“Home is where the heart is” they say, and just like a heart, a home takes work to feel good. Of course, there’s a lot of difference between interior design and psychotherapy, but the comparison is also weirdly apt. You perform labour to remove or change things about a space that either aren’t working for you or actively preventing you from living well. Part of the renovations of your space will likely include window treatments such as blinds. This style of window treatment has been very popular in recent years, but unless you redo your window treatments regularly, you might like some guidance or ideas on what to look for. This is where Blinds and Designers are here to help – either call us on 1300 801 836 or read on to find out more first!
There are a few different designs of blinds out there, and while they all broadly do the same thing, how they achieve it is very different and leads to very different aesthetics. Because of the range of specific design choices on the market, we’re going to use three practical priorities to sort through what’s out there and pick the best option for us.
Understanding how much money you have available is paramount in any renovation effort. You may find roman blinds very attractive, but there’s no use in planning to install them in every room only to find you can’t afford them. With that in mind, here are some ball-park figures that can help you determine how much money to put away for blinds:
There are other types of blinds, but these are the four most common types. Also, consider whether you’re using ready-made blinds that you just have to install, or custom blinds ordered from an artisan. Custom blinds will generally fetch several hundred dollars, as this includes the cost of design, materials, labour, and installation.
The next thing to consider is what colour or shade you want your blinds in. To help make this decision, using a colour wheel would be helpful. The colour wheel is a chart displaying a visualisation of the colours that humanity can see, allowing people to compare colours at a glance. If you want the blinds’ colour to pop and create contrast, then find your wall colour on the colour wheel and choose blinds in the colour opposing it. If, however you want a colour that will compliment your walls and create a calmer space, then choose one of the two colours directly next to your wall colour on the colour wheel.
However, if your walls aren’t a colour, but rather a muted shade like white, beige, or grey, then choosing a shade for your blinds is even simpler. When dealing with shades, it is best to choose blinds that are a shade either directly opposing its saturation, or slightly darker than it. For instance, if you have a white wall, you may choose either black or light grey blinds. If black, follow the same rules but reversed.
Grey walls, however, are special, in that grey works well with nearly any colour or shade you choose. Not only this, but grey has the unique property of reflecting colour, making whatever colours are present in a room more accentuated and brighter, offsetting the cold nature of a grey room.
As the name suggests, blinds restrict the amount of light and heat that enters a room, and some designs of blinds lend themselves better to that than others. For example, roller blinds which consist of a single sheet of material will block out far more light than a Venetian, as the slat design of Venetian blinds means that some light will always be able to get through – even when closed.
Where there is light, there is heat, so be sure to consider this carefully. If you don’t like warmer climates, you might want roller or roman blinds, which offer less control over how much light comes into a room but block out light more effectively. Then again if you want to exert more exact control over how much light gets into a room, then Venetians or vertical blinds might be better for you, as their segmented design and dual pulley mechanism (one to raise/lower the blinds, another to expand/retract the slats) allow you to control the light and heat that enters a room to a more exact degree.
Putting it All Together
So now you know what to prioritise when it comes to considering what blinds to buy for your house, we can use this as a system for whittling down options.
Let’s say for one room, we have a budget of a maximum of $70. This means that the room can either have roman or vertical blinds at the most expensive.
You want the colour to pop and contrast against your walls, and the colour will present clearer on the roman blinds, due to their single sheet design as opposed to the vertical slats.
Finally, you want the room the blinds are going in to be able to get the benefit of midday light, but to also be able to close the windows up fully at night for maximum privacy, meaning that once again, the roman blinds check out because they cover the entire window, whereas the vertical slats may leave gaps people can peek through, even when fully closed.
If you feel like we haven’t quite taken the guesswork out of picking blinds that work for your room then don’t worry, we’re here to help. Blinds and Designers is a premium supplier of designer blinds in Melbourne. Feel free to come down to our showroom in Epping to see what’s on offer. Or you can contact us here for a free measure and quote, or ring 1300 801 836 to speak to us directly and we’ll do all we can for you.