The 4 Best Brands For Window Treatments: Starlite’s Recommendations

There are so many brands of window treatments it makes it hard to decide where to start when looking for blinds, shades, or shutters. By being able to see our clients’ positive reactions to the window treatments I have sold to them throughout the years, I have been able to come up with a short but useful guide of recommendations for anyone looking to dress their windows.

Many people choose their window treatments provider based on the styles they have available, the cost of the treatments, and the customer support and guarantees they offer. With that in mind, these are the best brands for window treatments available:

1. Hunter Douglas
2. Timber Blinds
3. The Window Outfitters
4. Ultimate Shutters of America (no website)

I understand there are a lot of brands that I don’t even know of, and they may have excellent style, prices, and customer support, but we will be focusing on the ones I know very well and I’m sure I will continue to offer to my clients.

In regards to the order of the prices to expect from each of the mentioned brand, they are ordered from most expensive (Hunter Douglas) to the most affordable (The Window Outfitters).

Hunter Douglas: The very best of the best

It might sound like I am getting paid for talking and saying good stuff about them; I wish I was, but i’m not. I really do believe that they are the best window treatment brand out there. True, they’re probably the most expensive of all brands, but they really do come out ahead of any other brand in style, the materials that they use, and the customer support that they offer to clients.

Energy Efficiency and Style

I personally recommend the Duette Fabric: Architella – they are a honeycomb within a honeycomb shade. 

This design is great for energy efficiency as air gets trapped within the inside pocket, and the outer pocket makes the air trapped within the first pocket hard to escape, creating an extraordinary insulation. 

Plus, there is a perfect fabric for everyone; they have a great selection of colors and fabrics. 

You won’t be able to see all their samples on their website since they have so many styles, and not all of them made it to the website, but if you want to see all the options of the Duette, or any other option Hunter Douglas has to offer (I’m sure you’ll be able to find an option that will be perfect for your style), call your provider, and have them show you all their samples.

If you are in the Houston area be sure to call me – I’ll show you their designs and help you transform your home (or any area you’re looking to add window treatments to).

Customer Service

Aside from their awesome designs they have, no joke, the best customer service. 

Around 2 or 3 months ago a family called me because the string on their honeycombs got messed up – they’ve had these shades for 14 years, I was not surprised in learning about their shade’s issue. 

I got on the phone with their customer support team, and on the call, they just requested the part number (of the shade) and they sent a chord replacement so I could fix the shade. The chord made it in 4 days, and it only took me about 1 or 2 hours to make the replacement.

So within less than a week, this family was able to have their 14 year old broken shade repaired. NOW THAT’S SOME CUSTOMER SERVICE! Of course, it is also important to mention the awesome support that I provide to my clients 😎.

Timber Blinds: the new star player on the game

Timber Blinds is definitely another brand that I highly recommend. 

The brand was created in Texas. They are a “smaller” brand, if you compare them to Hunter Douglas, but they are very solid in everything that anyone would expect from a window treatment company.

Their recent step-up

I called the heading of this section: “…the new star player…”, because, very recently, they were bought by Hunter Douglas; this speaks highly of the brand. This wasn’t, or will not be made public, and Timber Blinds will continue to be run by themselves.

So with this being said, they have really stepped up the quality in their products with new product lines, models, fabrics, colors, and textures.

You can take a look at their website to get an idea of the styles they offer, but I recommend seeing them in person with your provider. They have beautiful styles; you won’t regret it.

Price range

Timber Blinds are somewhere in the middle for the prices they offer; they’re way below Hunter Douglas prices, but they aren’t by any means the cheapest option there is.

The issue with prices, as you may know, is that they will vary a lot among providers; the brand will offer their product at a certain price, and then the provider will have to add a certain percentage to be able to make enough to cover their business’ and employees’ needs. 

My recommendation when looking for a window treatment provider is to look for one that has a low “Cost of Doing Business (CODB)” or “Overhead”. I don’t think there is a way to tell the CODB of a business from the outside, but there are obvious signs that will tell you if they need to make a lot of money to make it through the month, like for example, if they need to pay rent and how many employees they have. If you’re able to find a provider that has an approximately low CODB, it will almost be a guarantee that the cost to cover your windows will be lower.

Customer Service

I have been selling Timber Blinds for a little over 4 years and they have ALWAYS been very responsive to my clients and their needs. 

To be honest, out of the top of my head, I can’t remember specific details of the times I’d have to interact with their customer support team and I don’t want to make up a story and lie about their support, but I am extremely positive that they are very good with their customers and their sellers. What I do remember is never having a negative experience when fixing one of their products or having to deal, in any way, with their support team.

To anyone looking for great treatments in the middle price range, and great customer service, by all means go with Timber Blinds, you won’t regret it.

Ultimate Shutters of America:

I love this brand for different reasons, but mainly because the products that they make are made locally (Houston, TX). I like that their earnings stay within the city and that they employ Houston residents.

This brand is the oldest brand that I work with. I don’t think there’s anything bad to say about them – their products are great, I haven’t had the need of dealing with their customer support because my clients or I have never had any issues with their products and service, and the company is locally owned. I highly recommend them.

Small but awesome product catalog

Ultimate Shutters only make blinds and shutters; they tried to introduce shades but it didn’t work out, but their blinds and shutters are great and also affordable.

Currently, they don’t have a website, or at least the link that I have for them is not working anymore and nothing is pulling up on Google, so the only way to see their products is by having your window treatment provider show you their catalogs.

I don’t know if they also sell their products to other cities and states, but I think they do because they appear to be profitable; who knows?

There is not much to say about Ultimate Shutters (or at least I can’t think of anything else), but they made it to the list! If you are looking to buy window treatments (blinds or shutters), I recommend you ask your provider to see if they work with them. I promise, you won’t regret it.

The Window Outfitters (TWO): cheap but slick

Finally, let me tell you about this interesting brand. The brand started in Australia, but they have made it all the way over to the U.S. 

Out of the three mentioned brands (like we stated in the beginning of the blog) The Window Outfitters is the most affordable one. It is also the most affordable brand that I offer to my clients.

This is also the newest brand added to my list of preferred brands. I got to know them because I got referred to them for an outdoor treatment set that a client was in need of and I didn’t use to sell outdoor shades, but thanks to me being able to find TWO (The Window Outfitters) and getting to know the brand, I started to offer outdoor window treatments to clients.

They also offer treatments for rooms on the inside.

Small Style Selection

TWO offers a small, but great selection of products. They only offer shades and shutters (no blinds) for the inside as well for the outside. 

Not because their selection is small means that their styles are bad, in any way. Also, not because their prices are low means that their products are bad either. 

If you go to their website, you will be able to see their small selection of products they have available. 

I have been using them for a little over a year. I know it’s a very short time to recommend their products, but in my experience in dealing with their people, it has always been good. I have never had a negative experience. 

Also, any of the products that I have sold to my clients, have had any issues, or at least the clients haven’t reported anything. So my trust in them is to remain, and keep growing, as time goes by. 

It only comes to mind the time that I sold some motorized outdoor shades to a client and I installed them and tested them. Because the shades were very big, one of the motors that lifted the shade and lowered it, had not enough power to perform correctly. 

I to contacted the brand support, they responded fast and in about a week, a new motors were sent to replace every motor that came with all of the shades to prevent any other possible problems to happen. 

Side note

If you have an outdoor area and you want to reduce the heat plus the sunlight that comes in, highly consider installing outdoor shades; it makes a great, great, GREAT difference to the area – no joking.