Custom Window Treatments in Franklin, Indiana
Blinds, shades, shutters and drapery measured in your Franklin home and built to your openings. Free in home measure, written quote, and the light gaps and lead times explained up front.
If we're busy with another customer and miss your call, leave a message and we'll call you back.
Quick answer for Franklin: custom window treatments are measured in the home, built to those measurements, and installed a few weeks later. Here's what people usually want to know before booking that first measure.
- Services: faux wood blinds, wood blinds, vertical blinds, aluminum mini blinds
- Service area: Franklin, Johnson County, IN and surrounding areas If a mechanism has failed rather than a whole product, that's a service call and it moves quickly since we're fitting parts rather than ordering a custom build. New orders follow the usual two to five week fabrication.
- Insured and bonded
- Serving Franklin, IN since 2008
Schedule Your Free In-Home Measure
The in home measure is free and it takes as long as your house takes. Every opening gets a three point measure, width at the head, the middle and the sill, plus a square check on the diagonals and a recorded mounting depth. That last number decides everything in a Franklin house. The post-1990 stock presents a nominal 3.25 inch vinyl jamb with a flat stop, while a Martin Place opening can give generous depth in one room and almost none in the next, and no measurement carries between them.
I agree to be contacted by Franklin Window Treatments regarding my inquiry.
Franklin is 10,275 housing units carrying two completely different window schedules. 1,084 of them predate 1940, concentrated on the original town grid around the Johnson County courthouse square and in the 27 contributing buildings of the Martin Place Historic District: deep wood and plaster lined returns, round arch and segmental heads on the Italianate elevations, and openings whose depth changes from one room to the next inside a single house. Then 4,647 units went up between 1990 and 2009, 45.2 percent of everything standing, presenting a nominal 3.25 inch vinyl jamb with a flat stop that repeats plan to plan. The two populations are interleaved rather than separated, so the street name tells us very little. We measure at the head, the middle and the sill on every opening in Franklin before anything gets quoted.
Repairs and service are part of the range too. A restring on a wood blind, a new cord lock, a tilt gear, a bracket that pulled out of soft trim, a motorized shade whose travel limits have drifted. Those Johnson County calls move much faster than new orders because nothing has to be fabricated. If a part is discontinued we'll tell you and we won't pretend otherwise.
If you're gathering quotes, the useful comparison isn't the bottom line, it's whether the scope matches. Same mount type? Same lift? Same fabric openness? Is installation included or added later? Are the light gaps mentioned anywhere? A Franklin quote that's cheaper because it quietly moved from custom to a stock size isn't cheaper, it's a different product.
Built in the Last Few Years?
Many of our Franklin customers moved into a house built by one of these companies. Builder blinds are usually stock sizes trimmed to fit, so if yours came with the house and never ran right, that is why. We measure the openings as built rather than off the plan.
Named for identification only. Franklin Window Treatments is an independent company and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting as a representative of any homebuilder listed.
What Matters at the Window in Franklin
What our crew has learned working in Franklin homes.
About Franklin Homes
Build era shares on the parcel record run pre-1940 10.6%, 1940-1979 25.0%, 1980-1999 28.2%, 2000-2019 33.1%, 2020+ 3.2%. Median home value is $231,500. Sharply divided by era. The post-1990 stock presents the standard nominal 3.25 in vinyl jamb with a flat stop. The pre-1940 stock in Martin Place and around the square has deep wood or plaster lined returns with generous but inconsistent depth - measurements cannot be carried from one opening to the next within the same house. 1990s-2000s production two story traditional (the largest single group); Italianate, Queen Anne, American Foursquare and Craftsman bungalow in the historic core; mid century ranch; small town vernacular frame housing on the original town grid Typical opening count: 16-22 openings for the dominant 1990-2009 two story stock, and 18-30 for the pre-1940 houses in the historic core, where rooms were lit from two sides and stair halls carry their own glass.
Where We Work in Franklin
We cover homeowners across Franklin near Johnson County Courthouse and courthouse square, Artcraft Theater (1924), Franklin College, Province Park, Young's Creek, Hurricane Creek.
Surrounding Areas We Serve
Our crew also covers Martin Place Historic District, Franklin Commercial Historic District, Franklin College Historic District, Southbrook, McCarty's Lakehurst, Stonybrook, Sugar Creek Heights, J B Ramsey, Kingsbridge, Bluffs at Young's Creek.
Recent Weather Patterns
Central Indiana sits in IECC climate zone 5A, which means a real cooling load and a real heating load on the same window. NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for Indianapolis put the July average high at 85.2F, the January average high at 36.1F and the January average low at 20.9F, with the muggy season running May 25 to September 22. Mature and heavy in the historic core - the pre-1940 tenth of the housing stock sits on the original town grid under 100 year old street trees, and the Franklin College campus adds a large block of mature canopy. The 1990-2009 subdivisions on the city's edges have 20-35 year old planting, now substantial but not closed.
What Our Crew Sees in Franklin
Two populations. In the post-1990 stock: half round and quarter round transoms, palladian gable assemblies, boxed bays and rear sliding patio doors, plus two story great room glass in the 2000s plans. Active new construction includes Kingsbridge, Bluffs at Young's Creek, Westwind at Cumberland.
Who Actually Turns Up in Franklin
The same people measure, order and install. Customers name them in reviews, which is the point: you are not getting a subcontractor you have never heard of.
What We Are Running in Franklin Right Now
Both offers apply to work quoted and ordered while they are posted here. Ask about them at the in-home measure and we will put the discount on the written quote before you decide anything.
$500 Off Your First Exterior Screen, Plus a Free Motorization Upgrade
Take $500 off your first exterior screen and we will add the motorization upgrade at no charge. Exterior screens stop solar heat outside the glass, which is the only place you can stop it before it is already in the room, and a motor is the difference between using one and forgetting it.
Applies to a first exterior screen. Ask at the measure so the discount is on the written quote before you order. Motorized product runs on batteries that need replacing, about a year on Hunter Douglas PowerView.
Ask about this offerFree Motorization Upgrade on Select Interior Shades
Pick from the qualifying interior shade lines and the motorization upgrade is free. It is worth most on the openings you would otherwise leave alone: tall great room glass, anything above a stair, and the west windows nobody remembers to close by four.
Select interior shade lines only. We will tell you at the measure which of your openings qualify. Batteries are a real running cost and are not included.
Ask about this offerPayment Options That Work for You
A whole-house order is a real number. Our lender partners offer terms that fit a range of budgets so you can phase the cost without phasing the install. Ask Franklin Window Treatments for current rates.
Start the work now and begin paying later. On a whole-house order this is how people phase a large job without phasing the install.
- Payments deferred for a promotional period
- Rate and period set by the lender
- Quoted price held for the order
Divide the project cost into equal monthly payments across a fixed promotional period, so the budget is predictable from day one.
- Equal monthly payments
- Fixed promotional period
- Simple, predictable budgeting
Spread a larger window treatment project across a longer term with fixed equal payments, for homeowners who want the lowest monthly amount.
- Extended terms available
- Fixed equal payments
- Suited to larger window treatment projects
Financing is arranged through third party lenders and is subject to credit approval. Rates, terms, and promotional periods are set by the lender and disclosed to you in writing before you sign. Ask your project lead which programs are open right now.
What Franklin Window Treatments Does in Franklin
From one room to a whole house, Franklin Window Treatments measures every opening, orders it custom, and installs it with the same crew that took the measurements.
Faux Wood Blinds in Franklin
Over a Franklin kitchen sink and in a hall bath, faux wood is the blind that survives. Splash wipes off the slat face with a damp cloth, and the material doesn't take on the humidity that pulls a stained basswood slat out of flat within a couple of summers.
Learn moreWood Blinds in Franklin
Weight sets the limit. A wide wood blind is heavy enough that a single headrail sags, so a broad Franklin opening gets two blinds sharing one continuous headrail. Split it where the frame already breaks the line and the seam doesn't read as a compromise.
Learn moreVertical Blinds in Franklin
The wide Franklin openings are where verticals still make sense: a patio door off the family room, or a run of glass in a walkout basement. A vane track handles a span that a hanging shade can't cover without going past its weight limit.
Learn moreAluminum Mini Blinds in Franklin
An aluminum mini blind is a 1 inch rolled slat with a baked finish. It weighs almost nothing and humidity doesn't touch it. That's why it's still the right product for a Franklin utility room decades after everyone declared it dead.
Learn moreRoller Shades in Franklin
Custom roller shades for Franklin homes. Light filtering through blackout fabrics on a tube sized to the span, with cassette or fascia to hide the roll. Roll direction gets decided at the measure so the fabric never fouls a crank or a window lock.
Learn moreSolar Shades in Franklin
Franklin Window Treatments is insured and bonded, and every Franklin job over $150 goes on a written contract under Indiana's IC 24-5-11. The openness factor and the fabric color appear on that contract, because those two numbers are the whole product and memory isn't a record.
Learn moreCellular Shades in Franklin
A cellular headrail is shallow, so inside mount stays available on trim that would refuse a cassette or a wood headrail. That's the quiet reason cellular ends up in older Franklin houses with narrow openings where nothing else would sit flush.
Learn moreZebra Shades in Franklin
Light bands read soft and bounce glare around the room. Charcoal bands hold the view and look sharper against a Franklin yard. Either slows fading on your floor and neither one's stopping it, since NFRC attributes 40 to 60 percent of fade damage to UV.
Learn moreRoman Shades in Franklin
Yardage drives it. A wide Franklin window in a patterned fabric with a repeat eats far more cloth than the width suggests, because every fold's got to line up. Custom drapery and fabric work nationally runs about $300 to $4,000 per window.
Learn moreWoven Wood Shades in Franklin
Woven woods stack tall. Folded at the top of a Franklin window, a natural shade takes up more room than almost anything else we'll hang, and on a short window it can cover a real share of the glass. Mount above the opening if the trim allows.
Learn moreBlackout Shades in Franklin
Backings age. A blackout fabric that spends a decade against hot Franklin glass can stiffen and eventually craze, and the first sign is usually pinholes of light where there weren't any before. That's a fabric replacement rather than a repair, and it's years out.
Learn morePlantation Shutters in Franklin
A hidden tilt mechanism inside the stile looks cleaner than a front tilt rod, and it isn't cheap. Hinges and the way panels meet at a divider rail are the parts deciding how a Franklin shutter feels in ten years. None of that shows up in a photo.
Learn moreCafe Shutters in Franklin
Cafe shutters for Franklin homes. Shutters on the lower half of the window only, so the room keeps its daylight and its ceiling height while the street loses its view in. Common on older stock with tall double windows, and the height of the divide is a decision we make at your window.
Learn moreMotorized Shades in Franklin
A sun sensor reads light at one spot, so it can drop a shade for a passing bright cloud and leave a Franklin room dark for an hour. An astronomical timer follows sunrise and sunset by date instead, and for most houses that's the calmer setup.
Learn moreCustom Drapery in Franklin
Fabric runs in dye lots, and a bolt woven this spring won't match one woven next year. If you might add a panel to another Franklin room later, order the yardage now and store it, because a close match on a wall looks worse than an obvious contrast.
Learn moreValances & Top Treatments in Franklin
Top treatments are fabricated to order like any other soft goods, so you're looking at two to five weeks. A Franklin cornice also needs the shade underneath decided first, because the return depth depends on it and reordering a board because the roller got thicker is avoidable.
Learn moreExterior Solar Shades in Franklin
Exterior shades are built to order like everything else here, so two to five weeks is normal, and hardware for tracks can run longer than fabric. We'd rather set that expectation at the Franklin measure than have you planning a party around an install date.
Learn moreRetractable Awnings in Franklin
Measure the space, not the wall. A Franklin deck twelve feet deep needs a projection that actually reaches the seating, and the shadow moves through the afternoon, so we'll walk the sun line with you rather than sizing the awning to whatever fits above the door.
Learn moreCommercial Window Treatments in Franklin
Fade is slowed, and it isn't stopped. NFRC attributes 40 to 60 percent of fading damage to ultraviolet, so a solar shade protects finishes and furniture in a Franklin lobby without making the problem disappear. Anyone selling a fabric as fade prevention is overstating what the physics allow.
Learn moreSkylight Shades in Franklin
The long-term cost on a skylight shade isn't the shade, it's getting back up to it. Battery service on a Franklin overhead unit may mean a tall ladder in a stairwell, so we plan for that at the quote rather than discovering it in year two.
Learn moreSliding Glass Door Blinds in Franklin
Width is the price driver on a door, and it isn't fabric. A standard six foot Franklin slider and a twelve foot multi-panel opening sit in completely different brackets, and the wide one may also need a heavier track or a split into two treatments to stay flat.
Learn morePanel Track Blinds in Franklin
A single damaged panel can usually be replaced without touching the rest, which is a real advantage on a Franklin door where one section takes all the wear. The catch is dye lot: a panel ordered later probably won't match the originals under daylight.
Learn moreSheer Shades in Franklin
Raised, the vanes and facings compress into a stack at the top that's deeper than a rolled fabric would be. On a short Franklin transom or a window with little header space, that stack takes a visible bite out of the glass, so we measure for it first.
Learn morePleated Shades in Franklin
If a Franklin room needs real darkness or real temperature help, this isn't the shade for it. Blackout cellular with side channels handles the first and honeycomb construction handles the second, and putting pleated in either room means buying twice within a few years.
Learn moreBamboo Shades in Franklin
Natural material runs in lots the way dyed fabric runs in dye lots, and the variation is wider. A Franklin client who adds a fifth window a year after the first four will almost certainly see a difference in tone, so we'd suggest doing the whole room at once.
Learn moreDual Shades in Franklin
Fabric bands can't be scrubbed. The sheer sections are delicate and the join between bands is where damage shows, so care on a Franklin dual shade is a light vacuum with a brush and nothing wet. A stain in the sheer band is generally permanent.
Learn moreTop-Down Bottom-Up Shades in Franklin
When the shade is fully lowered, the bottom rail sits on the sill like any other, and when it's raised from the bottom the fabric stacks above it. That stack is what a Franklin homeowner should look at on a sample, because it's the part that eats the view.
Learn moreCordless Blinds in Franklin
Raised fully, a two inch slat blind still occupies a stack at the top of the opening, and on a short Franklin window that stack can eat several inches of view. We measure it and give you the number before the order, because it's the complaint that shows up after install day.
Learn moreHardwood Shutters in Franklin
There's no cord anywhere on a shutter. No loop, no ladder string, nothing that falls within a child's reach, which puts the entire 16 CFR 1120.3 inner-cord question outside the conversation. For a Franklin nursery or a stair landing that fact alone often decides it.
Learn moreComposite Shutters in Franklin
Indiana issues no trade license here, so the contract is what you hold. IC 24-5-11 requires a written agreement on residential work over $150, naming scope, schedule, total price and the product going in. Every Franklin order runs that way, and we're insured and bonded.
Learn moreSmart Home Shade Integration in Franklin
If you have two motorized shades, you probably don't need any of this. A handheld remote already does the job, and adding a hub introduces one more thing that can fail. We'll say that in a Franklin living room rather than sell a bridge that solves nothing.
Learn moreBlind Repair & Restring in Franklin
A cord lock is a small mechanism with a pin and a spring inside the headrail. When it stops grabbing, the blind slides down on its own, which is annoying rather than fatal. It's a bench-level part swap on most Franklin blinds, and it comes off the headrail without disturbing the mount.
Learn moreShutter Repair in Franklin
Composite panels don't refinish. A wrapped surface that's been gouged or scorched can't be sanded back the way stained basswood can, so a damaged Franklin composite panel means sourcing a replacement panel and matching the white, which is not always possible on an older set.
Learn moreMotorization Retrofit in Franklin
Kitchen and bath shades over a counter are the second case. You can't reach across a sink to a cord without leaning on something wet, so a motorized shade in that Franklin spot is a practical fix rather than an indulgence. It also gets used, which the corded one didn't.
Learn moreOutdoor Patio Shades in Franklin
Manual crank or motor is a real choice, not an upsell. A crank on a modest Franklin porch shade is reliable and needs no power, while a run of four wide shades you'll want down every afternoon justifies motors and a single control. Outdoor motors want proper outdoor-rated wiring.
Learn moreOffice Window Treatments in Franklin
Window film is the alternative worth naming. It cuts solar heat continuously and never needs operating, though it also can't be raised on a gray Franklin morning when the floor wants every bit of daylight it can get. Some buildings end up with both, and that's a reasonable outcome.
Learn moreHealthcare Window Treatments in Franklin
Cleaning agents are harder on fabric than people expect. A shade wiped daily with a hospital-grade disinfectant won't age like one in an office, so a Franklin spec has to name a material rated for that exposure rather than assume a commercial fabric survives the protocol.
Learn moreMultifamily Window Treatments in Franklin
Sometimes a basic stock blind per unit is the correct answer, and we'll tell you so. If a Franklin property turns units frequently and residents rarely stay past a lease term, spending on custom treatments behind apartment doors is money that would do more in the common areas.
Learn more
Local Expertise, Real Results
A three point measure at the head, the middle and the sill isn't a formality in the Martin Place blocks, where plaster lined returns give generous depth that changes opening to opening inside one house. It's how we learn whether an inside mount can honestly cover the opening before any fabric gets cut.
Franklin Window Treatments works with families in Franklin on the practical end of this trade. Getting a baby to sleep past sunrise. Keeping glare off a monitor. Stopping a hardwood floor from bleaching in front of the south windows. Every one of those is a different product recommendation in a different Johnson County room.
We sell custom window treatments in a Johnson County seat of 26,743 people, up from the 25,313 counted in 2020, spread across 9,590 households in a single ZIP code at 46131. Owner occupancy runs 65.7 percent, 6,302 owner occupied against 3,288 renter occupied, and Franklin College, founded in 1834 and the first college in Indiana to admit women, is part of why the rental share sits where it does. That mix changes the work. A house four blocks from the Johnson County Courthouse and a Lennar plan at Kingsbridge want different mounting brackets, different headrails and a different honest expectation about what an inside mount will look like once it's hanging. Indiana issues no statewide license for this trade, so nobody in Johnson County holds one. We're insured and insured instead.
Franklin isn't a continuously growing suburb and we don't write as though it were. The 1990s and 2000s put 4,647 units on the ground, 45.2 percent of the city, then the 2010s dropped to 954 and the 2020s have added 328 so far. Three communities are actively selling: Kingsbridge from Lennar, with Bluffs at Young's Creek and Westwind at Cumberland from Arbor Homes. Nearly everything else here is retrofit into a standing house. We'll also tell you what we don't know. Johnson County's public parcel layer carries no year built attribute, so we can't read your subdivision's construction era off a record, and no builder is published for the older plats like Southbrook or McCarty's Lakehurst. We find that out at the opening, with a tape.
Our Promise
You'll have finished width, finished height, mount type and mounting depth written down for every opening before you sign anything. If an opening in the Martin Place blocks or a settled 1960s ranch runs far enough out of square that an inside mount will show daylight down one side, you'll hear it at the measure, with the outside mount price sitting next to it.
Reasons Franklin Families Pick Us
Serving Franklin and Johnson County with quality materials, thorough inspections, and transparent pricing.
Franklin holds two housing stocks
1,084 Franklin houses predate 1940 and 4,647 went up between 1990 and 2009, which is 45.2 percent of everything standing. Those two groups aren't in separate parts of town. They're interleaved, so an address here tells us almost nothing about what waits at the opening. The post-1990 stock gives a nominal 3.25 inch vinyl jamb with a flat stop. The pre-1940 stock gives deep returns whose usable depth shifts room to room. We bring a tape to both.
Three point measure on every opening
Johnson County clay moves houses. We assume out of square in Franklin's pre-1940 tenth and in anything mid century that has settled, and the 1960s alone put 837 units on the ground here. So we measure width at the head, the middle and the sill, check the diagonals, and record mounting depth per opening. The 1990 to 2009 stock usually comes back square within tolerance. We still measure it, because the exception is the one that gets ordered wrong.
A written contract, not a handshake
The Indiana Home Improvement Contract Act, IC 24-5-11, requires a written contract carrying a detailed scope, dates and a total price on residential work over $150. Almost every window covering order in Franklin clears that number, so you get one. Indiana issues no statewide license for this trade, and nobody in Johnson County holds one. We're insured and insured, and we'd rather say that plainly than dress it up into something it isn't.
We quote the light gap first
Every inside mount shows some light at the edge. Lutron publishes 3/4 inch per side on the Roller 20/64 and a standard factory deduction of 1/16 inch per side, and shades over 120 inches tall or past a 4:1 height to width ratio get larger gaps than that. It matters most in the historic core, where tall narrow openings well outside modern stock proportions are the norm. If you want real darkness we'll talk about side channels, a light blocking pocket or an outside mount before you order.
Real Jobs. Real Results.
Photos from recent window treatment projects completed by the crew that measured them across Franklin and Johnson County. Every project is documented with photos and a written closeout package.
Before and After Your Franklin Install
Four steps in this order, and the first one decides the other three. Franklin's housing splits between a pre-1940 tenth that has to be read opening by opening and a 1990 to 2009 block that repeats plan to plan, and the measure is where we find out which of those your house is actually behaving like. Nothing here gets ordered off a plan sheet, a size chart, or a previous customer's numbers from the same street.
The in home measure
We arrive with a tape, a level and a laser and work opening by opening: width at the head, the middle and the sill, height at both jambs and the center, a diagonal square check, and mounting depth recorded per opening. In a Martin Place house that's 20 to 30 openings and none of them repeat. In a Westwind at Cumberland plan it's 15 to 19 and most of them do. Both get written down the same way.
Sizes, then the order
You get finished width and finished height in writing for every opening with the factory deduction already applied, plus mount type and product. Anything a tape can't measure honestly, a round arch head in the historic core for instance, gets templated rather than guessed. Then the written contract that IC 24-5-11 requires on residential work over $150 in Indiana. Nothing goes to the factory until you've read your own numbers back to us.
Fabrication and the wait
Custom lead time runs 2 to 5 weeks after you approve sizes. Nothing in this trade is an emergency, and rushing a measure is how a shade ends up a half inch narrow. If you're planning to add openings to the order later, say so now. Fabric is dyed in lots, and a piece run six months apart can read slightly different in the same Franklin room under the same product code.
Install and adjustment
We hang, level and set operation on every unit, add center support brackets where the finished width calls for them, and set travel limits and pairing on anything motorized. Then we walk the house with you and adjust. Packaging leaves with us. On a 46131 job we come back for our own workmanship, and on an older Franklin house we'll point out where the trim already carried holes before we arrived.
What we see most often on Franklin window treatments
Franklin homeowners typically call us about these scenarios.
A Sunroom That Is Unusable In July
Glass on three sides and a July average high near 85.2F means the room hits an unpleasant temperature by early afternoon and stays there. Interior shades help. The bigger change is stopping the sun outside on the worst elevation, and that's a conversation most people have never had. Treating the interior alone in that room often disappoints people who spent real money.
The Tilt Wand Turns And Nothing Happens
The little gearbox that drives the slats has stripped, usually because somebody forced it past its stop. On most blind lines it's a stocked part and a short visit. The failure is common enough that being able to name it on the phone means we arrive with the right component instead of diagnosing and returning.
Builder Blinds Failing All At Once
A house four or five years old and suddenly three lifts have stopped holding and a valance clip has snapped. Builder packages are bought in volume at a price and they age together. The useful conversation is which openings deserve a proper product and which honestly just need a functional blind and no more money.
An Awning That Has Given Up
The frame is straight but the fabric is faded, stretched and torn at one edge after years of central Indiana weather. Recovering it on the existing structure is usually far cheaper than starting again, and a lot of people do not know that is an option until somebody tells them.
A Rental Turnover On A Deadline
Tenants moved out and three blinds are damaged with new people arriving next week. What a landlord needs is durable product, a consistent color across units and a record of what went where. That way one broken blind is a swap from stock rather than a measure and a five week wait.
A Nursery That Became A Bedroom
The blackout that suited a baby now blocks the light a nine year old wants for reading. Rooms change function and the treatment can usually keep up by adding a top-down feature or a second layer rather than starting over. It is a small job that people delay for years.
Five Stages, In This Order
Custom window treatments are made to your openings, so the order matters more than it does in most trades. This is how every Franklin job runs.
Free In-Home Measure
Every opening gets three widths, three heights and a diagonal square check, because houses settle and an opening that is out of square is the difference between a shade that runs true and one that binds. Mounting depth gets read at the jamb. It all goes on paper before any product conversation starts.
Product and Fabric, In Your Own Light
Samples get looked at in the room they are going in, not under showroom lighting. This is where openness factor, inside versus outside mount, roll direction and material get decided, and where we tell you the light gap you are going to live with.
Written Scope and Contract
Opening by opening, with the mount type, the light gap, the operation and the total price in writing. Indiana requires a written contract on residential work over $150 under IC 24-5-11, and we would write one anyway.
Custom Fabrication
Your sizes go to the workroom. Two to five weeks is typical depending on product and finish, longer on specialty shapes and motorized configurations. You get the real date at the measure rather than a range.
Install and Walkthrough
Brackets anchored for the substrate they are going into, everything checked level and square, motor travel limits set and scenes built with you standing there. Then we show you how it all works and take the packaging with us.
Franklin Bay Window Clients, Reviewed
4.8 stars across 497+ Google reviews for The Window Valet, who runs this service.
"My plantation shutters are beautiful. Working with the Window Valet was a wonderful experience from the sales estimate to the installation. Erica, my sales rep, was very patient as I had to delay installation twice. Once I was available, the installation was very timely. Handy, my installer, did excellent work. He showed me how they work and advised me on how to clean them in the future. Very thorough!"
"I had manual and automatic shades installed back in 2016. I was pleased with the sales and install process back then. I had some maintenance done today and was very pleased with the technician, Handy. A part that had been replaced twice before on one troublesome automatic shade was proactively replaced this time with an upgraded part at no cost. I was very pleased that the Window Valet stands behind their products."
"I am a Real Estate agent and I am very picky on what vendors I refer to my clients. I always highly recommend Window Valet for anyone needing to have blinds installed in their home. They did my own home for me as well. Justin is great to work with and will walk you through all your choices and help you with understanding all the products they have at your disposal."
What Franklin Buyers Should Know Up Front
Straight answers to the questions Franklin homeowners ask most.
Indiana Weather Affects Window Treatments Year Round
Indiana sees some of the most varied weather in the country. Franklin homeowners live in IECC climate zone 5A, which carries a real cooling load in summer and a real heating load in winter. July averages a high near 85F, January averages a high near 36F with lows near 21F, and the muggy season runs from late May into late September. That is why the same window can be the hottest room in the house in July and the coldest in January.
Zone 5A pulls both ways
IECC Climate Zone 5A means one window in Franklin works two seasons. The NOAA 1991-2020 normals give a July average high of 85.2F and a January average low of 20.9F, so heat pushes in half the year and leaks out the other half. Cellular shades carry the test data on the winter side: DOE and Oak Ridge recorded up to 20 percent heating energy saved and up to 15 percent of total heating and cooling versus a bare window. We won't turn that into dollars, because nobody honestly can.
Muggy season moves real wood
The muggy stretch runs May 25 to September 22. Hardwood slats move in that humidity, and they move most where steam reaches them daily: over a kitchen sink, in a bath, in the back rooms of an older house on the town grid where ventilation was never modernized. Faux wood holds its line in those rooms and costs less. We put hardwood in the front rooms of a Martin Place house where it sits against existing wood trim, and keep it out of the wet ones.
South 600 East gets nothing
Sugar Creek Heights has exactly one street and it's a numbered county road. All 19 parcels front South 600 East, running north to south, so every front elevation in that subdivision takes direct morning or direct afternoon sun and there are no interior lots at all. Stonybrook fronts East 250 South and gets north or south fronts instead. Southbrook fronts South Mauxferry Road, north south again. We read your frontage off the section line grid before recommending an openness factor.
Canopy downtown, none outside
Franklin's pre-1940 houses sit under 100 year old street trees, and the Franklin College campus adds another large block of mature canopy across roughly 207 acres. The 1990 to 2009 subdivisions carry 20 to 35 year old planting, substantial but not closed. The 328 units built since 2020 sit on open former farmland with full sun on all four elevations. NFRC attributes 40 to 60 percent of fading damage to UV, and the newest Franklin streets take all of it with nothing in the way.
Choosing the Right Treatment for Franklin Rooms
An honest breakdown of the three we specify most often, and when each one is the right answer.
The one product in this trade with measured energy numbers behind it. Trapped air in the cells does the work, and DOE and ORNL testing found cellular shades saved up to 20 percent on heating energy and up to 15 percent on total heating and cooling against a bare window. In a Franklin house that matters in January and again in July, which is unusual for one product. Single cell suits most rooms, double cell where the glass is large or the room runs cold. Top-down bottom-up gets you daylight and privacy at the same time.
What you reach for when the complaint is afternoon sun. Solar fabrics come in stated openness factors, and that number is the whole decision: a lower openness cuts more glare and more of the view, a higher one keeps the view and cuts less. On a west or south Franklin window this is usually the honest answer rather than blackout, because blackout kills the room. Cassette or fascia hides the roll, and roll direction gets decided at the measure so the fabric does not foul a crank or a lock.
The one that stays with the house. Shutters are a finish rather than a covering, and they do not get replaced every few years. In Franklin the material choice is technical rather than a matter of taste: composite and poly in bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms and sunrooms, because a four month humid season followed by a dry heated winter will move real hardwood, and hardwood only where the room stays conditioned. Louver size, frame style and divider rail get decided standing at your window.
See What Each Fabric Does To The Light
Pick a fabric below and the window updates. It's a drawing rather than a photograph, so read it as a rough guide to what each family does in a Franklin room, and to what it doesn't do.
Openness factor is a measured fabric spec, so you can compare it line to line. The category names are not measured. One maker's room darkening can behave like another maker's light filtering, which is why the sample books come to the measure and get opened in the room they're going in, at the hour that room has the problem.
Experienced Window Treatment Installers Wanted
Ready to advance your window treatment career? Join Franklin's trusted window treatment team. Competitive pay, ongoing training, and a team that takes its documentation and standards seriously.
Call to ApplyFranklin Streets and Subdivisions We Know
Window Treatment projects completed across Franklin's neighborhoods and surrounding areas. Click any neighborhood for the specifics we have learned working there.
Where we respond near Franklin
Our crews measure and install across Franklin and the closest surrounding communities.
Window Treatment Systems Compared in Franklin
Quick reference for the products we specify most often in these homes. Pricing reflects typical Franklin installations.
Typical Franklin market ranges as of 2026. The plus sign on upper numbers means your project may exceed the listed maximum based on inspection findings. Get a written scope and quote at no cost.
Expert Franklin Window Treatment Crews Available Now
Tell us the street and we'll bring a tape. Measures usually book within the week anywhere in 46131, from the Martin Place blocks to the Arbor Homes plans on the edge of town, and the numbers come back to you in writing.