Window coverings are the last thing to go up in a new house and the first thing anyone notices is missing: a bedroom that faces east wakes the household at six, and the tall arched window over a Gwinnett family room turns every sunny afternoon into glare on the TV. Blinds, shades, and curtain rods are easy to buy and fiddly to hang, with brackets that have to line up, long rods that sag in the middle, and windows that are rarely the same size twice.
Inside mount or outside mount
An inside mount fits a blind or shade within the window frame for a clean, built-in look, which needs a frame deep enough for the brackets and square enough that the blind does not rub. An outside mount covers the whole frame from the wall or the trim above it, which blocks more light around the edges and hides an opening that is out of square. Each window is measured at the top, middle, and bottom, because a blind made for an inside mount has to fit the narrowest of the three.
Curtain rods that make windows look bigger
A rod mounted a few inches below the ceiling or the crown and extended past the window on each side makes the window look taller and wider and lets the curtains stack off the glass when they are open. A long rod over a wide window or a sliding door needs a center support so it does not sag, and heavy lined drapes need brackets driven into framing or held by toggle anchors rather than the plastic plugs packed in the box. The arched windows in the 1990s two-story family rooms between Suwanee and Dacula often get a blind on the rectangle and a rod set just above the arch.
Shades, motorized options, and child safety
Cellular, roller, and room-darkening shades for nurseries and bedrooms install much like blinds. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends cordless window coverings in homes with young children, because a dangling cord can strangle a child, so older corded blinds in a house with toddlers are worth replacing. Battery and plug-in motorized shades are a handyman install.
Whole-house installs
New houses in Hamilton Mill and Dacula often need every window covered at once, and rentals in Lawrenceville and Snellville need blinds replaced as part of the make-ready between tenants. A whole-house job is measured on one visit, ordered, and installed on a second, with each blind labeled to its window so nothing gets swapped. The quote comes from a visit at a flat $35 dispatch fee.