How To Pick Window Blinds And Window Shades Based On Your Practical Needs

 

It’s no secret that everybody wants to feel secure and safe in their home. Window blinds and shades influence that feeling directly by providing an extra “privacy blanket” over the windowpanes. Bedrooms and bathrooms call naturally for the most privacy.

Family rooms, study and sitting rooms or kitchens usually call for various privacy levels.

Opaque-type of window blinds (block out light, no-see through) give you the most private feeling. (They are also practical for media rooms.)

 

Sheer-type (almost see-through) to light-filtering materials are the next in line to provide a privacy layer over your windows while allowing the light to come through.

 

Top-Down Bottom-Up choices for certain blinds and shades also give you a layer of privacy because you can lower the upper rail to any height in the window. Or, you can pull up and stack the shade all the way for an almost unobstructed view.

 

 

The three most popular window blinds and window shades that allow for a variable control of light and views are:

 

Horizontal Blinds (wood blinds, faux wood blinds, mini blinds) – you can tilt the slats

Top-Down Bottom-Up - Cellular Shades, Woven Wood Shades, Roman Shades with or without light-blocking and privacy liners

Vertical Blinds – you can rotate the vanes

 

There are also horizontal shadings, or a combination of sheer materials and horizontal slats. When the slats open, there is a sheer material between them.

The timeless classics, and the priciest, are window shutters with movable louvers.

 

 

Solar Cellular Shades and Roller Shades are the way to go. A heat-reflecting add-on for multicell honeycomb shades does the job.
Sunscreen weave roller shades can serve you in a similar way. The roller shades, depending on the material weave count you pick, will also provide you with a limited view to the outside.

 

 

Cordless window blinds and shades are the alternative to consider. If there are no choices for the shades you want, install cord cleats to wrap the dangling cords around them.

 

 

The easiest blinds to clean are faux wood blinds, vinyl blinds, aluminum blinds and, to some degree, wood blinds.

 

Any fabric blinds or shades will be harder to clean if they end up soiled for some reason over and over again.

Therefore, installing fabric blinds or shades in the areas of high traffic, dusty window drafts, around rambunctious children or excited pets, and near kitchen window sinks represents a higher chance of getting hard-to-clean spots on them.

 

 

The structure of your windows controls what blinds or shades you can have.

For inside mounts, the choices you have may be different from what you could mount on the outside of the window. Why? Because inside mounts need a minimum installation depth to accept the headrail. They also need enough unobstructed room for a blind to work as it should.

Irregularly shaped windows give you limited choices of what kind of blinds a manufacturer can make to fit in them. They fall into the category of “specialty products”.

Often, you can save money when you opt for a regular-shape window blind or window shade mounted on the outside of an irregularly shaped window. On the other hand, a custom-made specialty product for an inside mount in the same window may run much higher in price.