Horizons or Pro Design? A Trade Guide to Specifying Natural Woven Shades

For design-driven projects that call for layered treatments, custom fabrication, and a single-source look, Horizons is the stronger specification. For volume woven shade work where lead times, stock reliability, and margin drive the decision, Pro Design wins.

Both brands produce quality woven shades from bamboo, grasses, jute, and reeds. But they're built on opposite business models, and that shapes everything from your quoting timeline to your callback rate. Here's how the two lines actually compare when you're the one responsible for the install date, plus guidance on matching each brand to the right project type.

Two Suppliers Built on Opposite Models

Horizons is a heritage design house.

It has roots back to 1891, hand fabrication in Waukegan, Illinois, and a catalog that reads like a designer's wish list. Pro Design launched in 2007 and rebuilt the woven shade supply chain from the ground up, integrating raw material processing, fabric weaving, and finished shade production into one operation.

Neither model is wrong. They just answer different questions. Horizons answers "can you build exactly what my client is picturing?" Pro Design answers "can you deliver forty shades on schedule without a back order derailing my punch list?"

Where Horizons Earns Its Premium

Horizons is the line to reach for when the design vision leads the project. The catalog spans natural woven shades, custom drapery, Roman shades, roller and solar shades, padded top treatments, and decorative hardware cut to width, so a designer can specify an entire window package from one source and know the pieces were made to work together.

The customization depth is the real differentiator for trade work. Hundreds of fabrics, a Customer's Own Material program for when the client's fabric is non-negotiable, and fabrication that accommodates unusual sizes and shapes without value-engineering the design. Specialty applications that would get a polite decline elsewhere are standard work here.

Plan around the trade-offs. Built-to-order fabrication means longer lead times, and pricing sits at the top of the category. Quote accordingly, set client expectations early, and don't put Horizons on the critical path of a hard deadline without padding.

Where Pro Design Earns Its Place on Your Vendor List

Pro Design does one category and does it with unusual operational discipline. Because shades are produced where the fabrics are woven, the brand carries lower inventories with fewer out-of-stock fabrics, which for you means fewer back orders and fewer awkward calls to a client about a delayed install.

The finished shade programs, Walden Premier and Cambrai, cover a broad pattern range across bamboo, reeds, jute, paper, and woven blends. Pro Design also sells cut fabric and rolls through its Pro Design Select program, useful for workrooms and fabricators handling their own production. Worth knowing, too, that the company built the exclusive Inspired Shades collection for Budget Blinds, which tells you it understands dealer programs and repeatable, sellable specs.

For multi-unit work, model homes, and whole-house packages, that combination of price point, pattern depth, and delivery reliability is hard to argue with.

Specification Comparison

	Horizons	Pro Design
Model	Heritage design house, hand fabrication	Vertically integrated woven specialist
Catalog	Woven shades, drapery, Romans, rollers, hardware	Natural woven shades and fabrics
Customization	Deep, including COM and specialty shapes	Strong within the woven category
Lead times	Longer, built to order	Shorter, fewer back orders
Price tier	Premium	Mid to upper-mid
Fabric supply	350+ fabrics plus COM	Finished shades plus cut fabric via Select
Best fit	Design-led residential, layered packages	Volume projects, multi-unit, quick-turn installs

Matching the Brand to the Project

A designer-led custom home in Windermere with layered drapery over natural shades in the primary suite is Horizons work. The single-source package protects the design intent, and the client is paying for exactly that.

A 30-window model home package, a boutique hotel refresh, or a production builder's design center program leans Pro Design. You protect margin, you protect the schedule, and the finished product still photographs beautifully.

One Central Florida note that applies to both. Natural fibers filter our punishing west sun rather than block it, so spec privacy or blackout liners on west-facing elevations. Both brands support lining, and it's cheaper to add at order than to retrofit after the client complains.

Stop Absorbing Supplier Risk on Your Projects

Every window treatment line you specify puts your name on someone else's lead times, stock levels, and quality control. When a shipment slips, the client doesn't call the manufacturer. They call you.

VU Window Treatments has supplied and installed for Central Florida builders, designers, and commercial clients since 1984, and we know which lines deliver on which promises.

Talk to our trade team about your next project and get brand recommendations backed by four decades of installs, not a catalog page.