New window styles includes side drapes, wider verticals,

Window treatments are both a necessity and a luxury.

Everyone needs to cover their windows with something unless they want to have all of their neighbors see their every activity. They also need to cover their windows if they don't want to be up with the sun every morning. Window coverings can also help prevent the loss of heat in the winter and the build up of heat in the summer.

So there are practical reasons to purchase window coverings.

But the aesthetics of window treatments add a whole other dimension. Blinds, shutters, shades, sheers and draperies can all be used in varying combinations to create a certain look in a room and to make the room feel complete.

Which coverings homeowners choose have everything to do with personal taste, the size and location of the home, budget and generation, according to Cheryl Lindholm, owner and designer at Roberts Drapery Center, 504 E. Northwest Hwy., Mount Prospect, which serves the Northwest suburbs.

For instance, the larger the home, the more likely the homeowner is to invest in draperies instead of just blinds, she said. Conversely, the minimalist trend is usually embraced by those living in the city and by younger people who "grew up with drapes in their home and don't want the same thing their mother had," Lindholm said.

"I will still make anything that a customer wants, of course, but I am definitely seeing certain trends, particularly when it comes to drapery," she continued.

Draw drapes that can cover an entire window are seldom seen anymore. Neither are cascades and jabots and other fussy window treatments. Most homeowners who want draperies suffice with full-length, nonfunctioning side panels hanging straight (no tie-backs) on large decorative rods.

"You can also puddle them at the bottom, if you choose," Lindholm said, "but that isn't too popular around here. People are more practical here."

As for valances and cornices that extend all the way across the top of a window, they are also out of favor.

Instead, the trend is to embellish the stationary side panels with layers and mini-valances adorned with fringe and beads.

"Fringe is very popular again," Lindholm said. "I have books upon books of it for people to choose from."

When it comes to fabrics, solids are most popular in neutral shades of brown and tan. Faux silks, which are actually made of polyester, are particularly hot because they look like silk but sell for a polyester price, she explained.

For privacy, younger people generally combine their drapes with blinds of some sort while older people still prefer sheers, according to Lindholm.

Ian Gibbs, founder and creative director for The Shade Store (www.theshadestore.com), an Internet window coverings store based in New York, is enthusiastic about his customers' response to ripple fold and cubicle drapes which move along a track attached to the ceiling or the wall. The track they use is similar to the track used for the curtain between beds in a hospital room.

"These have been around since the 1970s but they are now making a comeback with designers and homeowners in urban settings and their popularity is now trickling into the suburbs," Gibbs explained.

The ripple fold drapes have a memory, so when you draw them, they fold together neatly, he said. The cubicle drapes, on the other hand, are designed to be more free-falling with no neat folds.

"These types of drapes are ideal for those who want a clean and modern look," he said.

Moving away from drapes, Lindholm agreed with Jennifer Davidson, co-vice president of marketing and business development for Blindsgalore (www.blindsgalore.com), another Internet blind store, that plantation shutters, made of wood or composite material, are popular with all ages and never go out of style. But they are also very expensive. So while people price them, they seldom choose them in the end.

That leaves a vast variety of shades and blinds - Roman shades, roller shades, cellular shades, sheer-blind combinations, wood blinds, woven blinds - which can be used alone or in concert with drapes to create the look a particular homeowner wants.

It is here that the Internet services shine because they can teach people how to measure for them, and even install them, without professional help.

"We have pioneered the effort to give our customers all of the tools they need to measure and install custom blinds themselves," explained Carolyn Kenney, Davidson's job-sharing partner at Blindsgalore, based in California. "We even have a downloadable worksheet to help people through the process so that they can get window treatments cheaper and through shopping online."

Gibbs of The Shade Store agreed, mentioning that his company sends interested consumers up to 30 fabric samples so that they may see exactly what they are buying and match them to bedspreads and upholstery before they click to order.

Both Blindsgalore and The Shade Store report that roller shades have become very popular, thanks to the many materials, colors and patterns that are now being manufactured.

"Seventy to 80 percent of the ones we sell are solids, but that includes those that are woven or textured, so they aren't completely solid," said Gibbs. "Those 20 percent of customers who want to be more modern and daring are opting for the prints in order to make a statement."

And roller shades can be made of anything from filmy materials which simply reflect the sun's glare and heat to much heavier, room darkening materials for bedrooms.

But unlike those of the past, today's roller shades are either made of natural organic materials like paper and jute or they are made of fabrics like polyester or trevera, he explained. They need to be made of a material that has some stiffness to it so that they don't buckle when rolled. That is why silk and linen are never used, Gibbs said.

Blindsgalore has some unique patterns. For instance, they have an exclusive contract with Major League Baseball to offer shades with team logos centered on them. And customers seem to be buying them up for game rooms and children's bedrooms.

"And our Expressions line features roller blinds in tons of colors and with a bunch of different looks and feels like stripes, polka dots and patterns," Kenney explained.

"You can get a very sophisticated, rich look for pennies because since they are custom-made, a customer can choose to have a floral pattern on one blind in a room and only use that floral as a trim on the blinds for the other windows," she continued. "There are an infinite number of options when you get to our product detail page in the ordering process."

"And we walk you through it step-by-step to make it as easy as possible," Davidson added.

Roman shades are also very popular, according to Gibbs.

"They are an old staple, but people still love them and we are updating them with fresher colors and patterns. We can make them out of silks, linen or wool."

Wood shades, especially those made of exotic woods like ebony, are also quite hot among those who want a minimalist, natural look, he said. Faux wood and woven wood blinds are also enjoying great popularity, particularly in damp, humid climates because unlike wood, they do not warp, according to Davidson of Blindsgalore.

Cellular shades, on the other hand, are now passé, Gibbs said.

Also called honeycomb shades, cellular shades combine two sheets of pleated fabric.

"They are not natural or organic and they are dust magnets that are hard to clean. So I think that their time has come and gone," Gibbs said.

Lindholm of Roberts Drapery Center disagreed, citing the new Duette Architella cellular shade that Hunter-Douglas now offers. Its honeycomb within a honeycomb design "forms three air pockets to dramatically reduce heat flow at the window," according to product literature.

Hunter-Douglas estimates that these shades can cut a home's annual energy consumption by 2.5 percent which is why they are the only window covering that qualifies for the Federal Tax Credit this year of up to 30 percent of the purchase price, with restrictions, of course.

Conventional 3- to 5-inch wide vertical blinds are also "dead in the design community," Gibbs asserted.

Instead, they have been replaced with much wider slats (in 10-, 11- and 17-inch widths, depending upon the manufacturer) that can tilt from side to side and also be drawn. And they are no longer made from plastic alone. The Shade Store offers 350 choices when it comes to materials and colors.

Gibbs said that these sliding panels or XL verticals are still ideal for sliding glass doors and floor to ceiling windows. Some also use them as room dividers in basements and other areas with unique challenges, according to Lindholm.

Roberts Drapery Center can be reached at (847) 255-4040.