"The absolute best company I've ever worked with! Professional, honest, and reliable."
Jennifer R. • Wesley Chapel
"They completely transformed our living room. The new window treatments are flawless."
David M. • Tampa
"Fantastic communication and lightning-fast installation. I highly recommend them!"
Sarah K. • St. Pete
Old Northeast is one of St. Petersburg’s most beloved neighborhoods, and it has the architectural history to prove it. Walk down any street between 4th Street and the waterfront, and you’ll pass a remarkable variety of historic home styles, Craftsman bungalows with wide front porches and exposed rafters, Tudor Revival houses with their distinctive dark wood and leaded glass windows, Florida Colonial homes adapted for the climate, and the occasional Mid-Century Modern house that sneaked in during the 1950s.
That architectural variety is exactly what makes Old Northeast beautiful. It’s also what makes window treatments in this neighborhood genuinely challenging.
These homes weren’t built to any modern standard. Window openings vary wildly. A Craftsman bungalow from 1925 might have windows that are narrower than today’s “standard” sizes, with thick wooden frames and deeper wall cavities. A Tudor from the 1930s has those characteristic multi-pane windows with their own framing challenges. And the Florida-specific adaptations, more windows, higher ceilings, different exposure patterns, create conditions that a big-box blind store simply doesn’t have experience handling.
A local window treatment store in Old Northeast needs to understand this housing stock intimately. Not just which products exist, but which products work in these specific wall cavities, these specific window shapes, these specific exposures. That’s the kind of knowledge you only build by doing the work in this neighborhood for decades, not by reading a product catalog.
Standard blinds from a home improvement store come in a narrow range of sizes. Widths in two-inch increments. Lengths that correspond to “standard” window heights. Mounting brackets designed for modern drywall or simple window frames.
None of that describes Old Northeast.
In a 1920s Craftsman bungalow, your windows might be 31 inches wide instead of 32. Your window frames are older wood, sometimes uneven, sometimes painted over multiple times, sometimes warped slightly by decades of humidity. The wall depth behind your window might be four inches in one corner and three inches in another. Your window sills might be decorative woodwork that you don’t want to drill into, or original leaded glass frames that you absolutely cannot damage.
When you install standard blinds in these conditions, you’re making compromises from the start. The width is slightly off, so there’s a gap on one side. The mounting brackets don’t sit flush, so the blinds hang crooked. The product depth doesn’t account for your window’s unusual frame, so the blinds don’t operate smoothly. None of these problems are visible in the store. They show up after installation, and they don’t go away.
Custom window shades for Old Northeast are not a luxury upgrade. They’re the practical solution for homes that were never built to accommodate mass-market sizing. When your windows aren’t standard, your blinds shouldn’t be either.
If any window treatment was made for Old Northeast’s architectural character, it’s plantation shutters.
Plantation shutters have been part of American architecture since the colonial era. They appeared on the homes of the southern United States for practical reasons, they let air flow through while blocking direct sun, and over time they evolved into one of the most recognizable and adaptable window treatment styles in residential architecture. In an Old Northeast neighborhood full of Craftsman bungalows, Tudor Revivals, and Colonial adaptations, they fit naturally without forcing an aesthetic.
But not all plantation shutters are created equal, and the difference matters more in a historic home than anywhere else.
The mounting of plantation shutters in an Old Northeast home requires accounting for the specific window frame conditions in these houses, the older wood, the deeper reveals, the sometimes-irregular window openings. We measure every window individually and specify the appropriate mounting system for that specific opening. The result is a shutter that fits properly, hangs level, and operates smoothly from the first day.
For Old Northeast homes near the waterfront, and this neighborhood is close enough to Tampa Bay that salt air exposure is a real consideration, we recommend coastal-grade faux wood shutters. These won’t warp in humidity, won’t rust at the hinges, and won’t yellow in direct sun exposure. For interior applications in climate-controlled spaces, we offer real wood plantation shutters in custom paint and stain finishes that match or complement the home’s existing woodwork.
Old Northeast has a quieter feel than some of the more commercial parts of St. Petersburg, but it’s still a city neighborhood with street noise, early morning light in summer, and the ambient glow of the city that makes true darkness elusive.
Blackout curtains are one of the most practical investments any Old Northeast homeowner can make, and they’re relevant to more rooms than most people initially think.
· Bedrooms — This is the obvious use. If you’ve ever been woken up at 5:30 a.m. by the summer sun streaming through east-facing windows, you already understand why blackout capability matters. But not all “blackout” products actually block light equally. Our lined blackout curtains are tested to block 95 to 99 percent of incoming light, not the 70 to 80 percent that cheaper products claim. The difference is in the lining, a proper blackout curtain has a light-blocking layer bonded to the back of the fabric, not just a thicker material.
· Media rooms and home offices — A room used for television, movies, or computer screens needs controlled ambient light to look and function properly. Standard curtains or blinds don’t cut it. A quality blackout shade or panel eliminates the glare that makes screens hard to see.
· Children’s rooms — Summer daylight hours are long in Florida, and kids sleep better in a genuinely dark room regardless of what time the sun comes up. Blackout curtains in a nursery or child’s bedroom aren’t a luxury, they’re basic sleep infrastructure.
· Street-facing rooms — If your Old Northeast home has windows facing a street, you have headlights at night and early morning light to contend with. Blackout treatments on those windows make a real quality-of-life difference.
Roller shades have a design quality that works especially well in Old Northeast’s more contemporary and minimalist renovations. The clean roll of fabric against a slim cassette housing looks intentional and designed, rather than like an afterthought. In a room where the original Craftsman woodwork is the star, a simple roller shade in a quality fabric stays out of the way and lets the architecture speak.
But roller shades are also a practical workhorse treatment for Old Northeast’s more functional rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, home offices, where light control matters but elaborate window dressing would be excessive.
Our roller shades come in three configurations depending on the application:
· Standard roller shades with chain operation — Simple, reliable, appropriate for most rooms. The continuous loop chain can be positioned on either side of the window and can be customized in length for windows where the standard chain would hang too low. Fabrics range from sheer and translucent to full blackout, depending on the level of light control you need.
· Motorized roller shades — Appropriate for high windows, large windows, and any room where manual operation is inconvenient. The Somfy motor is concealed inside the roller tube, so the exterior appearance is identical to a manual shade. Operation is by wall switch, remote, or smartphone app. For Old Northeast homes with two-story foyers or clerestory windows, motorized roller shades are genuinely transformative.
· Battery-powered motorized shades — For windows where running low-voltage wiring isn’t practical, we offer Somfy’s battery-powered motorization. The battery pack is concealed behind the headrail and typically requires charging two to three times per year. This is the solution for large sliders, arched windows, and other configurations where retrofitting motorization would otherwise be impractical.
Roman shades occupy a unique position in the window treatment world, they have the clean lines of a hard treatment when raised, but they fold into soft, fabric-based panels when lowered. That combination of practical light control and interior design warmth makes them one of the most versatile treatments for Old Northeast living rooms, dining rooms, and master bedrooms.
A quality Roman shade is not a manufactured product that comes out of a box. It’s a custom-made treatment built to your exact window dimensions, in the fabric you select, with the operating hardware specified for your mounting conditions.
The process of selecting a Roman shade for an Old Northeast home typically involves three decisions that matter:
· Fabric weight and type — A heavy linen or woven fabric produces dramatic, architectural folds when raised and provides substantial light-blocking when lowered. A lighter sheer fabric allows diffused light through while maintaining privacy. We bring actual sample books to your home so you can evaluate how different fabrics look in your specific lighting conditions, not just in a showroom.
· Operating mechanism — Standard cord-and-ring systems are reliable and cost-effective. But for windows in children’s rooms or for homeowners who prefer to eliminate dangling cords, we offer cordless operating systems and motorization options that integrate with home automation platforms.
· Mounting approach — Inside-mount Roman shades sit within the window frame and give a built-in appearance. Outside-mount shades hang above the frame and can make a window appear larger by extending above and to the sides. The right choice depends on your window’s depth, the look you want, and whether the window frame has decorative casing that should be visible.
Old Northeast homeowners face a particular challenge that comes with their home’s best features: many of the windows that make these houses beautiful are also the most difficult to operate manually. High placements on stairwell landings. Oversized windows in living rooms with elaborate millwork. Stained glass accent windows that deserve treatment but are awkwardly shaped or positioned.
Motorized blinds installation is the practical solution to exactly this problem, and it’s one of the most genuinely useful upgrades you can make in a historic Old Northeast home.
The technology has matured significantly in the past decade. Modern Somfy motorized blind systems operate reliably, quietly, and with multiple control options, wall switches that look like standard light dimmers, handheld remotes, smartphone apps that work from anywhere, and voice control through Google Home and Amazon Alexa. The motor units themselves are small, concealed, and reliable enough that manufacturer warranties now extend to five years and beyond.
For Old Northeast homes specifically, we often recommend battery-powered motorized systems for retrofit applications. These homes weren’t built with low-voltage wiring pathways, and opening walls to run new wire is rarely practical or desirable in a historic property. Battery-powered Somfy motors solve the motorization problem without any construction, and the battery replacement cycle, two to three times per year for typical usage, is a minor inconvenience compared to the daily convenience of automatic window treatments.
Some Old Northeast windows deserve drapery, not blinds. A living room with tall windows and original woodwork looks wrong with plastic blinds. A formal dining room with east-facing windows needs soft light control that doesn’t compete with the table and chairs. A master bedroom needs to feel like a bedroom, not a hotel corridor.
Custom drapery from a high-end drapery shop is the alternative that solves these problems completely. But high-end drapery is not simply “nice curtains.” It’s a systematic approach to window treatment that includes fabric selection, lining specification, hardware design, and professional installation.
In Old Northeast homes, drapery often serves a secondary architectural purpose, it can unify a window composition that includes irregular window shapes, dormers, or grouped windows that don’t match each other. A well-designed drapery panel can pull all of those elements together visually in a way that separate blinds never can.
Our drapery process begins with a home consultation. We bring fabric sample books, evaluate the window conditions, discuss your goals for the room, and specify the complete treatment, fabric, lining, hardware, and mounting approach. We don’t sell drapery from a catalog. We design and build a window treatment that works in your specific home, in your specific room, for your specific lifestyle.
The best measure of a local window treatment store is what the neighbors say after they’ve lived with the work for a while.
“We bought our 1926 Craftsman bungalow three years ago and the previous owner had those cheap mini-blinds from a hardware store in every room. They were yellowed, the cords were frayed, and half the slats were bent. We had Custom Fabric Creations out for a consultation and ended up doing plantation shutters throughout the main floor and blackout roller shades in the bedrooms. Two years later, we still get compliments from visitors on how the house looks.”
— Homeowner on Clara Avenue, Old Northeast
“I run a short-term rental in Old Northeast and window treatments are one of the first things guests notice. The previous rental had cheap blinds everywhere. We upgraded to their solar roller shades in the main living area and blackout shades in both bedrooms. The place books consistently and guests specifically mention the window treatments in their reviews.”
— Property manager, VRBO host near Crescent Lake
“We have eight windows in our living room, none of them the same size. I was dreading trying to find treatments that would work. They came out, measured everything, and suggested a combination of Roman shades in a linen fabric for consistency and custom drapery panels at the two larger picture windows for impact. The result was better than I’d imagined.”
— Homeowner on Nebraska Avenue, Old Northeast
We’ve been working in Old Northeast for over two decades. We know the streets, the housing styles, the window conditions, and the specific challenges that come with treating windows in a historic neighborhood. We know which products hold up in these specific conditions, which mounting approaches work on these specific window frames, and which treatments make sense for which rooms.
Call (727) 240-4512 or visit customfabriccreations.net to request a free in-home consultation. We come to your home, measure every window, show you actual product samples, and give you a straightforward price. No guessing. No photos from your phone. No sales pressure.
We serve: Old Northeast, St. Petersburg, Crescent Lake, Historic Old Northeast, Downtown St. Pete, and all surrounding Pinellas County communities.
