Window Treatment Trends: What's In and What's Going Out of Style in Minnesota Homes
The directions we are actually installing in Twin Cities homes this year, room by room, and the dated looks we quietly steer clients away from.
Most trend roundups you find online are written by someone who has never carried a sample book into a real living room. They chase whatever is photogenic on a design feed and skip the part that matters, which is whether the look survives contact with how you actually live. What follows is different. It is the shortlist of directions we are genuinely installing in Twin Cities homes right now, walked through room by room the way we would on an in-home visit, plus an honest read on what is quietly dating and why we steer people away from it.
The through-line for the current moment is calm, layered, and hands-off. People want windows that feel soft and finished rather than fussy, textures that read natural rather than glossy, and controls that disappear so nobody is wrestling a cord. That plays especially well in a Minnesota home, where you are managing hard winter light, long dark evenings, and a stretch of high summer sun all in the same set of rooms.
What is the new trend for window coverings
If there is one shift driving everything else this year, it is that the controls are disappearing. Motorized and cordless shades are the biggest change we see, and it is not a novelty anymore. Cordless lift is now the default we recommend for child and pet safety, and full motorization has moved from a splurge to a genuinely common request, especially on the tall stairwell and great-room windows so many south metro homes have that nobody could reach comfortably anyway. Being able to set a whole bank of shades to lower against the low winter sun at the same time, or open together in the morning, is the kind of small daily convenience people stop being able to imagine living without.
The second big direction is layering. A single flat treatment on a window is starting to look unfinished to a lot of people, and the current instinct is to combine a functional shade for light and privacy with a soft drapery panel framing it. That layered look adds depth and warmth, it lets you control light in stages rather than all-or-nothing, and in a cold climate the extra fabric earns its keep at the glass. The rest of what is trending, natural textures and warm neutral color, sits on top of these two structural moves.
What are the most popular window coverings right now
Room by room, here is what is actually going in. In living rooms and great rooms, the popular setup is a clean roller or cellular shade paired with drapery, so the shade does the working job and the panels do the styling. Layered drapery over shades is the request we field most often for these bigger, more visible spaces, because it reads intentional and it flatters a tall window. In bedrooms, room-darkening and blackout shades stay the practical favorite, and pairing them with a soft panel to seal the edges is increasingly the norm rather than the upgrade.
Texture is the other big popularity story. Natural woven textures, the woven-wood and grass-cloth family of shades, are having a real moment in dining rooms, sunrooms, and any space where people want warmth and a bit of organic character without heavy pattern. They filter light in a way that feels golden rather than flat, which suits a Minnesota room that goes dark early. On the color side, warm neutrals have clearly taken over from the cool grays that dominated the last several years. Think soft creams, oatmeal, warm greige, and gentle earth tones that make a room feel settled instead of stark.
The last popularity note is scale. Oversized, floor-length drapery is winning over short, sill-length panels almost everywhere it can fit. Hanging the rod high and letting the fabric run to the floor makes a window look taller and a ceiling feel higher, and it is one of the simplest ways to make a builder-standard room feel custom. If you want to see the current directions side by side, you can browse current shade styles and get a feel for the textures and opacities before we ever visit.
What window treatments are going out of style
The honest part. Some looks are on their way out, and pretending otherwise does not help anyone furnishing a room they will live with for years. Heavy swag-and-jabot valances, the elaborate draped-and-cascading toppers, look dated in a modern or transitional room now. Simpler tailored valances and clean cornices still have a place, but the ornate, layered swag reads distinctly of an earlier era. If you have them and love them in a traditional room, keep them. If you are updating, they are the first thing we usually retire.
Cheap vertical blinds on a patio door are the other clear casualty. They clack, they warp, they lose vanes, and they announce builder-grade the second you walk in. People still need a sliding-door solution, they just want a better one, which is the next question below. And builder-grade aluminum mini-blinds, the thin bent-and-dented slats that came with the house, are being replaced almost everywhere. They were a cost decision, not a design one, and once a homeowner sees the difference a proper shade or a wood blind makes on even one window, the aluminum tends to come down room by room. None of this is about chasing fashion. It is that these three specifically look and feel cheaper than the rooms people are building around them now.
How to bring the trends into your own rooms
You do not have to adopt all of this at once, and you should not. The move that gives the biggest visual return for the least effort is usually going floor-length on the drapery in your main living space and hanging the rod high. After that, replacing whatever dated or builder-grade treatment bugs you most, often a patio door or a stairwell window, tends to reset the whole room.
Where an in-home visit actually matters is matching the trend to your light and your walls, because a look that photographs beautifully in someone else's south-facing sunroom can fall flat on your north wall. We bring the samples to you, hold the woven textures and the warm neutrals against your own paint and your own daylight, take every measurement ourselves, and tell you honestly which of these directions will look right in your home and which will not. That is the difference between a room that follows a trend and one that just feels like yours.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I put up instead of blinds?
Plenty, and most of it looks better and lasts longer than the blinds you are replacing. For a soft, current look, roller shades and cellular shades give you a clean flat surface with none of the slats-and-cords clutter, and cellular adds real insulation on a cold Minnesota window. If you want warmth and texture, natural woven-wood shades bring an organic character that dated aluminum mini-blinds never could. In a living room or bedroom, layering a shade with drapery panels is the most popular upgrade right now, since it adds depth and lets you control light in stages. On a patio door specifically, the current answer is usually a panel-track shade, a vertical cellular shade, or drapery on a wide track rather than old-style vertical blinds. Which one fits depends on the window and how you use the room, and that is exactly what we sort out in a free in-home consultation.
Should blinds be darker or lighter than walls?
There is no single rule, but here is how we guide it in practice. Shades or blinds close to your wall color, a shade or two lighter or darker in the same family, make a room feel calm, cohesive, and larger, and it lets the window recede so your furniture and view do the talking. That soft, tonal approach fits the warm-neutral direction that is popular right now and is the safe, timeless choice for most rooms. Going noticeably darker than the wall makes the window a deliberate frame and adds contrast and drama, which can look great in a room that wants a focal point but can also chop up a small space. Going much lighter than a darker wall keeps things airy. Our usual advice: for a serene, current look go tonal with the wall, and save strong contrast for a room where you genuinely want the windows to stand out. We will hold the actual fabrics against your paint during a consultation so you can see it rather than guess.
Are motorized shades worth it, or is it just a trend?
For the right windows they are worth it well beyond the trend, and for others they are a nice-to-have you can skip. Motorization earns its place fast on windows that are hard or unsafe to reach, like tall stairwell and great-room glass, and on a bank of windows you want to move together against the sun. The convenience of scheduling shades to lower against the low winter afternoon sun or open in the morning is the part people tell us they would not give up. Cordless lift, which is a simpler cousin of full motorization, we now recommend as the default on most jobs for child and pet safety regardless of style. Whether full motorization makes sense for a given room is something we walk through honestly during an in-home visit.
Do you offer free consultations to plan updated window treatments?
Yes. We offer a free in-home design consultation and a shop-at-home option, so you can hold real samples of the current textures, colors, and opacities against your own windows, walls, and light before deciding anything. We measure every window ourselves, note which direction each faces, and recommend the mix of shades and drapery that fits how you actually use each room. Call 952-895-0618 to schedule.