In the late '80s, my apartment bedroom windows had an immediate need for some sort of covering. By that time, we no longer made our original window shades, so I went to the local DIY store and could only find very mundane solutions such as white tracks, ugly drapes, Venetians, etc. - definitely not what I was looking for.

There was a local custom window shop who offered teleocoping rods with standard finials for over $200 and a three-week wait. We thought, why not make it ourselves, put it in a box, and sell to our retailer base? It would be a convenient cash-and-carry solution at a fraction of the cost.

I had already started Trans-Canada Hardware, which was involved in cutting, plating, and die-casting various metal parts... Read More