Window treatments insulate your home and frame your picture-perfect views.

If a window is a picture of the outdoors, then window treatments are your picture frame. Whether your window tableau is a panoramic view of Camelback Mountain or a glimpse into your backyard, well-chosen coverings can blend form with function, insulating your home while framing your view.

“Fabric window treatments are making a dramatic comeback – and we’re not talking about your mom’s pinch-pleated drapes,” says Claudia Levinson, owner of Feathers Fine Custom Furnishings & Fabrics in Scottsdale. “Window treatments nowadays have become works of art.”

Levinson says light-weight fabrics are a popular choice to dramatize and soften your interior – try sumptuous silks or sheer undertreatments that give off the glow of morning light. Valances, cornice boards, jabots and tassle ties pull it all together while “beaded embellishments are the frosting on the cake, adding pop and pizzazz to any room,” Levinson says.

Elegant, timeless plantation shutters have also been a mainstay of Valley designers for decades. Insulating inside and attractive from the outside, plantation shutters are one of the few window treatments property appraisers consider a value-increaser, says Mike O’Daniel, president of Arizona Blinds in Peoria.

And gone are the days, O’Daniel says, when shutters and fabrics were an either-or proposition. Fabric panels, cornice boards and even full-draw draperies add warmth to rooms rendered cold by bare blinds or shutters.

In other words, in today’s world of interior design, you can have your shutters and frame them, too.

Photo by Illume Photography

Custom Faux Silk Swags
A sweeping set of faux silk dual swags serves as a softening frame for this Fountain Hills home’s view of Four Peaks. Highlighted with crown molding and a beaded center jabot, this embellished window treatment costs about $2,400.

Feathers Fine Custom Furnishings & Fabrics
15330 N. Hayden Rd., Scottsdale
480-905-1396,
feathersdesign.com

Photo courtesy Hunter Douglas

Modern Roman Shades
These Hunter Douglas Modern Roman Shades, available at AZ Custom Designs in Scottsdale, come in 3-, 4- or 6-inch flat folds and can be sized to fit arches, angles and even circles. Offering heat control, sound absorption and UV protection, these coverings can also be motorized. Call for pricing.

AZ Custom Designs
15023 N. 73rd St., Scottsdale
480-659-6440, azcustomdesigns.hdspd.com

Photo courtesy Together Interiors

Custom Cornice Window Treatment
This custom cornice ensemble created for a home in FireRock Country Club features red silk banding fabric, soft velvet panels and crystal holdbacks for added elegance. The cornice fabric is a chenille pattern in a palette of red and rust. As pictured, the entire window treatment ranges from $3,500 to $4,000.

Together Interiors
34522 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale
480-595-1010

Photo courtesy Hunter Douglas

Provenance Woven Wood Shades
Also manufactured by Hunter Douglas, Provenance Woven Wood Shades come in a variety of shade styles, including vertical draperies and Roman and roller shades. Customers can choose opacity level, liner options, valance return options and edge banding. Call Ardy’s Gallery of Window Coverings for pricing.

Ardy’s Gallery of Window Coverings
3422 E. Atlanta Ave., Phoenix
602-276-2232, ardysgallery.com

Photo courtesy Arizona Blinds

Plantation Shutters
These basswood plantation shutters, milled and kiln-dried by Peoria-based Arizona Blinds, can be custom painted and sized for any window. Plantation shutters are a boon for front rooms, as they add elegant curb appeal. As pictured, shutters range from $520 to $600 per window.

Arizona Blinds
8550 N. 91st Ave., Peoria
602-938-2885, azblinds.com