Window Works, 973-535-5860; windowworks-nj.com
Working with this New Jersey–based company is as close as it gets to hiring an interior designer like herself, says Lauren Simone. If you don’t know a thing about shades, the team will happily detail the pros and cons of every possible permutation. “You can either have a very specific vision and want something highly customized and your own fabric or be like, ‘I have no idea where to start or what would look good,’” she says. The staff are honest and detail oriented, adds interior designer Darci Hether: “They don’t strong-arm you into buying motorized blah, blah, blah, with all the bells and whistles, to up the price.” A simple custom roller shade can start at $400, while fully dressing the same window with a flat-fold, blackout-lined Roman shade and decorative hardware could range from $2,000 to more than $5,000. Hether recently hired the company to swap Shade Store shades for personalized ones in a client’s Greenwich home and found the team’s technical expertise particularly impressive. Another time, she had to find shades for two windows that met in a corner with moldings at the top. The Window Works rep was unfazed by the task. “They’ve seen everything, so they know when a wood product would work better than, say, a cell shade or a roller,” says Hether.