What a Whole-Home Project Looks Like: Inside a Winery Vacation Rental Install

Some projects are one window. This one was the whole house. A high-end winery in Arroyo Grande that uses part of the property as an on-site vacation rental, and wanted blackout drapery throughout, room by room, guest-ready from day one.

Whole-home projects like this are a good way to walk through what actually happens once you decide to move forward, since the process is the same whether it's one room or an entire property. Just repeated more times.

Step 1 — The Walkthrough

I go through every room that needs coverage, noting light direction, window shape, and what each specific space needs to accomplish: a guest bedroom that needs true blackout for sleep is a different problem than a tasting room that needs to look elegant during the day.

Step 2 — Measuring and Material Selection

Every window gets measured individually, even in a whole-house job. Nothing gets treated as "the same as the last one" without actually confirming it.

Step 3 — Fabrication

Custom pieces are built to those exact measurements. This is the stage that takes the longest, and the stage that off-the-shelf products skip entirely.

Step 4 — Installation

For a project this size, installation happens in stages, room by room, so the property can stay in use as much as possible throughout.

Why It Matters for a Vacation Rental Specifically

Guests notice details a homeowner might not, true blackout for a good night's sleep is often the difference between a five-star review and a mediocre one. That raised the bar on this job in a good way.

Getting Started

Whether it's one room or a whole property, the process starts the same way: a walkthrough and a conversation about what each space actually needs.