Awnings - Shedding a Little Shade
    from: Buffalo Magazine April 8, 1984

Buffalo may not be renowned for its sunny clime, but there's more than enough sunshine to make it an awning city.

They look festive. They look like fun. They're more colorful than your house dares to be. They say, "Look, it's summer!" They are gaily colored awnings, and they add panache like nothing else.

And not only panache. They can dramatize a deck, turn a sunstruck patio into an oasis of cool.They can shield your windows from the sun. They can give you privacy on a porch and protection from the wind. And all the while, they look just great.

If your house does't lend itself to awnings, then you can havea a bit of bright-colored canvas somewhere - a beach umbrella on the lawn, maybe with some deck chairs or director's chairs. Or, put an umbrella table on your patio. There's a way to show your colors and make your house a summer place.

That's the fun side. Awnings do a job, too. Window awnings can keep a room 8 to 12 degrees cooler in the summer. That's an energy-saving measure woth considering. Awnings are a device used extensively in Europe, even on large, modern office buildings. The glass walls soak up the sun in the winter, but they're fitted with awnings for use in the summer. (A lighthearted look our cities could copy!)

While awnings are still basically canvas, as they always were, a variety of materials are used today. There's the old standard cottom duck, now with a painted acrylic surface to provide protection and color. Then there's cotton duck with a colored vinyl coating, which is used for most commercial installations.

The most exciting fabric, the "dynamic" fabric, says Marty Kohler of Kohler Awning, Kenmore Avenue, is a 100 percent woven acrylic in which the color goes right through to the underside. And that's more decorative, of course, as you sit under it.

The new acrylic provides the same protection as the old-type fabrics, but it has the added advantage of translucence, especially in the lighter colors, so there's more light underneath. It's often installed as a pation awning when the pation doors and windows provide the only like to the room inside.

The acrylics stay clean longer beacause they are non-absorbent. And they also wear longer - about twelve years, manufacturers say, as opposed to the eight to ten you can expect from other fabrics.

The fabric "sells itself" Marty Kohler says, in spite of the fact that it is the most expensive. It is available in 35 colors. The lightest are the most popular beacuase of their translucence.

The canvases are available in earth tones these days - brown, gold, tan - as well as in the traditional, vivid shades of yellow, orange, red, blue, green.

But there are other awning materials as well. Art Nik of Central Awning Co., Cheektowaga, praises the durability of fiberglass and aluminum awnings, which come in a variety of solid colors.

Sunset Awnings in Lancaster specializes in aluminum models, which come in both solid colors and stripes. Joseph Ferrante, owner of Sunset, says aluminum is cooler than canvas, is no more expensive than canvas and saves the owner the trouble of dismantling and storing awnings for the winter. His store sells custom-made as well as pre-cut awnings, plus kits that allow customers to save money by assembling the awnings themselves.

Whether canvas or aluminum, fancy or plain, awnings themselves remain popular. They're one of the few items in home furnishings not subject to the whims of fashion.

Even their construction is a traditional affair. Most are custom-made. While awnings are available "off the shelf," the made-to-order ones offer better quality and more secure construction, says Roger Long of Canvas World, Williamsville, which also sells the new acrilycs - and boasts more than 100 colors.

Along with making commercial and residential awnings and canopies, covers for director's chairs, deck chairs and anything else you want made from canvas, stores also sell canvas by the yard - and everything from 18-ounce floor decking (a big item in this city of porches, both upper and lower) to 8-ounce enameling cloth or artist's canvas.

But if you're thinking of running up something yourself, proceed with caution - even the lightest weight is a bit heavy for home sewing machines.