Custom Window Treatments in Medina

Medina is about 17 miles west of our Akron workroom, roughly half an hour. 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

Medina is about 17 miles from 50 Frank Blvd, Akron, OH 44313 — roughly a 27-minute drive west, traffic allowing. Medina County. There is one workroom and a designer who drives; nothing about your job is handed to a territory owner or a subcontractor.

Why everything around the Square is brick and Victorian

Medina's Public Square Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 1975, significant for Greek Revival, Second Empire and Italianate architecture. But the buildings you look at today are not the town's first ones: on the night of 14 April 1870, fire destroyed dozens of wooden buildings on Public Square and down South Court Street, and the commercial heart was rebuilt building by building in brick over the decade that followed.

That fire is why the Square reads so consistently — it is essentially one decade of Victorian commercial building, done in masonry, all at once. For window treatments it means tall storefront and upper-floor openings in thick masonry walls, which is a mounting condition rather than a style question: the fixing is into brick or into a wood buck set in brick, and the depth of the reveal is generous enough that an inside mount usually works beautifully.

If you are altering the outside of a building in a district

Medina's Historic Preservation Board reviews and acts on all proposed changes to the exterior architectural appearance and demolition of buildings or structures in any historic district, in any historic landmarks, and in areas established by Council. The designated Public Square Historic District is bounded by Smith Road, Jefferson Street, Friendship Street and Elmwood Avenue.

Its remit as written is exterior appearance and demolition. Interior-mounted shades and interior cornices are not an alteration of exterior architectural appearance — but if the treatment will be visible from the street on a designated property, ask the Board before you order. It is their determination to make.

The square is not the only masonry

The other thing a fire does to a town is set its habits. Much of what went up around the Square in the decade after 1870 is brick as well, which means solid masonry openings with generous reveals across a good part of the older residential streets too — not just the commercial frontages. That is a genuinely comfortable window to work with: the depth is there for an inside mount, a cassette usually fits inside the reveal, and the fixing is into something substantial rather than into a stud you have to find.

The rest of Medina

Beyond the Square, much of Medina is later residential development with larger rooms and larger glass, and a lot of it faces west across open ground. That is a solar-screen conversation: the low afternoon sun comes in almost horizontally and a roof overhang does nothing about it. Why a west window is different.

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 Medina 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 Medina homes

Book a consultation in Medina

A half-hour drive west, and an area we cover every week. 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.