Custom Window Treatments in Chagrin Falls

Chagrin Falls is about 39 miles north-east of our Akron workroom, a little over forty minutes. Roller shades, day-night blackout shades, motorized shades, custom drapery and painted wood cornices, cut and sewn on Frank Blvd and installed by our own crew.

Getting to you from the workroom

Chagrin Falls is about 39 miles from 50 Frank Blvd, Akron, OH 44313 — roughly a 43-minute drive north-east, traffic allowing. Cuyahoga County. There is one workroom and a designer who drives; nothing about your job is handed to a territory owner or a subcontractor.

Two districts, seventy-six years of architecture

The Chagrin Falls Triangle Park Commercial District — Main, Franklin and Washington Streets — was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in December 1978. The Chagrin Falls East Side Historic District, centred on East Washington and Philomethian Streets, was listed in 2013 with a period of significance running from 1844 to 1920.

That East Side range is unusually wide, and it is documented house by house: Greek Revival at the start (the George March House, 1849), Italianate in the 1870s, Stick in the 1890s, Queen Anne through the same decade, then Dutch Colonial in 1906, Bungalow in 1912 and Craftsman by 1914. Seven distinct styles inside seventy years, often on the same street.

Why that is a measuring problem rather than a trivia point

Because the mount changes with each of them. A Greek Revival sash and a 1914 Craftsman window want different answers: the first has tall narrow multi-light glazing with fine casing you do not want to cover, the second has wider openings, deeper trim and often a bank of casements. We do not carry a house rule for Chagrin Falls — we measure the opening and decide there, which is the only thing that works on a street where the house next door is forty years older.

The Architectural Board of Review is village-wide

This is the part worth knowing before you plan anything, and Chagrin Falls is different from its neighbours here. Its Architectural Board of Review, created by a village ordinance in the mid 1950s, is not scoped to a historic district — it is village-wide. Its authority under the codified ordinances covers the design, use of materials, finished grade lines and orientation of new buildings, signs and structures, and the moving, alteration, improvement, repair, addition to or razing in whole or part of the exterior of existing buildings. No building permit is issued unless the plans have been approved in writing by the Board.

The words that matter are “the exterior”. Interior-mounted shades, interior cornices and drapery are not an alteration to the exterior of a building, and they do not require a building permit. If any part of what you are planning touches the outside — and on a village-wide review that is a lower bar than most places — speak to the Board first. That determination is theirs.

What a custom shade actually changes here

The same three things, wherever the house is. It fits the opening you have rather than the nearest stocked width, which is what decides how much light comes past the edges. The opacity is chosen against the orientation of the room rather than off a chart — a west-facing room and a north-facing one want different cloth. And the header is chosen for what the room needs at the top of the window, which is the part that decides whether a bedroom actually goes dark.

All three are decided in the room, at the window, with the tape out. That is why we drive to Chagrin Falls rather than sell from a counter, and it is the whole reason the consultation is a visit rather than a phone call.

What we make for Chagrin Falls homes

Book a consultation in Chagrin Falls

A little over forty minutes, and a village where we take the measuring slowly. 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.