Choosing Blinds And Shades: A Buyers Guide

Oct. 23, 2010 - PRLog -- Blinds are considered "hard" window treatments. They have slats, or vanes, that tilt or angle to control the amount of light entering a room. They can also be fully opened, or pulled up, for an unobstructed view. Today, most blinds come with a rod that twists to tilt the vanes and a pull cord that lifts them. Cords need to be tied back or used with a child safety devise which is normally provided to ensure child safety. Blinds can have horizontal or vertical vanes (narrow ones are often called mini-blinds).
•   Venetian Blinds: This type of blind consists of horizontal slats, and is available in a range of materials including wood, faux wood, aluminium and PVC in a variety of slat width. These blinds are best suited to windows that do not need to have the blind completely out of the way. They can be raised into a neat stack at the top of the widow and lowered down to cover the window fully. Their main feature however is the tilting rod that allows you to tilt the slats whilst the blind is in the closed position. This enables you to limit the exact amount of light and privacy created.

Aluminium and PVC venetian blinds are best suited for bathrooms and wet rooms as they will not be affected by moist conditions that can damage wooden venetian blinds. They are widely available in a huge array of colours, finishes and textures, including wooden effect finishes that provide the best of both worlds.

Venetian blinds offer some security benefits as well as the user can see out of the property whilst obscuring the view of people outside. Furthermore they will present a physical barrier against potential intruders.

•   Vertical Blinds: Blinds that hang vertically offer a fantastic level of light control as the blind can be both traversed across the window and tilted from left to right in order to limit the exact amount of light allowed into the room.

Verticals blinds consist of vains that hang vertically from a headrail each attached to their individual pivot point. Vertical blind vains are available in three different slat widths - 89mm and 127mm which have linking chains at the bottom to keep each vain in its correct position. Vertical blinds are also available in a wider width vain of 250mm. These blinds do not have linking chains at the bottom because they would drag on the floor when the blind was tilted closed due to the larger distance between each vain.

The 89mm and 127mm width vains have traditionally lent themselves to the office environment, French windows and large patio windows. 250mm vertical blind have created another solution as the vains are large enough to create a panelled effect offering themselves as room dividers, full wall coverings and to windows with very deep recesses.

As room dividers 250mm vertical blinds create a distinct look in open plan rooms allowing you the ability to temporarily separate off different areas whilst maintaining the open space through their versatility as they can be stacked neatly out of the way.    

Vertical blinds are available in a range of different materials most commonly polyester amongst other fabric compositions which are available in a wide range of colours and designs. Wooden vertical blinds have become available in recent years. Made from a finger jointed bass wood to avoid warping and twisting that has been attributed to previous methods of manufacturing wooden vertical blinds ensures a light weight and stable composition. The wooden grain effect is created by wrapping the bass wood in a paper laminate similar to one used for laminate flooring. This means that the colour and grains can be reliably manufactured within very tight batch tolerances – A feature that is not possible when using real wood as no two trees are the same.


Window Shades
Shades on the other hand are "soft" window treatments that can be raised or lowered for privacy and light control without sacrificing the view outside. They may be opened from the top down or from the bottom up providing complete light control whilst not sacrificing the view outside.

•   Roller Blinds - A simple roller blind is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to cover a window and are ideal if intended for use solely as a black out in a bedroom. They can be rolled out of the way quickly and discretely when not in use and require relatively little effort to install. Given the current rate at which people currently redecorate houses, these cheap blinds, which can be bought and cut to size in the home, are a very popular choice.
Top Tip - Some suppliers such as www.OrderBlinds.co.uk will trim a readymade roller blind for you. This offers you the chance to buy a made to measure blind at a readymade blind price.

•   Bottom up Blinds – As the name indicates, roller blinds are also available as a blind that pull up from the bottom of the window. This type of blind consists of a cassette which is fixed to the window sill from which the roller fabric pulls out via discreet cords to the top of the window which then feed through pulleys to finally tie off on a cleat at the desired height.
These are a great solution for bathrooms, street level rooms and indeed any room that is overlooked. They provide privacy on the bottom part of the window whilst still allowing the light through the top part of the window.
•   50:50 Roller Blinds – As a less costly alternative to bottom up blinds 50:50 blinds have been designed with a white mesh at the top of the window with an opaque fabric at the bottom. These are a great solution if your window sill isn’t large enough to accommodate the cassette of a bottom up blind or if you don’t want cords and pulleys up and around your window.

•   Roman Blinds – Folded panels of fabric that can be raised and lowered to let in natural light. Roman blinds come in a wide variety of materials, including woven wood and fabric, and are an ideal modern alternative to curtains. Choosing a roman blind consists of a number of factors depending on what you want to achieve. The fabric or material used as the face fabric is available in a huge range of plain colours, patterns, stripes and checks offering a huge array of options to compliment your decor. Once you have chosen your face fabric one of the most important decisions you need to consider is the lining.
You can leave the blind unlined which is an ideal solution if you have chosen a sheer or a voile fabric allowing a greater amount of light into the room compared to the other options. Next are white and cream standard linings that will limit some of the light and provide a level of thermal insulation. This is the most common choice for roman blinds as this type of blind has been traditionally used to compliment curtains meaning the blind doesn’t need to block out all of the light as it is there primarily for decoration. Finally blackout linings will block out all of the light and provide a greater level of thermal insulation compared to standard lining. This application is widely considered as the alternative to using curtains as we mentioned before saving hundreds of pounds as you no longer need to buy both. Other options to consider when buying roman blinds includes interlining the blind for a more luxurious feel as well as creating better thermal insulation.

About the author: Matthew Forde is co-owner and founder of www.orderblinds.co.uk  The place to find venetian blinds, vertical blinds, roller blinds, bottom up blinds, 50:50 blinds, roman blinds and more.

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Order blinds sell a range of made to measure blinds as well as readymade blinds. We offer a comprehensive range of roller blinds, vertical blinds, wooden blinds, venetians blinds, bottom up blinds, and skylight blinds to name a few.