Metal Vs. Fabric Awnings

You’ve decided to transform your home with new awnings. Now comes the hard part, deciding which awning is right for your home and your lifestyle. Should you go with a metal awning or would a fabric awning better suit your needs? Would a retractable be the perfect fit for your patio or should you go with a patio awning? And what about those hundreds of color options for fabric awnings? Should you choose a textured, striped or solid fabric?

That’s quite a list of questions! Fortunately, we have the expertise to help you answer them.

Metal awnings come in a variety of shapes and sizes but for residential purposes, we generally talk about patio covers, window awnings, and door awnings in metal.

Metal door and window awnings are becoming more prevalent for residential homes. They offer a unique, modern look for your home and are a durable, easy to clean, and long-lived awning option.

Fabric awnings offer a wide variety of types and styles to choose from. From patio awnings, to retractable awnings, to window and door awnings, the choices can be vast!

Patio awnings are a simple, affordable shade solution for your deck or patio. You can choose from a wide selection of fabric colors to enhance the curb appeal of your home. Fun fact: the temperature feels about 15 degrees cooler under one of our patio awnings. Just imagine feeling 15 degrees cooler on a 90-degree southern summer day!

Fabric door and window awning options offer curb appeal and energy savings. They can keep your home cooler in the summer, meaning decreased cooling costs for you. As an additional bonus, they offer sun protection to keep flooring and furniture from fading. These awnings come in a wide variety of styles including traditional, dome, convex, and concave. Add in at least six different valance style options and with hundreds of fabric color options to choose from and you can see that these awnings can be custom made to easily fit the style of your home.

Our last, but certainly not least, fabric awning option is the retractable awning. We will let you in on a little secret: this is one of our favorite awnings and it is absolutely perfect for your back patio or deck. A retractable awning, which is sometimes referred to as a roll-out awning, can be extended for shade or retracted for those days when you want to enjoy a little sun. If you choose a motorized retractable awning you can go from sun to shade in about 60 seconds with just the touch of a button! There are so many different styles and hundreds of fabric options available to help you customize this very versatile awning. One of the advantages of a retractable awning is the longevity of the awning fabric. Because the fabric is protected when the awning is not in use, the fabric on a retractable can last from 10 to 12 years before it needs to be replaced. On standard patio, door, and window awnings, you can expect the fabric to last for about 6 to 10 years before you will want to do a fabric recover.

So, we shared our little secret about retractable awnings being one of our favorite awning types. Guess what? It’s one of our customer’s favorites too! What else is popular in awnings for 2020? We have some information straight from the experts in our sewing and fabrication rooms. Traditional style awnings for doors and windows have been a customer favorite for years and retractables have seen a real resurgence in popularity in the last few years.

Black is the most popular fabric color for awnings, surpassing Forest Green which was the most popular color for years. Marine Blue has also become a very popular color in the last year. It is a vibrant blue with deep purple undertones which gives it a very rich color. Striped fabrics are a particularly popular choice for retractable awnings. Two hugely popular stripes are Motive Denim which is a blue stripe as well as Henna Fern Vintage, a green and burgundy stripe which

If you still feel a bit overwhelmed with all the awning choices out there, we have over 30 years of experience in custom designing and fabricating awnings, and we are always happy to answer any and all of your questions.