Roman Shades or Wood Blinds for Cedar Rapids Foursquares?
Choosing roman shades in Cedar Rapids for a Redmond Park foursquare? Put them in the rooms where you want softness and warmth. That usually means the living room and the bedrooms. Use wood blinds where you tweak the light all day, like a den or a home office. Plenty of older homes mix the two. Pick room by room, not one style for the whole house.
Below, we walk through a typical foursquare one room at a time.
What kind of houses fill the Redmond Park neighborhood?
Mostly American Foursquares. The Redmond Park-Grande Avenue Historic District sits on the southeast side, between Third Avenue SE and Nineteenth Street SE. It grew up as a streetcar suburb around 1900. Its National Register nomination is on file with the National Park Service. It counts 65 foursquares built from about 1910 to about 1930. Craftsman and Colonial Revival are the most common styles.
The nomination has a fun detail too. Some of these houses may have come as pre-cut kits from the Gordon-Van Tine Company, an Iowa firm. Its ads ran in the Cedar Rapids Gazette back then.
The park itself is small. It covers 1.22 acres and is named for John Redmond, a former mayor. When the district was listed, short stretches of Sixteenth Street and Park Avenue near the park still had brick pavers.
What windows does a foursquare usually have?
Double-hung windows, often with a grid in the top sash only. The nomination lists 1/1, 4/1, 5/1 and 6/1 patterns. A 4/1 window has four small panes on top and one big pane below. Many foursquares also have a cottage window on the first floor. That's a wide window with a big lower pane and a short pane above it. Porches often run across the whole front, and some have been closed in over the years.
That top grid is the pretty part. So pick a covering that pulls up high and clears it. The trim matters too. An inside mount lets the wood casing show.
Are roman shades outdated in an older Cedar Rapids home?
No. The fussy versions can look dated. The simple ones don't. A flat fold in a plain fabric looks right at home next to Craftsman trim.
Our roman shade styles include flat fold, plainfold, soft fold (also called hobbled), relaxed and knife pleat. In a foursquare, flat fold and plainfold keep things calm. A soft fold suits a Colonial Revival dining room that already has a little formality.
Front room with a cottage window: what works?
This is the room people see from the sidewalk. It's also where the wide cottage window usually sits.
A flat fold roman shade fits well here. One wide shade covers the whole window and lifts into a neat stack. In the evening, it turns the glass into a soft panel of fabric.
Pick a light-filtering fabric if the room faces north or sits under a deep porch roof. January days are short. On January 15, the sun rises around 7:32 a.m. and sets around 5:00 p.m. in Cedar Rapids. That's per the U.S. Naval Observatory. You'll want every bit of that light.
Is the cottage window very wide? Ask whether one shade or two side by side fits better. With two, you can raise one and leave the other down.
Dining room: roman shades or wood blinds?
Either one works. The trim usually decides it.
Stained oak or fir trim looks great with wood blinds. Ours come in 2, 2 3/8 and 2 1/2 inch slats. Our wood blinds can also be color-matched to the trim you already have. A close match makes the blinds read as part of the house.
Painted trim opens the door to fabric. A white-trimmed Colonial Revival dining room takes a soft fold roman shade nicely. Want both looks? Hang wood blinds for daily light control. Then add drapery panels, or a cornice across the top for a finished line. Our guide to valances, cornices and swags explains those top pieces.
| Roman shades | Wood blinds | Both together | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light control | Up or down; light-filtering or room-darkening fabric | Tilt slats for light and privacy | Blinds do the work; fabric adds softness |
| Look with old trim | Soft; inside mount shows the casing | Crisp; stain can match the trim | Layered and a bit more formal |
| Gray January days | Light-filtering fabric glows | Tilt open to let light in | Raise both fully |
| Privacy at night | Good with lined or opaque fabric | Good when closed | The most coverage of the three |
| Rooms that fit | Living room, bedrooms | Den, office, dining room | Dining room, front room |
Bedrooms upstairs: what helps on dark January mornings?
Lined roman shades. Our roman shades can have a lining, either light filtering or room darkening. A lined shade also puts a layer of fabric between you and a cold pane. The normal January low at the Cedar Rapids airport is about 11 degrees, says NOAA. Old double-hungs feel that.
In winter the problem is often streetlights, not sun. Upstairs bedrooms in a foursquare sit high enough to catch the glow. Room-darkening fabric handles it. Mount inside the frame if you love the trim. Mount outside if you'd rather have smaller light gaps at the edges.
Enclosed porch or sunroom: which one holds up?
Be careful with real wood here. Closed-in porches get the most sun in the house. Our own wood blind page warns that real wood can warp in strong sun or damp air.
So in a bright porch room, look at roman shades in a sturdy fabric. Faux wood blinds are another good pick. Our product page calls them moisture resistant. They also have UVA inhibitors in the material. Use one style across the whole row of porch windows. A matching row looks calm from inside and from the street.
What is the downside of roman blinds, and what can you use instead?
Every covering has trade-offs. For roman shades, these are the big three:
- They stack at the top. When raised, the folds cover a few inches of glass. On a short window, that's a bigger share.
- They don't tilt. It's up or down. Blinds let you angle light and keep privacy.
- Fabric and kitchens don't mix well. Steam and splatter near a sink or stove are hard on it.
Need something else? Wood blinds are the classic swap. Cellular shades are another. Our cellular shade page says they need one of the smallest frame depths for an inside mount. That helps on a shallow old frame. Drapery panels on a plain rod work too, especially in a front room.
What fabric is best for roman shades in a foursquare?
The one that suits the room's light and trim. Our roman shades run from sheer to opaque fabrics. A few rules of thumb for these houses:
- Solids and quiet textures show off the folds and don't fight the woodwork.
- Light-filtering fabric suits the front room and dining room.
- Room-darkening lining suits bedrooms.
- Bold patterns work best in one room, not all of them.
Test any fabric at the window in winter daylight, not at the kitchen table. Our steps for testing swatches in Cedar Rapids light walk you through it.
What should you check at each foursquare window?
Old houses settle, so every window gets its own numbers. Run through this list:
- Take three width readings: top, middle and bottom. For an inside mount, the narrowest reading wins.
- Take three height readings: left edge, center and right edge. The longest reading wins.
- Check frame depth. Note sash locks or old hardware in the way.
- Hold stain samples against the trim in daylight.
- Note which rooms look onto the sidewalk or the house next door.
Prefer to skip the ladder? Wide cottage windows are everyday work for us. We measure every window in the house during the visit, so each one gets its own numbers.
Live near Redmond Park or anywhere on the southeast side? We'll bring fabric and stain samples for roman shades in Cedar Rapids to your house. You'll see them on your own windows. Book your free consultation.
Kevin Sill is CFO and co-owner of the family-owned Budget Blinds franchises serving the Cedar Rapids and Marion area.