St. George Shutters & Blinds

St. George Shutters & Blinds supplies custom shutters, blinds and shades for homes and businesses, measuring in the home. Measuring is the step homeowners most often assume they can do themselves, and it is where custom window covering orders go wrong, because the assumption underneath it is false.

The wider picture

The assumption is that a window opening is a rectangle. Almost none are. Framing settles, drywall builds up unevenly at corners, and stucco and trim add their own variation, so a typical opening differs in width from top to bottom and in height from side to side, sometimes by a quarter of an inch or more. That is why the trade takes three width measurements - top, middle and bottom - and three heights, and why the narrowest of them governs an inside-mount blind. Order to the widest and the covering will not fit the opening at its tightest point.

Inside and outside mount are then genuinely different orders. An inside mount sits within the recess, which looks cleaner and shows the window trim, but it needs sufficient depth for the headrail and it accepts small light gaps at the sides where the opening is out of square. An outside mount covers the opening and overlaps the wall, which hides an irregular opening entirely and blocks more light, at the cost of projecting into the room. Deductions matter as much: an inside mount is manufactured slightly smaller than the measured opening so it can operate, and that deduction is applied by the maker - a customer who deducts as well ends up with a covering an inch too narrow and no recourse, since a custom covering made to the size supplied is not returnable.

Worth reading alongside this: handyman services and glass and window companies. The directory lists all Window Coverings & Blinds.