The shape is why you bought the house.
Arches, gables, angles, and circles are the windows that make a room. They are also the ones most companies quietly box over with a rectangle.
Cut to the shape, not across it.
There is an easy answer to a shaped window, and it is to hang a square treatment over the whole opening and lose the shape entirely. It is cheaper, it is faster, and it undoes the one detail the architect put there on purpose.
The harder answer is to template the opening and have the treatment made to it, so the arch stays an arch and the rake stays a rake. That is the work, and it is most of what this page is about.
If it has a shape, we can fit it.
Arched
A half-round or a soft segment above a square window. Covered with a shade or a shaped shutter cut to the curve, or left open with the treatment below the springline.
Angled and raked
A window whose head follows the roof, including trapezoids. The treatment is cut on the same diagonal, so the top edge sits parallel to the slope and the bottom still runs level.
Circular and porthole
Full circles, half circles, ovals, and octagons. A shutter built to the exact outline, usually fixed, because the shape is the point.
Triangular and gable
The peak above a wall of glass. Cut to both slopes, so the treatment reads as part of the gable rather than a box hung under it.
Eyebrow and elliptical
A shallow curve, wider than it is tall. The hardest outline to get right, because a small error in the sweep is obvious from across the room.
French doors
Shutters built for the door itself, with cutouts that clear the handles and locks so the doors open and close exactly as before.
Corners and bays
Not a special shape, so any treatment works here: shades, drapery, or shutters. Each face is measured separately so the treatments close cleanly at the post.
Most shaped work is done in plantation shutters or cellular shades, with drapery below the springline.
Five questions that settle it.
The first question and the one that decides everything else. A fixed panel follows the shape perfectly. An operable one has to move, and movement wants straight lines.
On an arch or a gable there is a line where the shape meets the square part beneath it. Treating the two separately almost always looks better than forcing one treatment over both.
Everything we offer is custom, so there is no fixed list of shapes. Some products suit some openings better than others, and the designer walks you through those choices at the consultation.
Shaped windows are usually high ones. If it is out of reach, it is either fixed or motorized, and deciding that at the measure is cheaper than deciding it afterward.
A shaped opening is templated, not measured. We take a physical pattern off the window so the curve or the angle is transferred exactly rather than calculated from numbers.
Sometimes the right move is to leave it bare.
Not every shaped window needs covering. Three cases where we will tell you to leave it alone, and what to do instead.
A gable or clerestory that never takes direct sun is doing no harm. Covering it costs money, loses the light, and hides the shape. We would rather treat the windows below it properly.
Nobody is looking through a window sixteen feet up. If the only argument for covering it is glare, a solar shade on the glass below usually solves the room without touching the shape.
Where the shape is the reason the room works, we hang the treatment below the springline and leave the curve open. You keep the architecture and still control the light at eye level.
A high window is a different question.
A tall or out-of-reach window is not a special shape, and it can take anything we offer: shades, drapery, or shutters. If you want the treatment to actually move up there, a motor is the only practical way to work it.
Lutron is our premium motorization option for shades and drapery tracks: quiet, precise, and made to work with the rest of the home.
About motorizationBefore you ask us.
Can an arched window be operable? +
The arch itself, rarely. A shaped shutter panel can hinge, but it is never as clean as a fixed panel. Most of the time the arch is fixed and the square window below it does the work.
Will it cost more than a normal window? +
Yes. A shaped opening is templated rather than measured and built to a pattern, so there is more labor in it before anything is cut. The quote states it separately so you can see what the shape is costing you.
What if the arch is not a true half-round? +
Most of them are not. Segmental arches, flattened curves, and arches that are slightly out are all normal, which is exactly why we take a physical template instead of trusting a radius.
Can you match the shaped panel to the rest of the room? +
Yes, and you should. The shaped piece and the square treatment below it are specified together in the same material and finish, or the join is the first thing anyone sees.
What does it cost? +
There is no honest answer to that before we have seen the opening. The consultation and the written quote are both free, and for a shaped window the visit is the only way to price it.
Shapes, in real rooms.
Every one of these was templated off the opening. Not one of them is a rectangle hung across something more interesting.
How it works.
Four steps, one team, and no surprises at the end of it.
A short conversation about the shaped windows, which ones take the sun, and whether they need to open.
A designer visits and takes a physical template off every shaped opening, not just a measurement.
The shaped work is itemized separately so you can see exactly what the shape costs.
Our own installers fit and scribe every piece, then take the packaging away.
More on shaped windows.
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Let's design your tomorrow.
Book a free in-home consultation. We will bring the samples, take the measurements, and leave you with a proper quote.