What Is The Difference: Hard Vs. Soft Window Treatments

Many homeowners will tell you one thing, the finishing of the house could mean the difference in both the house’s value and the overall aesthetic appeal of the home. Your finishing plays a vital role in this as you need to make sure it suits your style but keep within your budget. A cheap yet effective way of ensuring lift the overall appeal of your home is to use window treatments.

Window treatments come in many designs, shapes, materials, and colors. You can categorize them in many ways, but we will focus on hard and soft window treatments in this article. 

Soft window treatment: these are window treatments mostly made from soft materials such as fabric. They offer several functions, which we will discuss in this article. However, the primary purpose of soft window treatment is decoration. 



Hard window treatment: as the name suggests, this window treatment is made from hard materials such as wood, metal, and vinyl. Hard window treatments are built for functionality while still having decorative aspects about them.

Hard Window Treatment Explained

For many homeowners installing hard window treatment is one of their top priorities. This is because of how vital they are for your comfort and the many advantages they have to the house as a whole.

Advantages of Using Hard Window Treatment

1. Better light control: Controlling natural light without window treatments is difficult. However, hard window treatment takes center stage with this functionality. With most hard window treatments bought preinstalled with a lever system of some kind, regulating natural light is much easier. To top all this off, the lever system allows for a more accurate adjustment of the louvers giving you more precise control on the natural light amount entering your home. 
2. Insulation: Regulating a room’s temperature can be costly. In the summer you need to cool your house and in the winter warm it. Most of the time, people are heavily reliant on the AC, which can be expensive. Over-reliance on the air condition system can also be detrimental to the environment as this leads to higher consumption of electricity or natural gas. However, by using hard window treatments, you can better insulate your house. For example, wood and vinyl are poor conductors of heat. Using these materials for your louver acts like a thermos flask. It helps maintain the temperature in the room. If the outside is cold and you want to keep the house warm, the hard window treatment material will act as an insulation surface and ensure the room’s temperature is maintained. The reverse is also true as if it is hot outside and you would like to keep the room’s temperature cooler. The louvers act as insulation to maintain the temperature. Don’t get me wrong, you cannot rely on hard window treatment to control the room’s temperature, but it does help. 
3. Durability: Materials used to make hard window treatment are more durable and hence last longer. If well maintained, they can remain undamaged for the unforeseeable future. They are also easier to maintain and clean as they mainly require whipping with a cloth. If the hard window treatment has hinges or levers, it may require additional maintenance, such as oiling. However, these maintenance practices are done periodically and far between.
4. Privacy: With many hard window treatments having a lever system to control how they open and close, you can get a lot of privacy in a room. Unlike curtains where you can’t completely close a room or have any sound insulation properties, hard window treatment covers the entirety of the window. This ensures that it can give you complete privacy when need be. 
5. Protection from UV light: One of the most damaging energy sources is UV light. This type of light comes naturally from the sun, and we need to protect both ourselves and our belongings from them. At your home, without Proper UV protection, your furniture and other items exposed to direct sunlight contact may fade. This makes your belongings look old even if they are not, leading to you replacing them early. Hard Window treatment can block out the harmful UV light to protect both your and your belongings.

All You Need To Know About Soft Window Treatment

Like we mentioned in this article, soft window treatments are made from fabric mostly. They are mainly used as decorative pieces to give your home the overall appeal you are looking for. Suffice being known for primarily decorative purposes, soft window treatment has numerous benefits.

1. Easily customizable: Customizability is one of the first things that come to mind when talking about soft window treatments. You can customize almost anything about them, including the fabric, color, texture length, width, and overall design. Such customizable abilities make soft window treatment quick and easy to use to uplift the appeal of your house. Since most of the designs and layouts are readily available in the market, you may often not need a customized design, making the purchase cheaper. 
2. Noise reduction: You may not think that noise made by your shutters or louvers is a big deal. However, there are situations where sudden noises may affect individuals. Window treatments like curtains do not make much noise; hence would be great for people who do not want any sudden commotions. 
3. Add that finishing element: Window treatments add that finishing flair to any house. With the variety of design and color soft window treatments come in, you can quickly find one that works for your home and design. This is a cheap and fast way to add some panache to your decor.

Though soft window treatment may not cover the window entirely, it does offer some control on natural light. However, it may not be easy to place in rooms with a lot of moisture, such as bathrooms or kitchens. Will hard window treatment may be challenging to clean due to all the hard-to-reach areas. As you can see, both soft and hard window treatments have their merits and disadvantages.

It is up to you to find one that works for you; if you need any more help, contact us through https://blindsbydesign.net/.