Every guide below is written by the Sill Shade workroom team from 60+ years of measuring and installing window treatments. This wing of the library covers the hard side of the window — blinds — and its soft cousins, the shades. Each guide stands alone; together they take you from “which one?” to a measured, mounted window.
Start Here: Choosing Your Type
Three guides that settle the big fork in the road — slats or fabric, and which construction of either.
- Blinds vs Shades — the five-minute decision guide: precise light control against insulation, darkness, and softness, with a room-by-room shortcut.
- Types of Blinds, Compared by an Installer — wood, faux wood, aluminum, vertical and panel track: construction, moisture sense, and where each belongs.
- 7 Types of Window Shades — roller, roman, cellular, woven wood, solar, zebra and pleated, sorted by the jobs they actually do.
Measuring & Mounting
The part that decides whether the order fits. Inside mount is measured exact, outside mount is measured generous — the details live here.
- How to Measure for Blinds: Inside vs Outside Mount — the three-measurement routine, the depth check, and the one deduction rule that prevents remakes.
Shade Types in Depth
Construction-level guides to the individual shades, written from the cutting table.
- Roman Shades: Styles, Linings, and Fit — flat, relaxed and hobbled folds, why lining is the engine, and what custom romans honestly cost.
- Cellular Shades: How Honeycombs Insulate — single vs double cell, real R-value talk, and where honeycombs win and lose.
More guides are on the cutting table — roller shades, woven wood, and the wood-vs-faux-wood question are next. If your window leads with fabric panels instead, the whole soft side lives in our curtain guides library.