Our workroom is in Akron — 50 Frank Blvd, in the Wallhaven area of 44313. The fabric for your shades is cut on tables in that building and the crew that installs them leaves from it. We make roller shades, day-night blackout shades, motorized shades, custom drapery and painted wood cornices for Akron homes, from 1920s double-hung sash to new glass.
Our workroom is in Akron
50 Frank Blvd, in Wallhaven
Not a service area. Not a satellite. The tables the fabric is cut on are in this city, at 50 Frank Blvd, Akron, OH 44313, open Mon–Fri 10am–5pm and closed both weekend days. We have been doing it here over 40 years.
Akron windows are mostly not new windows
Wallhaven — our own neighbourhood — was developed mostly between the early 1920s and the mid 1930s, and it is one of the city's premier vintage housing neighbourhoods: Tudor Revival, Colonial and Cape Cod stock. Merriman Valley and the adjacent Rubber Baron Heights carry homes constructed between 1911 and 1930 in French Norman, large Colonial, Georgian, Tudor, Spanish and Renaissance Revival styles.
What that means for measuring and mounting
Houses of that era have tall, often multi-light double-hung sash, deep-set frames and plaster reveals — and after a century of settling, openings that are frequently out of square. That is exactly where a shade cut to the opening beats one ordered from a size chart, and it is why an inside mount has to be measured in three places rather than one: if the reveal is a quarter of an inch narrower at the bottom than the top and the shade was cut to the top, it binds.
It is also why the mount decision matters more here than in a new build. A deep reveal is a beautiful place to put an inside-mounted shade and a poor place to expect it to go dark, because the side gaps are recessed and shadowed but still open. In a bedroom we will usually take it outside the opening. Why the edges decide a dark room.
If your house is a designated landmark
Akron's Urban Design and Historic Preservation Commission reviews and approves, approves with conditions, or denies requests for certificates of appropriateness to alter or raze structures listed as local historic landmarks. That is an exterior review process — interior-mounted shades and interior cornices are not exterior alterations, so they are not normally what the Commission reviews.
Whether a particular job needs approval is the Commission's call. If your property is designated and the treatment will be visible from the street, ring them before you order — they meet at 9:00 AM in Council Chambers, Third Floor, Municipal Building, 166 S. High Street.
What we make for Akron homes
Custom roller shades
Cut to your openings, in five opacities from a solar screen you can see through to a full blackout.
Day-night blackout shades
Two independent rolls in one bracket — your fabric through the day, blackout behind it at night.
Motorized shades
For glass you cannot reach, rooms on a sun schedule, and any room where there should be no cord at all.
Custom drapery
Ripplefold, pinch pleat, inverted pleat, grommet and sheers, sewn to your drop in our workroom.
Cornices and valances
Painted wood cornices built here, plus cassettes and fascia — what closes the light gap over the roll.
A free in-home consultation
A designer drives to Akron, measures every opening and quotes it at your table.
Commercial work in Akron
Akron has the healthcare and higher-education institutions that are this workroom's strongest commercial category, and the buildings that go with them. Cubicle and privacy curtains, solar and roller shades, drapery and top treatments, surveyed on site and submitted for approval. Commercial window treatments.
Book a consultation in Akron
We are a few minutes away, which mostly means we can get to you quickly and come back just as quickly if something needs adjusting. A designer comes to you with fabric, measures every opening, designs the treatment with you and writes the quote before leaving. There is no charge and no obligation.
Specialty Drapery
50 Frank Blvd, Akron, OH 44313
(330) 864-4190Mon–Fri 10am–5pm · closed Saturday and Sunday
One workroom, no satellite offices and no franchise territories. Book an in-home consultation or call the workroom.
Questions people ask
Are you actually in Akron, or do you just serve it?
We are in Akron. The workroom is at 50 Frank Blvd in the Wallhaven area, 44313, and the fabric for your shades is cut on tables in that building. There is one workroom and no satellite offices.
My house is from the 1920s and the windows are not square. Is that a problem?
It is normal here, and it is one of the reasons custom is worth it. Much of Wallhaven and West Akron was built between the early 1920s and the mid 1930s, and after a century of settling the openings are rarely square and the reveals are rarely uniform. We measure every opening in several places and cut to what is actually there rather than to a size chart.
Do I need approval for window treatments if my house is a local historic landmark?
Almost certainly not for interior work. Akron’s Urban Design and Historic Preservation Commission reviews certificates of appropriateness to alter or raze structures listed as local historic landmarks — that is an exterior process, and interior-mounted shades and interior cornices are not exterior alterations. If your property is designated and the treatment will be visible from the street, it is worth a call to the Commission before you order. They meet at 9:00 AM in Council Chambers at 166 S. High Street.
Book your free in-home design consultation
A designer comes to you with fabric, measures every opening, and quotes it before they leave.