Roman window shades are highly customizable, durable and elegant, making them a great choice for any room in your home. They have clean lines, and depending on your chosen style, these window coverings can add softness to a room with hard features such as cabinets and flooring to balance it out. However, to ensure their longevity and keep them looking their best, it is crucial to maintain clean and fresh linen roman shades. This article provides valuable insights and practical tips to clean and maintain linen roman shades effectively.
Understanding Linen Roman Shades
When you are choosing a fabric for your Roman shades, you should decide on one that works well with this type of window treatment. When the shade is closed, it can appear like a flat sheet of fabric or have soft folds. When you raise the shade, it creates neat and tidy folds in the fabric that are at the top of the window. With this being said, you can imagine that you need a fabric type that doesn’t wrinkle or crease easily.
Linen, cotton, and polyester/ cotton blends are the fabrics of choice for Roman shades. Linen is lighter, and it creates less stress on the head rail at the top of the window so that it won’t wear out the lifting mechanism prematurely. Linen fabric is also more transparent, allowing some filtered light to enter the room even when it is closed. Linen is a natural, breathable fabric made from flax fibers to remain durable for many years to come.
Preparing For Cleaning
Before you clean your linen Roman shades, inspect them thoroughly to assess if they only need a routine cleaning or something more involved in removing discoloration or stains on them. Pay special attention to the folds on your shades and the top and bottom of them where debris, dust, and pollen are most likely to accumulate. Check the manufacturer’s label for cleaning instructions.
Get your cleaning supplies together, such as a feather duster, microfiber cloth, and a vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment. You can use any of these three items to clean off the dust about once a week. Lower your linen Roman shades completely and pay special attention to the folds. If your shade has tassels, embroidery, fringes or quilting, use a feather duster instead of the vacuum cleaner so you don’t pull your embellishments off the shade while cleaning it.
Dry Cleaning vs. Hand Washing
Linen is a great material for your shades because you can simply remove the top head rail and the dowels from the shades and then simply launder them in your washing machine at home. Use a delicate cycle and cold water and lay them flat until dry before reassembling them and hanging them back up. To accelerate the drying process, you can turn a fan on low and position it to blow on them.
If your shades have tassels, embroidery, or other embellishments, washing them at home is not advisable. But you can take them to a dry cleaner for them to deep clean them for you.
Spot Cleaning for Stains
Check the manufacturer’s label with the care instructions before attempting to clean off any discolored area or stain. Always use the mildest cleaning solution possible. Try blotting the fabric with plain water on a microfiber cloth; if this doesn’t work, add a few drops of mild detergent to water, dip your cloth in it, and wring it out, so it’s barely damp. Blot the stain or discolored area with this solution. You can also try a few other cleaners in this order, including stain removers, white wine vinegar, Borax, and water, and use a soft brush to scrub the spots gently. Leave your linen Roman shades closed until it is completely air dry.
If you have ink or marker stains on your linen Roman shades, you will need an alcohol-based solvent to clean the oil-based inks. You can blot the stain with hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, or an acetone nail polish remover.
Use a stain remover pen to erase the stain off your shades for food and beverage stains. To remove oil and grease stains that may occur in the kitchen, cover the area of the stain with mild dish detergent and let it sit for about 10 minutes, then use an old toothbrush dipped in water to scrub the stain out.
If your shade has mildew or mold on it, brush any loose spores off the linen first. Then apply a solution of 1 part white vinegar and 4 parts water to the area. Allow it to soak for about 10 minutes, and then dip a cloth in water, wring it out, and rub the soiled areas to remove the mold and mildew.
Drying and Maintenance
Never put your linen Roman shades in your home clothes dryer. The fabric can shrink, and it will lose its shape. Also, many Roman shades have a liner on them, which may also not fit correctly if you dry them. Instead, lay the shade on a flat surface or hang it on a clothesline outside to dry.
After your linen Roman shades are clean and completely dry, reattach the head rail and dowels to the shade and hang them back up in the window frame. You can then spray a waterproofing product on your shade in a light coating, so it will resist getting stains again in the future.
Conclusion
Keeping your linen Roman shades clean by removing dust and allergens weekly makes your process of deep cleaning them once a year much easier. Make certain to read the label on your shades to see if you can put them in the washer or if you need to have them dry-cleaned yearly. Remove stains as soon as possible so they don’t set in, using the right products. Not only does having clean shades make them look nicer, but it preserves the fabric better, so they will last longer.
If you’re in Tucson and in need of high-quality linen Roman shades for your windows, it’s time to take action and schedule a consultation with Desert Window Blinds today. Doing so gives you access to expert advice, a wide range of options, and personalized solutions tailored to your specific needs.
