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Design Perspectives

Warming Up to Wood
As wood window treatments take center stage, choices abound.

by Karla Nielson, Allied Member, ASID; WCAA

Never before have wood and wood-like products been so widely available and so popular as they are today. Wood is a hot item—whether seen as real wood, vinyl or faux designs—and is used on floors; as window treatments in shutters, wood/wood-look blinds, woven wood shades and panels, decorative drapery rods and valances; and as wall treatments as moldings and wall coverings.

Wood in a natural, bleached or painted finish is seen in all styles of traditional and contemporary furniture, moldings, and hard or alternative window treatments.

FOCUS ON TEXTURE AND SHAPE

Many factors and trend directions are at work creating an atmosphere in which wood enhances or becomes center stage in today’s interior fashions. Perhaps the biggest factor is the long-term trend that began in the early 1990s away from pattern and toward texture. Prior to that time, there was a sharp focus on printed and woven patterns. Floral fabrics dominated much of the scene with their rich and flamboyant appearance. Beautiful as these patterns were, and still are, long-term directions shifted towards less pattern in favor of subtlety and understatement in textiles.

This trend has allowed designers to focus on the form and shape of the structural members of an interior such as furniture, art, sculpture and, of course, window treatments. Form is a key element in shutters and wood blinds where the linear composition makes a striking and handsome focal point. That is a part of the lasting appeal of shutters—the way the light and shadow form a pattern through shape and horizontal lines.

The power of horizontal lines cannot be underestimated. There is a calming, reassuring, sometimes relaxing and grounding psychology to these lines that are in harmony with earth’s gravitational pull. They also make a room seem wider and more expansive. Open shutter blades or blind slats bring natural light into a room with a bit of class—more filtered and in an intriguing way, enhancing the beauty of bare or untreated glass.

LOW MAINTENANCE

Another reason why wood has tremendous appeal is its low upkeep. Other than an occasional dusting—or where the air quality is poor, an occasional cleaning—wood and wood-like products can hold their good looks and handsome appearance indefinitely with very little other maintenance. While it is true that horizontal surfaces are natural dust catchers, they also are fairly easy to clean.

In addition, natural wood hues and white (the two most popular color selections) don’t show the dirt. Although this is not a call for living with or ignoring dust, it is a relief to many busy people to not have to see dust on a daily basis. For many women especially, visible dust tends to produce guilty feelings, as though the item to be dusted is calling out “Help me!” over and over again. The rule of dust is that dark colors and shiny surfaces (including horizontal glass) show the most dust. Selecting products that naturally do not call attention to the presence of dust will mean lower upkeep and less emotional strain.

Keep in mind, however, that where smoke or oil-borne impurities exist in an interior (such as generated from cooking with oil at high temperatures), the need to deep clean will be dramatically augmented. Real wood is much more difficult to keep clean of these contaminants as they tend to settle deep into the wood grain.

WOOD AND WOOD-LIKE SELECTIONS

There are many choices today—more than ever—in products made of wood, engineered wood and wood-like products. As manufacturers incorporate technological advances, continual improvements in the wood-like products have made them viable choices in many circumstances. There is much talk these days about products made of solid wood versus faux wood in all its many forms. Let’s take a look at the advantages of real wood and wood imitations.

While some retailers will feel very strongly about a particular product, it’s also great to be open-minded and realize that end-users and their interiors may benefit from a different product in different circumstances. What is best may change according to the budget, the environment, the desire for value versus resale, and the amount of use a product will receive. A professional who can offer a variety of choices will likely have more satisfied customers.

Also keep in mind that even in a single home, some rooms may call for a product that varies from those in another area of the same home. For example, real wood products may be most appealing in a formal living room and in a guest room a vinyl product may be just the thing. In another area sliding woven wood panels or shades can provide a change of pace while still offering the warm look of wood.

REAL WOOD

Generally most people agree that the wood shutters of a generation ago fueled the popularity of wood blinds, which tended to be less expensive and more versatile while still adding the look and warmth of wood to an interior. In more recent years, the popularity of wood blinds has, in turn, fueled the return to shutters.

Real wood proponents maintain that wood products are stronger and often lighter in weight than many faux products allowing larger panels to be installed in some applications. They claim the real wood finish, either stained or painted, is unmatched in quality. There also is a constituency that believes that real is always better than imitation.

Real wood products may be more expensive, but they offer higher margins for dealers and represent an investment to customers that will add to the overall value of a home. This perceived value of real wood is literal; even realtors agree that real wood shutters or blinds increase the resell value of a home.

FAUX WOOD MATERIALS

Faux means false or fake, but those words are inadequate in describing the real look of these products, which include wall coverings and custom technique painting. Perhaps a better word would be trompe l’oeil faux, meaning fool-the-eye imitations.

Vinyl faux wood blinds and shutters have come a long way in the last 10 years. No longer do vinyl products have a plastic stigma. In fact, from even a short distance it's very hard to tell real wood from faux wood products. Faux wood materials include vinyl and composite materials—for shutters, there even is a third category that includes wood frames wrapped in polyvinyl.

Faux wood proponents say these window treatment products are often more versatile because they can be used in high-heat and high-humidity installations without chipping, cracking or warping. They also are available for custom coloration. It might be noted, however, that most homeowners who opt for painted shutters will nearly always want white, as white is a universal color that is handsome from the street and can be used with nearly any color scheme inside or out.

A big plus for faux wood products is that they often are less costly than real wood shutters. Their lower price points open the market to a much wider audience.

WOVEN WOODS—TIMELY TWISTS

Another example of wood in interiors is woven woods, originally introduced as roller or Roman shades during the 1970s and losing popularity for over the next 20 years. They are back now as high-quality offerings in alternative window coverings.

Seen around at the International Window Coverings Expo in Baltimore, MD, last spring were panel track systems with woven wood shades. Usually seen with sheer fabric or shade cloth, these panel track systems with woven woods shades caught the attention of many professionals who now have another viable and handsome product offering.

Bamboo and other natural fiber products also are appealing in interiors where a less constructed or less perfected look is desirable. These light-diffusing products, either real or faux bamboo, and the varieties of woven woods offer a quality of light that is so beautiful as to be even somewhat mystical. And no wonder, bamboo shades originated about 2,000 years B.C. in China.

A few manufacturers, such as Hunter Douglas, also offer a woven woods product with a privacy pleated shade behind it that hangs from the same headrail. This solves an age-old problem of providing the customer with privacy when the preferred treatment is light filtering. This is a functional and innovative solution.

THE REAL WINNERS

One of the most interesting things about wood, or the look of wood, is that it seems so popular these days that even faux wood wallpaper is being offered. These wall coverings provide a rich look to vertical surfaces and can be hung vertically to resemble paneling or horizontally to add a log cabin look to a room. Another example of faux wood wall covering is the look of marquetry, or decorative wood inlay, which is accomplished routinely in wall coverings.

Whichever way you view the issue of wood and wood-like products, the real winners are customers who can get their preferred look in a price range that meets their budgets. This is confirmed by the fact that many leading manufacturers offer both real wood shutters and vinyl shutters, as well as real wood and faux wood blinds.

The broad spectrum of real and faux wood products assure us that the free-enterprise system still works very well, offering something for everyone and every installation and at a variety of price points.