How were wood and yarn woven wood window shades and blinds designed in the 1970s and 1980s? Continuing our coverage of all the New Old Stock retro woven woods still available from Beauti-Vue, here’s an exclusive scan of one of the company’s vintage catalogs that will give interested buyers a whole lot of ideas. Prepare your eyeballs: These shades demand decorators who are not afraid of bold pattern and color — and know how to use it!
Joy (Stormy’s sister) was nice enough to show me one of Beauti-Vue’s vintage catalogs, which was filled with fabulous photos of their retro woven wood window treatments.
Note: You can view the entire catalog in the slideshow at the end of this post.
Adding to the historical interest: Many of the photos in the catalog were taken of actual rooms from Grumbeck family member’s homes. I think Joy, Kristin and Stormy all enjoyed paging through the catalog and reminiscing about the decor featuring their woven wood shades.
Most of the other room shots in the catalog were taken in furniture stores. Stormy says Beauti-Vue would give the furniture store a sample window treatment to use in their floor display as long as Beauti-Vue could come in and photograph the display for their woven woods catalog.
Stormy remembers being slightly upset about the photo above — taken in one such local furniture store. He pointed out that not only to the ceiling panels run diagonally to what would be an outside wall, but also that each window pane had a different, unrelated nature scene in it. “Who would believe this was a real living room?” he remarked.
The woven wood draperies above — which had their own special traverse rods — are no longer available. The rods are no longer available to craft this design.
It looks to me like they might still have some of the woven pattern available from that living room shot above — which might possibly be their Navajo style, one of their more popular patterns back in the day according to Stormy.
And, Beauti-Vue has discontinued production of their cafe style curtains — as well as the awning style valances — as show above.
The company does still offer both Roman shades and roller shades made from their woven woods, which can be personalized with a variety of edging styles — like the scalloped shade above — and trims.
I believe that most of these scallop styles can still be produced, but be sure to check with Beauti-Vue to verify the style you like is still available. Beauti-Vue also has a huge stockpile of retro trims — which we will feature in an upcoming story — that can be used with their retro woven woods.
Also still available — retro woven wood folding doors similar to the vintage catalog photo above, which we will profile in another upcoming story.
Pam has spotted retro woven shades in the wild during her years of estate sales. Here are two stories where some photos are shown:
Mega thanks to Stormy, Joy, Kristin, and everyone at the Beauti-Vue Products Corporation for their patient, welcoming and kind help with this story and all of the stories in our series!
Link love:
- View Beauti-Vue’s entire collection of NOS Retro Woven Woods
- See their price list and ordering information
Read all of our stories about Beauti-Vue’s NOS products
Tips to view slide show: Click on first image… it will double in size on screen … click anywhere to move forward and look for previous and next buttons within photo to move back or forth… you can start or stop at any image:
Becich Joan says
Hi Pam, I am looking to replace my honeycomb cellular blinds installed in 1992 with something period appropriate in the bedroom of my 50’s ranch in Oregon. I found these Beauti-Vue blinds but this post dates from 2015. Do you think these are still available?
I just tried to paste a photo of one I like from your website:
https://retrorenovation.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/BlenweaveChateau.jpg
Thank you!
Joan
Pam Kueber says
yes, contact the company!
Eujenia says
I’m so bummed about them no longer producing the awning valance and cafe curtains! They’d be perfect for my dining room. I’ll have to save up for the duo-fold shade option. I’m loving this find and the series of posts! Thank you!
Joe Felice says
Definitely not my cup of tea, but I do recall they were all the rage from the late ’60s through the early ’80s.
Marie says
When I was in high school I had pattern 453 woven wood roman shades w/scallop valance in my bedroom… Loved them… Good to know they’re still available!!???? great article and quite a groovy home!