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| Selecting Wood Blinds for Your Home | |
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Wood Blinds & Faux Wood Blinds
Wood window blinds and faux wood blinds may be the most popular window treatment choices- simply because they add an ambience to any décor while providing excellent temperature control and light blocking.
Wood Blinds
Basswood blinds are long established as the premium grade wood for wooden blinds. The bass wood is light, making raising the blinds light and easy. The natural veins also soak up paint and stains more richly, creating a beautiful finished look. Basswood is particularly better suited for stained wooden blinds. Most basswood blinds have a more decorative deluxe valance. Wood blinds should be mainly considered for rooms where there is stable temperature and relatively low humidity to ensure they last a long time. While a bit more costly than other materials, they are an excellent choice when decorating a room because of their timeless beauty and durability.Faux Wood Blinds
If the cost of wood or plantation blinds is too prohibitive a factor, consider the widely available faux wood blinds that have become just as popular (if not more popular) as wood blinds, due to their affordability and authentic appearance. They are even available as faux wood plantation shutters! Faux wood blinds are more stable and less prone to the damaging effects of humidity and temperature fluctuation than authentic wooden blinds. Composite wooden blinds are made either from hardwood pulp and blended with PVC or other resins to give the look of natural wood with some of the durability of polyvinyl blinds. They are available in a wide variety of colors ranging from solid colors to ‘stained’ finishes.Faux wood blinds are the best wood blinds for a bathroom because they come pretreated to resist moisture and heat better than traditional wood blinds. Most composite wood blinds now offer fade-resistant stained or painted finishes that help to prevent cracking, and are also usually made up of recycled materials which are an attractive feature in this environmentally-conscious world. .
Woven Blinds – Reeds, Bamboos and Grasses
Made from select natural woods,
including reeds, bamboos and grasses, woven wood shades are uniquely textured,
adding casual, relaxed looks to any room. When lowered, these woven wood shades
lie flat; when raised, the woven woods hang in even, overlapping folds.
Inspired by cultures around the world, woven blinds complement most any decorating
style-from sophisticated and contemporary to casual and relaxed. The calming influence of these unique natural
materials-rattans and bamboos, grasses and reeds-create a haven when you want
to get away from it all without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
Woven bamboo shades may be customized to include a privacy ‘blackout’
liner that is adhered to the back (outer) side offering substantial sun and
light blockage. Some of the more open weaves of bamboo blinds allow at least a peak through the reeds, and this will allow an airy, island feel and are a good option when you have an excellent view.
General Considerations
Most horizontal wood blinds offer the following configuration options. Be sure to think through these options for each of your windows.
How to tilt the slats?
This option applies to how you would like to tilt your wood blinds. You can tilt the slats by twisting a matching wand (tilt wand) or by pulling cords (tilt cords). The benefit of the wand control is that if you choose to have both your tilt and lift controls on the same side, the wand is less likely to get tangled up with the lift cords. However, many people have tilt cords and lift cords on the same side of there wood blinds without any problem. The tilt cords offer the benefit of controlling the tilt of the wood blinds with one quick, smooth action. Either way you choose, you can't go wrong!Where will the controls be?
You can decide on which sides of your wood blinds you want your tilt control and lift cords. In choosing this configuration, be sure to consider which side of the window is more convenient. If you have to reach over furniture to reach your controls, you may consider changing the control sides. Each wood blind can be configured as follows:- Tilt Left; Lift Cords Left
- Tilt Left; Lift Cords Right
- Tilt Right; Lift Cords Right
- Tilt Right; Lift Cords Left
Custom Control Lengths
Standard control lengths (tilt and lift controls) are made to be about 2/3 the length of the blind. However, if you have a window that is excessively tall or multiple windows on top of each other, you will want to consider specifying custom control lengths. Just measure how long you want the control lengths from the top of the window. If you order on-line, be sure to put this under the "Additional Instructions and Remarks" section of the order form.
Large Windows, Multiple Blinds
Doing multiple wood blinds on one headrail is a great choice for large windows. The headrail is the metal part of the blind at the top (the valance covers the headrail). By ordering your window as two or three blinds on one headrail, you have the benefit of a single headrail and the weight reduction of multiple blinds.One other way of breaking a window into multiple blinds is to order separate blinds for the window. This option is free but you will want to ensure that you specify 1) which blinds hang in the same window 2) to have the factory align the slats 3) that the blinds will share a common valance and 4) total window width.
Available Options
Choosing slat size: most blinds are available in a variety of slat widths. Popular slat width sizes include 1/2-inch (micro), 1-inch (mini), 2-inch, 2-1/2 inch with many manufacturers having variations available. Choosing your window blind slat size is both a matter of personal choice and type of installation or mounting choice you choose. Make sure to visit the guide to window blind measuring for special consideration before choosing your slat size or mounting options. Most wood blind sizes come in a variety of slat size from 1 to 3 inches.Cloth tapes are one of the more popular upgrades for wood blinds. Cloth tapes dress up a window and provide more definitive vertical lines. Standard braided ladders provide a fantastic, open view. The choice is a matter of personal taste and style of the room.
With standard-slat wood blinds, the lift cords pass through a hole called a "route hole" in the middle of the slats. Routless-slat wood blinds utilize a special headrail and lifting system that moves the lift cords to the rear of the slats. The slats are only notched in the back to accomodate the lift cords. This provides for a clean look. One further benefit is that routless slats can be easily removed for cleaning, dusting, or repair.
Standard valances for inside mount wood blinds are made just a little smaller than the ordered window width so that they fit inside the window opening. Outside mount valances are made about 1 or 2 inches wider than the ordered width with returns to cover the brackets. At times, you may need a custom valance width to clear or cover an obstruction.
Bottom rail; a trapezoid-shaped bottom rail is angled, which allows the bottom rail to pivot more easily than a rectangular bottom rail. When the bottom rail pivots more, the slats close tighter-and therefore block more light and energy. Again, it is usually only the basswood blinds that come with that feature.
We hope you have enjoyed this wood and faux wood blind introduction and will find it informative and useful when ordering window treatments for your home.
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