Valances & Top Treatments

Franklin Valances & Top Treatments

Finish work over the transoms, and nothing more

Call (317) 999-5154Get Free Quote
Quick Answer

Here's the detail behind the product description. What it's made of, how it's sized, what drives the price, how long it takes to build and what the manufacturer covers if it fails.

  • Service: Valances & Top Treatments for Franklin homeowners
  • Service area: Franklin, IN and surrounding areas
    • Getting somebody out to measure is the easy part and happens on a normal schedule. After that the fabricator needs roughly two to five weeks. We give you a specific window when we write the order.
  • Insured and bonded
  • Serving Franklin, IN since 2008
Valances & Top Treatments Services

Expert Valances & Top Treatments for Franklin Homes

Top treatments exist because Franklin's newer stock put shapes above the windows that nothing else can answer. Half round and quarter round transoms, palladian gable assemblies and boxed bays are documented across the post-1990 housing here, which covers the 2,199 homes built in the 1990s and the 2,448 built from 2000 through 2009. In the historic core the shapes are different and the need is the same: leaded and stained transoms above Italianate openings, and the wide porch front triple of an American Foursquare that reads unfinished without something across the top. A cornice or an upholstered board gives those assemblies a header line and hides whatever mechanism sits under it.

Be clear about what you are buying. A top treatment does nothing for light and nothing for heat. It is finish work, and if the room needs performance the money belongs in the shade underneath it. The mounting matters more than the fabric: a cornice board carries real weight over a long span and has to anchor into wood framing above the opening, never into a hollow return, and in Franklin's pre-1940 houses finding that solid backing takes probing rather than guessing. Dust settles on the top edge of anything horizontal. And fabric dye lots drift, so a valance ordered later to match drapery bought this year is a gamble.

When to Call

Signs You Need Valances & Top Treatments

If you notice any of these in your Franklin home, it is worth booking a measure. None of it is urgent, and none of it fixes itself either.

Long drapery isn't practical over a sink

You want color up high without floor length panels

Wood blinds look bare across a whole wall

Fabric over the sink has gone limp and dull

A dining room wants formality without panels

Brackets and cords show above the shade

Valances on one wall sit at different heights

A headrail is the first thing you see

A bay reads as three separate windows

One window in a run doesn't match the others

Our Process

How Franklin Window Treatments Handles Valances & Top Treatments

Every job follows the same five-step process. Transparent, thorough, and done right the first time.

1

Finished width run past the trim

2

Style chosen for the room

3

Order placed, profile drawn

4

Swags dressed, folds arranged

5

Bay angles taken at the opening

Real Project Photos

Valances & Top Treatments in Franklin

Photographs from real valances & top treatments jobs completed by our crew in Franklin and surrounding areas.

Custom shades measured and installed in FranklinPlantation shutters fitted to a Franklin windowCellular shades in a Franklin living room
Scope of Work

What Valances & Top Treatments Includes

Every Franklin job is documented item by item. Here is what the crew covers.

Whatever is already at the window documented first, since a top treatment nearly always goes over an existing shade or rod

Headrail depth, bracket projection and any hanging chain measured so the treatment clears what sits behind it

Mounting height set above the opening wherever the window needs to read taller than it is

Finished width run past the trim on both sides so the treatment frames the window instead of sitting on it

Depth proportioned against the full window height rather than taken from a catalog default

Return depth dimensioned to clear the hardware behind it plus a working gap for hands

Style chosen room by room: box pleat, gathered, swag with cascades, shaped hem or an upholstered cornice

Cornice profile drawn full size and checked against the wall before any frame gets cut

Fabric run direction and pattern placement decided so the motif centers on the window rather than wherever it lands

Pattern repeat matched across a bay or a run of windows so every treatment starts at the same point in the design

Welt, banding or applied trim chosen with a physical sample laid against the face fabric in the room

Buckram or interlining added where the fabric needs to hold a crisp edge instead of collapsing

Lining specified so every window presents the same face to the street

Mounting board width, depth and angle brackets sized to the weight and the return

Fasteners landed in framing or in rated anchors, because a cornice hangs off the wall on a lever arm

Access left open for battery wands, motor heads and lift cords living behind the treatment

Level checked across the whole run, since a top treatment sits at eye height and shows a slope instantly

Swags and folds dressed by hand on site, because nothing ships already arranged

Pricing

What Valances and Top Treatments Cost in Franklin

The closest published national figure is the custom drapery range of roughly $300 to $4,000 per window. Top treatments generally sit at the lower end of that, since there's far less cloth in a valance than in a pair of floor-length panels. Read it as a national category range and not a quote for a room in Franklin. What moves the number is construction more than size. A rod-pocket valance in a mid-priced fabric is a modest line item. An upholstered cornice is a built object: a frame gets cut to a drawn profile, padded, wrapped and trimmed by hand. Add a large pattern repeat across four windows in Johnson County and the yardage climbs before anyone starts stapling.

By Product

How Valances & Top Treatments Differ by Product

Every product in this trade behaves differently in a room. Here is what that means for this work.

Upholstered cornice: A wood frame cut to a drawn profile, padded and wrapped in fabric, then hung above the window. It reads architectural rather than soft, it hides a headrail completely, and it holds a straight top line that no fabric valance can match.

Box pleat valance: Flat panels separated by crisp inverted pleats at regular intervals. It's tailored without being stiff, it suits a stripe or a solid better than a busy print, and the pleat spacing gets set to the window width instead of a default.

Gathered valance: Fabric shirred onto a board or a rod at two or two and a half times fullness. It's the softest of the board-mounted options and the most forgiving of a lightweight fabric, and it belongs in rooms that already lean traditional.

Swag with cascades: A draped center section with tails falling at each side. It carries real formality and it needs ceiling height to look right. The cut is done on the bias so the folds fall properly, which is why a swag is not a beginner project.

Shaped hem valance: A board-mounted valance whose lower edge is cut to a curve, an arch or a scallop instead of running straight. The shape gets drawn to the actual window width so the low points land where you want them, not wherever the pattern piece says.

Flat tailored valance: A single unpleated panel on a board, often with banding at the hem or the sides. It's the quietest top treatment there is, and it's what we specify in a room that wants the headrail hidden without adding any period flavor.

Rod-pocket valance: The simplest version, gathered onto a decorative rod above the window. It costs least, it comes down for cleaning easily, and it works where the treatment is decorative and nothing structural has to be hidden behind it.

Welt, banding and applied trim: A contrast cord at the edge, a flat band inset from the hem, or a fringe along the bottom. This is where a plain treatment gets its personality, and it's also where a second color from the room gets pulled up to the window.

Buckram and interlining: Stiffener and a soft flannel layer built into the treatment so pleats stand up and edges stay sharp. Skip them and a valance sags in the middle within a season, which is the usual reason a ready-made one looks wrong.

Mounting board and angle brackets: The board the treatment staples to and the metal brackets that carry it. Board depth has to clear the shade hardware behind, and bracket spacing has to suit the weight, especially on a cornice with a deep return.

Common Questions

Valances & Top Treatments FAQ

Questions we hear most often from Franklin homeowners considering valances & top treatments.

They solve different problems. A cornice is a rigid box, usually wood, painted or covered, and it gives the crispest architectural line, which suits the palladian gable assemblies documented in Franklin's 2000s plans. An upholstered board is softer at the edges and warmer in a room with fabric already in it. A soft valance is sewn and gathered, and it belongs with drapery rather than with a hard shade. In a Martin Place parlor from the 1850 to 1935 period, a shaped upholstered board usually reads right. In a Kingsbridge great room, a straight cornice across a wide opening looks intentional.
Something solid, and finding it is the job. A cornice over a wide opening carries real weight on a long lever arm, so it needs screws into wood framing above the header rather than into plaster, drywall or the face of a return. In Franklin's post-1990 stock the framing is where you expect it. In the pre-1940 tenth, 1,084 units with deep wood or plaster lined returns of inconsistent depth, we probe first and often anchor into the original wood casing, which holds far better than the surrounding plaster. Where nothing solid exists, we add a mounting cleat and fix that into the framing instead.
It can, and there are two ways to go. An arched cornice or upholstered board cut to the curve sits above the round arch head and follows it, which looks superb and costs more because the substrate is shaped by hand. Or you run a straight treatment above the whole assembly and let it read as a header across the top, which is cheaper and often cleaner. Half round and quarter round transoms are documented across Franklin's post-1990 housing, and in the historic core the Italianate round arch and segmental arch heads present the same choice. We mock the line up in tape on the wall first.
That is one of its two real jobs, and it does it well. Any inside mounted product leaves a visible headrail with brackets and a mechanism at the top of the opening, and a valance covers that band while closing part of the light spill over the roll or the stack. The other job is proportion. On the tall narrow openings in Franklin's pre-1940 stock, a valance with the right depth shortens the window visually and calms a room where every opening is stretched. Get the return depth right and it wraps back to the wall cleanly instead of floating.
Together, if you can find the budget for both in one order. Fabric is dyed in production lots and the lots drift, so a valance ordered eight months after the panels can sit visibly off in tone even with the same catalog number. Sun makes it worse. A Southbrook house fronting South Mauxferry Road, a north south road, takes east or west light on the principal elevation, and one season is enough to move the first fabric. If the order has to be split, keep everything on one wall in one batch and put the second batch in a different room.
When the window is already busy or the ceiling is low. On the wide porch front triple assemblies in Franklin's American Foursquare houses, the assembly itself is the architecture and adding a hard cornice over it can bury what you liked. In a 1,354 square foot Bluffs at Young's Creek plan, where ceilings and openings are modest, a deep treatment eats visual height the room does not have to spare. And if the budget is finite, the shade under it does the work. We would rather put your money into a lined roller than into a board.
Two things. It hides hardware, so the headrail, the brackets and the top of a roller stop being the first thing you see at the window. And it finishes the composition, giving the window a top edge and a bit of softness that a hard treatment alone doesn't have. In a lot of rooms it's the last ten percent that makes the window look designed instead of merely covered. It also mounts above the opening, which makes the window read taller than it measures.
Deep enough to look deliberate and shallow enough to leave your glass alone. A treatment that's too shallow reads like a headband sitting on top of the window, and one that's too deep eats daylight for the rest of its life. We work it against the full height of the window rather than a fixed number, then mock the depth up with a piece of card taped to the wall so you can look at it from the sofa before anything is cut.
A cornice is a built object with a wood frame, so it holds a dead-straight top line and a crisp profile forever. A fabric valance is softer, lighter and easier to change your mind about. Cornices suit rooms with clean architecture and rooms where a headrail has to disappear completely. Fabric suits rooms that want movement. Cost usually runs higher on the cornice because somebody is cutting a frame to a drawn profile before the upholstery even starts.
Usually, and the measurement that decides it is the return depth. The treatment has to project far enough off the wall to clear the headrail, the brackets and any chain or wand hanging behind it, with room left for a hand. We measure that at the window before ordering. Where it goes wrong is a treatment ordered off a size chart without anyone checking what's behind it, and then it fouls the shade every time you raise it.
Yes, and it's one of the more satisfying small projects in this trade. Most people who call about a top treatment already have shades that work fine and a room that still looks unfinished. We measure what's there, work out the return, and build to it. The only real constraint is wall above the opening: if the shade is mounted tight to the ceiling there may be nowhere for a board to go, in which case a rod-pocket treatment on a slim rod is sometimes the way through.
Higher than the opening, in almost every case. Mounting a treatment at the top of the trim makes the window look shorter and squashes the whole wall. Taking the board up toward the ceiling stretches the window visually and gets the treatment out of the daylight. How far depends on your ceiling and on what else is on the wall. In a room with a run of windows, all of them go on one line, even if the openings themselves aren't at one height.
No, and that's exactly why people come to us for this. A top treatment on its own is the answer when you want the softness of fabric without panels stacking on the wall, without floor-length cloth in a kitchen, and without the cost of a full drapery job. Plenty of rooms end there and look finished. If you want the height and the frame that panels bring, a treatment over stationary panels is a good middle option that costs less than working drapery.
It can, and that's a real risk with the wrong style rather than with the category. A heavy swag with fringe in a room with clean lines will look like it arrived from another decade. A flat tailored valance with a contrast band, or an upholstered cornice with a straight profile, reads current and will keep reading current. The style is the decision, not whether to have a top treatment at all. We bring photographs of both directions rather than talking about it in the abstract.
Vacuum the face with a brush attachment a few times a year, and pay attention to the top surface of a cornice, which collects dust nobody sees from below. Steam wrinkles rather than pressing them. For real cleaning, a cleaner who handles fabric window treatments should take it down and rehang it. Don't wash a lined or interlined treatment at home. The layers shrink at different rates and a valance that comes back wavy along the hem can't be rescued.
Yes, and the pattern is the part to get right. Each section gets its own board and its own treatment, and the corners need working out so the returns meet cleanly rather than colliding. The bigger job is matching the repeat, so the design starts at the same point on every section and reads as one treatment wrapping the bay. We template the angles on site, because a bay in an older Franklin house is rarely the angle on anybody's drawing.
A wood mounting board fastened to the wall on angle brackets, with the treatment stapled or hooked to the board. It sounds simple and the failure mode is always the same: a cornice hangs off the wall on a lever arm, so a deep return multiplies the pull on whatever the brackets are screwed into. We find framing where it exists and use anchors rated for the load where it doesn't. Bracket spacing gets set by the weight, not by habit.
It helps and it isn't a substitute for the right hardware. A treatment mounted above the opening with a solid return does close off the path where daylight comes over the top of a roller, and in a den or a living room that's often enough. In a bedroom that has to be genuinely dark, the honest answer is a light-blocking pocket or a closed cassette doing that job properly, with the top treatment sitting over it for looks.
Only if nobody plans for it. Motorized shades have a motor head at one end and, on battery versions, a wand or a battery tube that has to come out roughly once a year. A cornice built tight to the wall over that assembly turns an annual five-minute job into a project. We leave access, either by sizing the return generously or by building the treatment to lift off its board, and we tell you which end the motor lives on.
Kitchens, where floor-length fabric is impractical but the window still looks bare. Powder rooms, where there's no room for anything else and a small treatment does a lot. Dining rooms, where formality is welcome. And any room where a shade is already doing the work and the window still reads unfinished. The rooms where we'd push back are ones with low ceilings and short windows, since anything at the top costs you daylight you can't spare.
Areas We Serve

Valances & Top Treatments Across Franklin

We measure and install in every one of these Franklin neighborhoods. Each has its own page with the build eras, window conditions and mounting notes for that section.

Related Services

Other Window Treatment Services in Franklin

Franklin Window Treatments handles the full scope of window treatment work. Explore our other services below.

Faux Wood Blinds in Franklin

PVC where Johnson County humidity would ruin hardwood

Learn more →

Wood Blinds in Franklin

Stain that answers 1850s casing, not a paint chip

Learn more →

Vertical Blinds in Franklin

One pull clears a rear patio door

Learn more →
Free In-Home Measure

Schedule Your Free In-Home Measure in Franklin

Contact Information

Reach Us Directly

Our team prioritizes scheduled measures and service calls, and books in-home measures during business hours.

Office
1417 Commerce Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46201
Hours
Mon-Fri 8a-6p
Service Area
Franklin, IN and Surrounding Areas

Ready to Book Your Measure?

Call us to set up an in-home measure, or to ask about a treatment that has stopped working. We will talk it through on the phone first.

Call (317) 999-5154
Service area

Serving Franklin and the surrounding area

Call NowGet Quote