Window Treatments - Arjays Window Fashions

Types of Wood Window Shutters For Your Home

If you’re looking for a way to add charm and elegance to the windows throughout your home, you may want to consider investing in shutters. Window shutters are a unique type of window treatment that can be installed either inside or outside for protection against the elements, privacy, and lighting control. With the large variety of window shutters available on the market today, you may feel intimidated when it comes time to start shopping for your new window treatment. That’s why, in this blog, we’ll look at some popular wood window shutters that you should consider for your home.

At Arjay’s Window Fashions in Ventura, we’re proud to be a leading provider of window treatments throughout Los Angeles county. Whether you’re looking for shutters, blinds, or shades, our professional staff is here to help. If you’re interested in learning more about our company or you’d like to learn more about our window treatment showroom, contact us today!

Window Shutters For Your Home

Whether you want to save money on your electric bills or you’re looking for a little more privacy in your home, window shutters are a wonderful option. These window treatments have been around for hundreds of years, and they can be used for both interior and exterior window treatments, depending on your individual needs. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular shutter materials to consider for your home below.

Wood Window Shutters

Wood window shutters can add elegance and style to your California home. With the large variety of wood shutters available, it’s easier than ever to find the perfect window treatment to complement your home. Before you choose the first wood shutters you see, it’s important to note the differences between the different types of wood available. Whether you’re looking at basswood, alder, maple, or cherry shutters, each one will have its own pros and cons. Let’s take a look at some common wood shutters to consider for your home below!

Basswood Plantation Shutters

A very popular shutter choice among California homeowners is the basswood plantation shutter. Due to the slow growth of this wood, basswood is known to produce less sap. This can make it easier when it comes time to apply primer or stains to the wood. Since basswood shutters are fairly light in weight, you can invest in larger panels to help improve the interior decor of your space.

Alder Plantation Shutters

If you’re looking for window shutters that offer a rustic charm and beauty, you may want to consider alder plantation shutters for your home. This hardwood is mostly known for its high-quality, furniture-grade finish, which has become very popular among Malibu and Santa Barbara homeowners. This wood possess a fine grain that is very similar to that of cherry, birch, and maple wood.

At Ajay’s, we’re proud to provide our customers with a full line of affordable handcrafted wood and engineered faux wood shutters. We also offer custom window shutters that can be made to order from specialty woods that match your home’s existing architecture. When you visit our window treatment store, you’ll find a large selection of frames, colors, and styles to choose from. If you live in the Simi Valley or Thousands Oaks area and you need assistance choosing the best window shutters for your home, contact our experts today!

Maple Wood Shutters

Maple wood is a classic material that is often used in flooring, furniture, musical instruments, and more. When it comes to your home’s shutters, maple wood shutters offer a strong and beautiful aesthetic that many homeowners have come to love. As a rugged hardwood, maple is resistant to fire, denting, and splitting, making it a superior option for your home’s window treatments.

Cherry Wood Shutters

Cherry wood is another fantastic material to consider for your window shutters. This wood type offers a natural pigment variation that will darkens with age and light exposure. Grown in the eastern part of the United States and in the southeastern part of Canada, cherry wood’s limited availability makes for a unique and one-of-a-kind window treatment.

Faux Wood Shutters

“Faux” is a French word that stands for false or imitation. As you may have guessed, faux wood shutters are not constructed from wood, but from a solid polyurethane synthetic material that has similar characteristics of real wood. Also known as synthetic shutters, poly shutters, and poly faux wood shutters, these window treatments offer definitive differences between their real wood shutter counterparts. For one, the surface of faux wood shutters is more durable and energy efficient than wood. These shutters also require less maintenance that real wood shutters as well.

Composite Shutters

Composite shutters are made from medium density fiberboard (MDF), which is wrapped in vinyl or PVC coating. While these shutters are not made from wood, you can have them customized to look like real, natural wood.These shutters are known to be very sturdy, while also offering weather- and humidity-resistant characteristics. If you’re looking for a more affordable alternative to wood shutters, composite shutters may be for you!

As you can see, there are many different types of wood shutters that you can consider for your home. At Arjay’s Window Fashions in Ventura, we take great pride in providing Los Angeles county residents with some of the best window treatments available. When you visit our window treatment showroom, one of our experts will work with you one-on-one to ensure you find the perfect shutters for your home. Stop by our window showroom today!

Benefits of Window Film

October 3, 2017/in Window Treatments /by Admin

For some, window treatments are all about the aesthetic and the additional design features that they’re able to add to a space, but for others, window treatments are truly just a functionality that improves the overall experience of a room. So what happens when all that you’ve really been exposed to are the countless window treatments that only boast of design elements?
Well, the answer seems obvious. You call Arjay’s Window Fashions.

At Arjay’s Window Fashions, we get to the root of your needs and find the solution that’s going to make the most sense. For many who are just looking for the functionality of window treatments, we suggest window film. It doesn’t take away from the window, provides you with minimized effects of the sun, and it doesn’t require any design experience. What’s best is that these aren’t the only benefits that you’ll be able to enjoy by having window film added to your windows.

The blog post we’ve written today will give you even more reason to fall in love with the idea of window film by mentioning more of the benefits to having window film implemented in your home.

Block UV Rays

The first thing that most people think of when they imagine window film is the ability to reduce the glare of the sun, similar to how sunglasses our exposure to the sun more manageable. However, this film is not only making the rays of the sun seem less intense, window film actually reduces the UV rays that are coming from the sun.

By adding high-quality window film to your windows you can reduce the UV exposure that your family and the interior of your home has. It may not seem like a crazy concern to have, but in reality, very few people understand that the rays of the sun can still affect you even while you’re inside your home.

Increased Privacy

There’s no doubt that privacy is an added bonus to adding window films to your home. While this window fashion does allow for you to still enjoy the gorgeous view that you see outside your window, it also makes it more difficult for anyone to see into your home.

In the case that you live in an area where houses are pretty close to each other, you live relatively close to the sidewalk, or you want to add additional privacy to the windows for when people are walking around the premise of your home, this is a fantastic option. This is a fantastic solution to incorporate into your bedrooms, bathrooms, office spaces, and quite honestly any room that you have on your first-floor level just because of the added privacy.

Protect Your Furniture

While adding design elements to your windows may not have been your first priority, the quality of furniture that you have invested in deserves to be protected and last for as long as possible. Unfortunately, one of the things that very few people realize is that the sun can do some pretty serious damage to interior furniture, even though it isn’t outside.

This is especially true for pieces of furniture that are made from cloth. If you have a cloth couch that is a nice dark blue or deep red, you can expect it to fade when it’s placed near a window with no window film on it. But, by simply adding window film to your windows you are able to minimize the exposure that’s coming into your house, which in turn minimizes the overall exposure to the sun that your furniture is getting. So, if you’re looking to protect your furniture, wood flooring, rugs, artwork or anything of the sort, you should definitely invest in some window film.

These aren’t the only reasons that window film is beneficial, and we guarantee that as soon as you’ve had window film installed on your own windows, you’ll find a handful of other reasons that you love this fantastic option.f

If there are any questions that you have regarding window film, don’t hesitate to ask the team at Arjay’s Window Fashions. We are more than happy to provide you with insight and answers as to how window film could improve the interior of your home. Contact our team, located in Indianapolis, today and we’ll schedule a time to come to your home with your window film options.

Transitioning Window Treatments to Fall

September 2, 2017/in Window Treatments /by Admin

As the temperatures slowly start to drop here in Ventura, the type of care that we need to be providing to our windows will shift. Of course, it’s not necessarily much different than what you’d do on a regular basis, however, the change in weather does require you to be aware of slightly different things.

At Arjay’s Window Fashions, we specialize in window treatments that help you make the most of your home and the beautiful windows that you have installed. Today we’re going to cover some of the things that you should be doing to both your windows and your window treatments as fall sets in.

Go Thicker

For some, window fashions are similar to articles of clothing; when one season ends, the items of clothing get put away and the current season’s clothing is pulled out. Given the functionality aspect of window treatments, this shouldn’t be much different.

Warmer seasons in Ventura require little maintenance with window treatments because we want to enjoy the sunshine. Even during the hot days of summer, we still keep the treatments light. At this point in the year, they serve more as a blockage from the sun in order to protect our furniture and less to keep our home at a certain temperature.

In the cooler seasons, however, window fashions serve as a great tool to maintain temperature and ensure that all of the work your heater is doing stays inside. That being said, one of the things that you may want to do is switch to your thicker stylings of window treatments so that you can enjoy the warmth of your home even more. Another fun aspect of thicker window fashions, like curtains, is that they add to the feel of your room; they seem to give it a feeling of fall and winter by making the room altogether more cozy.

Soft Whites

One of the many tones that are well known for fall color schemes is soft whites. This is a fantastic and easy way to add a relaxing touch to your home, and it’s one that doesn’t have to be difficult to complete. There are probably many soft white tones throughout your home, but something that you can easily do to make to make them more noticeable is to give them a good wipe down.

It’s not quite the same as spring cleaning, but a good cleaning of your home – any dusty walls, off-white blinds, crown molding, cabinets, and the like – can add much more of a touch of fall than you might realize. If it’s been a while since you’ve cleaned your blinds, make sure to check out our blog for a few tips that can make the cleaning process much easier.

Layer Your Treatments

Another trend that we see happening in the fall is layering. This is a great way to keep warm in the fall, but it ultimately adds an extra texture while also giving that cozy feeling that we were talking about before. One of the looks that we’re crazy about is layering.

With how many different treatments are available, there are quite a few ways that you can incorporate a layering style into your home through your window treatments. One of the primary examples that we love to use is a pairing of shutters and curtains. Both offer a very different feel to a space, which makes the combination of the two an incredible look in any home.

You can also try adding blinds and curtains and really play off that cozy feel. As soon as temperatures warm up again, it’s quick and easy to take the curtains down, or switch them out for lighter ones, so that you can enjoy that light and airy feeling again while temperatures are warm enough.

Incorporate Touches of Fall

There are so many things that make fall a fantastic season, and the beginning of it is just a warm welcome to turning your home into the cozy abode that you’ve always wanted. That being said, another great thing that you can do is add touches of fall throughout your home. Some examples of these would be pumpkins, wreaths, soft candles, and the like. Each of these items adds just a hint of cozy to your home, and in doing so can help you sink even deeper into the season.

One of the ways this can affect your window treatments is by looking for themed treatments. We have plenty of color opportunities that you can choose from, but there are also a variety of designs that make for perfect additions to your home during the cooler seasons of the year. If you do have curtains, and you tie them back, switching this piece of material can also make a huge difference. There’s no doubt that switching from a formal cord to a piece of rope, or something more rustic, will add to the feel of your window treatments.

We’re sure there are plenty of other ways that you’ll be able to add to the look and feel of your home in this time of transition, but there’s no doubt about the fact that these tiny transitions to your window treatment can make an incredible difference.

Arjay’s Window Fashions brings high-quality window treatments to the Ventura area. If you’re in the market for new window treatments in your home, make sure to contact us today and we’ll help you find the best fit for your home. As always, thanks for stopping by our blog. We hope that you continue to browse the many topics that we’ll cover in our blog space.

Various Tips For Energy Efficient Window Coverings

August 3, 2017/in Window Treatments /by Admin

The year is 2017. That’s an obvious statement, but it’s also a fairly obvious notion to recognize the fact that countries around the world, including the United States, have become more eco-conscious and ‘green’ than ever before. What we’re describing here is probably more commonly known as simply being energy efficient, and whether that’s through the use of renewable resources as energy or just consuming and living off of fewer items, being green is more than just a ‘hip’ thing to do these days.

Arjay’s Can Make Your Home Or Business More Efficient

From mass recycling efforts around the world to planting trees and gardens to the solar-powered electric vehicle craze, we want to contribute our part in keeping planet Earth sustainable, lush, and natural for future generations to enjoy. At Arjay’s Window Fashions, our role within this process revolves around providing window cover solutions that do things like return energy to your home to warm it up. By installing the correct window treatments, you can significantly reduce the energy consumption in residential and commercial buildings, which presents a rather remarkable opportunity in reducing both air conditioning and heating bills.

That’s why Arjay’s is dedicating today’s blog post to various tips and solutions that you can implement to make the energy that’s used to heat or cool down your home more efficient. Not only will future generations thank you, but your wallet will also thank you in the process! To learn more about what kind of window coverings that Arjay’s offers to buildings more energy efficient, visit this page. Now, let’s go ahead and dive into some tips to ensure that your window treatments are as energy efficient as possible.

Understanding The Difference Between Sunlight And Daylight

Put simply, sunlight is what you see when you’re directly facing the sun and feeling those intense, harsh rays. Daylight is what you see when the sun is at your back and when you’re not directly facing it. Why is this distinction between daylight and sunlight important? Well, it’s because energy efficiency in window coverings comes down to managing the levels of sunlight and daylight.

An important part of the design strategy in improving window performance – especially down here in ever-sunny Southern California – is to reduce sunlight penetration while simultaneously enhancing daylight. Proper natural light levels are so important that there have been a number of studies that have actually confirmed that natural daylight has long term and notable positive health benefits. It’s even understood that an appropriate amount of natural light can also contribute to healing diseases!

The Problem With Glass Windows

Glass windows are great because they let in natural light and allow us to safely gaze into the outside world. However, intense sunlight coming straight through your windows only makes it more difficult to cool down your home to comfortable temperatures when it’s already incredibly hot outside. The simple reality is that glass is a poor insulator – as a matter of fact, it’s widely understood in the architectural and engineering industries that glass acts as the weak link in the chain when you consider heat loss and gain in a building.

Furthermore, even organizations like the U.S. Department of Energy estimate that consumers can actually reduce solar heat gain by a massive 70 percent in the summer and also reduce heat loss by a considerable 25 percent in the winter. This is simply done by installing the proper window treatments.

Tips For Shades

Shades can be some of the most effective and most efficient window covering solutions, provided that they’re installed correctly.

Ideally, your window shade should be mounted as close to the glass as possible with the sides of the shade held close to the wall in order to establish a sealed air space. On sunlit windows in the summer, make sure that your shades are rolled down. Additionally, raise your shades on the south side of your house in the winter during the day, and lower them at night.

Quilted roller shades and certain types of Roman shades are something worth considering from an energy efficiency perspective. These types of window coverings feature several layers of fiber batting and sealed edges. Both of these shade types are great because they act as both insulation and an air barrier, plus, they control air filtration more effectively than other types of ‘soft’ window treatments.

Tips For Blinds

With window blinds, keep in mind that they’re more effective at reducing summer heat gain as opposed to winter heat loss, and that goes for both vertical and horizontal slat-type blinds.

Due to the numerous openings between the slats of interior blinds, it’s rather challenging to control heat loss. However, the slats do offer flexibility in the summer. Unlike shades, you can adjust the slats in blinds in order to control light and ventilation. When blinds are completely closed and lowered on a sunny window, highly reflective blinds can reduce heat gain by roughly 45 percent – something that’s really nice on those scorching Southern California summer days.

Exterior roller blinds from Arjay’s are usually made of materials like wood, steel, aluminum, or vinyl. Exterior blinds should obviously be mounted above the window, with side channels guiding them as they’re raised and lowered. The slats in exterior blinds meet and provide shade when they’re lowered, and when they’re partially raised, the blinds allow a healthy amount of air and daylight to enter through the windows.

Tips For Draperies

Factors like fabric type and color of your draperies will affect their ability to reduce heat loss or gain heat. As a general tip with draperies, you should close draperies during summer days on windows that are receiving direct sunlight in order to prevent heat gain. When they’re drawn during the cold winter weather, even the most conventional draperies can reduce heat loss from a warm room by about 10 percent. So, in the winter, make sure that you close all of your draperies at night, as well as draperies that don’t receive any sunlight to warm them up during the day.

Find The Perfect Energy Efficient Solution At Arjay’s

Isn’t it good knowing that you’ll save money and use the Earth’s energy resources more efficiently and sparingly by properly covering your windows? The sun is a powerful force that easily invades our homes, and having the correct window treatments that fit your windows can go a long way in drastically reducing your overall energy bill.

Whether you’re covering the windows of your commercial business building or you’re an apartment manager that’s looking for the right solution for a new set of units, you can trust the experienced and knowledgeable professionals at Arjay’s Window Fashions to help you find the right solution that matches your budget and your interior design needs. From Roman blinds to vertical blinds and honeycomb blinds, give us a call today to get set up with the right type of window treatments!

Comparing Blinds And Shades As Options For Your Window Treatments

July 27, 2017/in Window Treatments /by Admin

You’ve probably heard the terms ‘blinds’ and ‘shades’ used so often and so commonly that the two terms are practically exchangeable. While both blinds and shades are window treatments that block harsh sunlight and provide you with privacy, they go about doing so in different ways. How do blinds and shades really differ, you say? Well, in today’s blog post, Arjay’s Window Fashions is going to take a close look at the advantages of disadvantages of blinds and shades. We like to consider our Ventura window covering business credible about this matter because we happen to carry both blinds and shades!

Arjay’s Is Your Trusted Window Coverings Supplier

Serving the greater upper west Los Angeles and Orange County areas for years, Arjay’s has been selected as a Small Business of The Year by the area’s Chamber Of Commerce. By priding ourselves on always being on the leading edge of technology, Arjay’s always offers the newest and most innovative window covering products on the market. To learn more about how our window treatment business works, please feel free to visit our company page or read on to discover the differences and similarities between blinds and shades. Let’s take a look!

Understand Your Criteria First

When considering getting blinds or shades, you’ll want to make it simple by thinking about what you’d like to specifically accomplish with your window treatments. Keep questions like these in mind:

Do you want to have control over privacy in the room?
Do you want to let in a lot of sunlight without obstructing the view?
Are you concerned about energy efficiency?
Do you have any household pets that might tamper with your window coverings?
How does your house face the sun?

These questions, amongst many others, are the things that you need to keep in mind before you look into different blind or shade colors, or even a completely different type of window covering.

How A Blind Is Characterized

Blinds have horizontal or vertical slats that louver to control the amount of sunlight and air that is allowed in a given room. So, if you want extra airflow entering the room or you want windows with an unobstructed view, blinds can actually be completely pulled up with a pull cord or even a motorized, cordless system. While most manufacturers make blinds in a range of materials like aluminum, wood, faux wood, vinyl and faux composite wood, you can also find eco-friendly blind options with materials like bamboo.

Differentiating Between Blind Types

Usually, the most popular window blinds are made with real wood and faux wood. Mini-blinds are also a very popular option. Here’s a quick breakdown of different blind types:

Mini-blinds are also known as horizontal aluminum blinds. Mini-blinds are usually available in 1” slats in 6 or 8 gauge aluminum as well as ½” slats, 1-⅜” slats and even 2” slats. Extremely durable, mini-blinds come in hundreds of colors and are also available as a vinyl slat, which is a good economical option.
Real wood and faux wood blinds have a warm tone to them that can make any room look cozy and inviting. Real wood blinds are available as painted or stained and usually come in several different types of wood including bass, bamboo, ash, and maple. Even composite faux wood looks more like real wood blinds than standard PVC faux wood, and naturally, it’s also less expensive than real wood.

Vertical blinds tend to be perfect for patio doors and large windows, and they’re also quite controllable. The fact that vertical blinds are easy to control means that you can have a high amount of light control as well as privacy. Vertical blinds tend to be available in vinyl or fabric in a wide range of colors and styles.

Shutters are similar to wood blinds. However, shutters function as more of an external piece of furniture that goes around your windows. Shutters surround your windows with a casement while the inside of the shutter has slats to louver open and close.

So What’s A Shade, Then?

Unlike blinds, shades do not have slats that louver. Instead, shades go up and down and tend to be made from fabrics and woven woods. Shades offer some functional convenience over blinds in the sense that they can be opened from the top, bottom, or even both ends in order to control light and privacy.

Different Types of Shades

Roller shades consist of a material that is rolled onto a tube and then rolls off of the tube with a continuous cord loop clutch system or cordless system. Roller shades tend to be very popular in homes and businesses with solar screen fabrics which keep the glare of the sun away while also allowing you to see through them. Roller shades are available in solid and print fabrics that range from modern to traditional – for a truly custom look, add trim and tassels.

Cellular or Honeycomb shades are as beautiful as they are functional. Available in both single and double-cell varieties, these type of shades provide both temperature and sound-insulating features and already have multiple lift system options such as cordless, continuous cord loop, and motorized options. With these kind of shades, usually, an occasional vacuuming is about all they need.

Pleated shades consist of a single piece of material and have the advantage of more unique fabric options as compared to other window coverings. Pleated shades tend to be available with or without a liner for added privacy and insulation, and they’re also available in a wide range of both color and texture options.

Woven wood or bamboo shades provide a highly stylized look that will appease your inner interior designer. Yes, these types of shades are certainly more fragile than most types of blinds, but they’re also available with tapes on the edges in order to prevent fraying.

Deciding Between Blinds And Shades

As we mentioned above, having shades or blinds work with your interior design needs all comes down to what your priorities are. If you live in an open desert environment without many surrounding trees, then a sunshade might be the best option for you, whereas if you live in the city, sound-insulating blinds would be the way to go. Ultimately, you’ll need to consider how much privacy and light control is needed in your specific rooms and then take the time to browse through the different styles and colors available with your goals for the room in mind.

Selecting a window treatment should be based on estimating the light requirements, privacy necessities, energy efficiency and pricing needs that you’re looking for. All things considered, choosing the right window treatment for your home can create a subtle yet significant difference in its atmosphere.

Trust Arjay’s To Help You Make The Right Decision

We don’t expect you to be an expert when it comes to window treatments because that’s our job! Whether you’re looking for Roman blinds, Venetian blinds, vertical blinds, bamboo blinds, honeycomb blinds, cellular blinds, drapes or even a sunshade, Arjay’s Window Fashions does it all! By working with you and your home, we’ll find a solution that works for your needs as well as your budget. Contact us today to get the right shades, blinds or other window coverings for your home!

Types of Wood Window Shutters For Your Home