materials that hide away from the open window by pulling up to level up at the top edge of the window.
Whether you choose the pleated or cellular version, both will come with bottom-up – top-down blinds.
Pleated blinds are designed for Tilt & Turn type of windows. You can still remodel your windows to fit this style if they were initially styled differently.
They can be a wise option if you are looking forward to saving energy in your home.
Most of the pleated blinds you will find in your indoor equipment supplier will be affordable – you can get blinds as cheap as $5 apiece although some high-end blinds can go as high as $200.00 apiece such as DEZ Furnishings QCCR200480 Cordless Light Filtering Cellular Shade, 20W x 48H Inches.
Here is the Amazon Pleat Blinds Best Seller list.
8. Venetian Blinds
Venetian blinds are either made from plastic, wood, or metal.
They are often suspended by chords or thin strips of a cloth referred to as tapes, by which all the slants can be rotated at about 180 degrees in unison.
The slants can be rotated to overlap with the inward-facing side and then in the opposite direction in such a way that the blinds overlap with the opposite side facing inward.
You can vary the slant by several degrees between the two extremes. The width of the slant can be anywhere between 16 mm and 120 mm.
Achim Home Furnishing produces some of the best Venetian blinds including their Corded Morningstar® 1″ Light Filtering Mini Blind, Width 33inch, Length 64inch Drop.
Consider perusing Amazon’s list here.
Related: Is It Bad To Leave Blinds Open At Night?
9. Cellular shades
What separates cellular shades from all similarly designed shades is their honeycomb design.
The honeycomb is excellent for insulation and energy efficiency. For that reason, they are commonly installed in co-friendly homes.
Cellular shades often come in 3 designs:
- single-cell,
- triple-cell, and
- double-cell design.
They also vary quite widely in terms of translucence – there are those that can filter out much of the incoming light to produce a blackout-like environment and those that will readily let in plenty of light.
Most of the cellular shades you will find in the store are made from translucent cloth or soft paper. Spun lace and finely bonded polyester are also used but in combination with other materials.
Home Depot has a large collection of light filtering cellular shades and blackout shades.
10. Full floor-to-ceiling drapers
These drapers are perfect for a more radical design approach in your bedroom where you would want an all-dark environment for ample sleep both night and daytime.
They cover the entire window from the ceiling to the floor.
If you are an introvert who loves relaxing in a room with a sense of warmth, fullness, and energy, it only makes sense that you install fine and appropriately colored floor-to-ceiling curtains on the walls of your cave.
11. Classic shutters
You can opt for classic white shutters as a compliment for a monochromatic indoor color scheme.
It is also a perfect window treatment to go with a contemporary coffee table.
Related: Is It OK To Put Shutters On The Back Of The House?
The Dos and Don’ts When Selecting Window Treatments
There are things you should do and those you shouldn’t when choosing window treatments. Here is what to do and what to never do:
DOs
Do: Select length in consideration of style and function
If your space is intended for formal interactions, it would be a good idea to choose longer fabric panels.
So, bear in mind how often you will be closing and opening the window treatments before making a decision about the length.
In the bedroom, for example, you don’t want a lot of light to get into the room during the bright moon nights or sunny daytime. You will choose darkening treatments for that reason.
If you are buying window treatments for your dining room where you’ll want guests to gaze at the beautiful walls, you will select decorative and functional treatments.
DO: Use sheer paper or fabrics to add some layers
Sheer curtains and drapes are the best options when there is a need to illuminate the room with plenty of natural light from outside.
However, if you value privacy more than anything else, or you’re into shades more, consider pairing your sheer fabrics with heavier drapes.
We all love this combination in the bedroom or bathroom where you need some light but still would like the space to be private.
Another advantage of layers is the styling flexibility they offer – you can experiment with different combinations at any time you please.
Also, you can choose to close the entire set during a movie night or simply pull the sheer drape closer to set the right mood for a weekend lunch.
DO: Add blinds when the home’s architecture asks for it
In some cases, the shape of the indoor space dictates the kind of window treatments the homeowner should install.
If, for instance, the architecture of the space does not permit rods to be hung on windows or anywhere across the walls (for example, if the room has slanted ceilings, a ground of small windows in a corner, or its windows are dormer) it would be great if you chose drapes for such a space than any other kind of window treatment.
Sometimes it can boil down to aesthetics. We often install blinds in a room just so we can play with shadows and light.
DON’T’S
DON’T: choose a different look for every room
A riot of colors and styles all over the windows is just off-putting at sheer imagination of it.
Please imagine having flowery curtains in the study, Austrian shades in the family room, cellular shades in the bedroom, and full ceiling-to-floor drapes in the master bedroom!
There ought to be some level of consistency and cohesion. Considering that your entire home has the same style of windows, using a bunch of looks won’t be appealing to the eye at all.
We all like to add similarly looking window treatments in the entire home although you may play them down or up depending on the purpose of the room.
For instance, we often choose a natural woven shade and install it on all windows to create consistency, but then some informal areas such as the dining and living room may end up with faux silk and drapery linens.
The same thing applies to color choices. The window treatment should have the same uniform color throughout the home – a riot of colors on walls is unsightly.
DON’T: add floor-length curtains anywhere in the kitchen
It just goes unsaid that kitchen windows look great with short curtains (if curtains are your only option, that is), not long curtains.
There is functionality significance to it as well – the kitchen is a high traffic area, so you don’t want to be tripped by a curtain.
If you can’t get a shorter curtain, you’d rather go with Roman shades.
Café curtains would have been great but yours is a manufactured home. Café curtains don’t look presentable on mobile home’s windows.
The best part about shades is that you can change the pleats of the shade according to the formality of your design.
This versatility makes shades especially fit your mobile home as you don’t need to make replace the whole window treatment.
Three Important Factors to Consider when choosing window treatments
Different window treatments can serve different purposes and even add certain levels of sophistication depending on your choices.
1. Consider the accessibility of the window
To ensure that the home occupant’s safety in the likely event of fire outbreak or any other emergency situation, no windows or doors should be inaccessible as escape routes.
Select window treatments that allow still allow the occupants to open easily and abandon the home.
That’s why should not choose shutters as window treatments because they don’t permit easy access to the window.
If you must install shutters, as the contractor to install them in such a way that they are operable after installation.
2. Don’t ruin the view
Some window treatments may ruin the view depending on how you choose to install them.
Blind shutter or shade installation does not need to obscure your view completely.
Select a window treatment that permits you to easily open the window wide open and close when you feel like it.
3. Maximize energy efficiency
Some window treatments can save you a considerable amount of money on energy bills.
Cellular shades (with their honeycomb design), for example, are good at cutting the amount of heat leaving the home through the window.
Woven wood and roller shades block much of the sun rays in the direct path of the window.
Related: It Is OK To NOT Use Window Treatments?
Conclusion
The main purpose of installing window treatments is to improve the aesthetics of the room.
Whether you select hard, soft, or combo window treatments, it is important to consider the accessibility of your options.
It is never a good idea to add window treatments of different colors and styles.