Window treatments with outside-mount shades

[Susie]

I bought fabric to make the window treatments for DS's nursery, and am second guessing what style I'm going to do.  The windows require outside-mount shades, which I find kind of ugly, but inside mount isn't possible.  

The room has 2 windows, the other one is next to the crib.

We already have room darkening shades that I am planning to keep for practical reasons.  I'm also thinking panels would be helpful to cover the edges of the shades, where light comes in during nap time.  We struggle with that with DD, who has the same shades (but hers are an inch or two wider -- so I think the light problem may be more significant in DS's room).  Panels leave a big section of the shade outside mount visible though, which is kind of fug.  It's not the same white as our trim, and just looks bulky.  Such is the nature of outside mounts.

I'm having trouble finding pics of panels + outside mount shades that make it all work.  I could do valences with panels, sort of like this:

which is a practical solution to hiding both the shade mount and the window edges.  The valence would be significantly wider than the window, so that the panels are mostly over wall, and just barely cover the edges of the shade when it's down.  It checks all the boxes, but it's hard to do without looking dated. 

I've made box pleated valences before for DD's room and our guest room, it would be similar to these I guess, but wider and with panels under it:





In the absence of being able to do inside mount shades (which I think look fine with panels alone), are there solutions that I am not thinking of?  WWYD?

[calico]

Decorative wooden cornice?

[babybuffalo]

All of the shades in my house are outside mount and I just do two curtain panels, no valance. I don’t mind the look! The rod and curtains make it look so much more finished that you can’t even really tell it’s outside mount.

[icedcoffee]

All of ours are outside mount too (we didn't realize none of our inside mount blinds would fit anymore after we replaced our windows. ).  Anyway---we've done these blinds throughout the house which have a piece of wood trim at the top which is similar to calico's suggestion:



I really like them.  I think they look finished just by themselves.  In most rooms, we haven't done any window treatments, but we did in our master bedroom and we basically did what babybuffalo, suggested with 2 curtain panels.  It looks good, IMO.

FWIW, I think those blinds you have are not wide enough.  Typically outside mount covers all the trim.  At least the ones in our house do and it also helps keep light out.

I'd be a little worried about full panels in a nursery with kids pulling on them and stuff, but I guess that's super kid dependent.

[rivers3]

My 14 mo old DD has 2 similar sized windows in her room with outside mount blinds. In other parts of the house we have regular panels but I was worried about her playing with them and pulling them down in the nursery. So I got faux Roman shades with blackout lining from Etsy. They only cover the top 1/3 or so of the window but the blinds cover the rest. I mounted them high to give some visual height to our 8 ft ceilings. Obviously they don’t block out all light but so far so good. I would attach a pic but I don’t know how to!

[simpsongal]

Susie I did a padded valance and panels in our nursery for an outside mount shade. I think it looks chic. I recommend hanging the valence higher than the one you pictured. Our widows are lower than I would like and the high wide valence and panels helps make the window look bigger.

[Susie]

Feb 21, 2019 15:37:41 GMT -5 simpsongal said:

Susie I did a padded valance and panels in our nursery for an outside mount shade. I think it looks chic. I recommend hanging the valence higher than the one you pictured. Our widows are lower than I would like and the high wide valence and panels helps make the window look bigger.

I could probably go about 3" higher, but that's about it.  The shades in both rooms are cordless, and in the picture in DD's room, they're as high as I can reach to put them up.  You can kind of see the edge through the valence in spite of them being lined.  I want the valence to cover the bottom edge of the shade when it's as high up as I can reach.  That was the benchmark I had in mind when I chose the height of both hers and the one in the guest room.  #shortpeopleproblems  Width is easier for me to do

Did you make the padded valences yourself / can you rec a pattern?  

[simpsongal]

Susie i made the wood valence- I think used a 1x6 and some smaller pieces so it comes off the wall just enough to clear the shade. I wrapped the wood in cotton batting/bunting and fabric ( used a staple gun to attach). I can pip tomorrow.

[Susie]

Feb 21, 2019 8:44:47 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

FWIW, I think those blinds you have are not wide enough.  Typically outside mount covers all the trim.  At least the ones in our house do and it also helps keep light out.

They're definitely not ideal width; we actually bought them when we were doing DD's room 3-4 years ago and I decided they wouldn't work for that reason.  I think I'd already committed (via fabric yardage purchased) to valences alone in her room.  Returns were a PITA though (or maybe they were final sale?), so I just kept them and put them in a different room, and I reordered wider ones for her.  I'm trying to get away with using them with panels now, because otherwise I would pretty much be tossing.  Our house is on a pretty shady lot and doesn't have generously sized windows, so I don't have a use for them anywhere else.

[simpsongal]

Susie, ugh of course tiny pic is not working for me. Will try again later, or pm me and I'll just email you directly!

[simpsongal]

Susie, finally got it posted

[Deleted]

I really love the look of the wood valance and remember looking in to making them before and they didn't seem overly complicated. That said, we have to use the outside mount blinds, and then I just hung my curtain panels high and wide and I don't mind the look.