Your choice of window blinds instantly makes or breaks the look of a room. Depending on the style or location, blinds can drastically reduce the amount of light from outside or brighten a space.
When choosing the best blinds for your home, they should work in harmony and balance with the walls, floors, furniture, and accent pieces in a room. We’ll cover significant points that will influence your final decision.
How to Choose the Best Blinds
Blinds are an inexpensive and stylish way to dress up windows. However, you may consider one set of blinds over another because of the following factors.
- Low-maintenance cleaning
- Longevity
- Performance
- Ease of installation
- How it complements your existing decor
Overall, these features are not the primary reason you select blinds for your home. We focused on window coverings that emphasize lighting and privacy needs, overall style, construction material, and standard operation.
Lighting and Privacy
Whether you live in a home or apartment building, window blinds are an excellent way to control lighting indoors and outdoors and provide a layer of privacy.
Depending on the layout of your abode, there may be problems with lighting from outdoors. Unwanted light can interfere with sleep or the enjoyment of your space. Installing room darkening blinds would be a bright idea to reduce a lighting nuisance.
When a room like a bathroom, kitchen, or odd corner space could use an increase in natural light, sheer fabric blinds or rolling blinds are a suitable choice. There are also blinds designed to filter in light to brighten up a room in a range of neutral colors.
Roman blinds are an excellent blend of timeless style and modern sensibility. When this style of blind is linen or cotton, it gently diffuses light without being 100% translucent.
Don’t forget about opaque window coverings that adjust for lighting and privacy when covering a glass door leading to an entry point. Look for blinds that can drop from the top or lift from the bottom to let in light.
Convenient and Safe Operation
Window treatments like blinds should offer an effortless style and be easy to operate with little to no problems. Think about how windows for blinds are a child and pet-friendly option, especially if motorized, cordless, or controlled via a smart device.
When there are elderly adults or persons in a home living with mobility challenges, it may become difficult to adjust traditional blinds with a cord manually. Also, there may be fears about tangled cables, damaging blinds and window coverings, or potential accidents.
Choose a style of modern blinds that fits a home’s existing style but is convenient and safe to operate. No one should feel uneasy about the blinds in their home or struggle with slats that quickly become warped, dented, or refuse to move beyond one position.
Smart blinds are an increasingly popular investment in homes, as they increase the market value and are a desirable feature.
A homeowner has peace of mind with motorized blinds, or window blinds that are adjustable at set times using a smartphone app or device. Also, there is the novelty factor of having blinds open and close in sync with music, to rouse from bed, or when away on vacation.
Style
Presentation is everything, and the style of your window blinds immediately sets the mood and tone in a room. Imagine the possibilities with traditional Plantation shutters with wide-set wooden slats in a kitchen or dining room. Think about how wood blinds, vertical blinds, or panel blinds beautifully accent a living room or home office.
When choosing blinds for your home, it is possible to find a stylish, functional solution that looks beautiful for years. Consider how the type of material used for blinds will impact the lighting, color, and ambiance in the room. Choose from sheer fabrics, sturdy lightweight wood, aluminum, vinyl, or pleated cellular.
It’s important to consider how different blinds offer varying levels of privacy and diffuse the light. Areas in a home that get heavy sun exposure and heat need blinds that can withstand the pressure. Faux wood, aluminum, and plastic blinds may not always be suitable window treatments when extreme temperatures are present.
Natural, untreated wooden blinds are better for living rooms, bedrooms and dens rather than kitchens and bathrooms. Also, don’t forget that fabric shades aren’t always a temporary option, as they look lovely over skylights or in front of glass doors and windows.
Material
Bring texture and contrast into your home using various materials for blinds and window covers. Depending on the lighting needs in a space, consider installing bamboo or vinyl micro blinds, pleated fabric shades, or even folding honeycomb shades that adjust from the top or bottom.
For households where allergens are a concern, certain materials are easier to keep clean via wiping down with a damp cloth or running a vacuum attachment over slats. Certain materials like treated wood can better withstand moisture in kitchens and bathrooms. It may be better for outdoor spaces and entry points to choose wood, metal, or vinyl blinds over a sheer fabric or cellular shades.
Consider the amount of maintenance needed to keep blinds clean and in good repair. And don’t forget to factor in how much light window coverings filter, the ease of installation, and product lifespan.
Typically, most blinds will last seven to eight years before they need replacing. However, a homeowner may want to redecorate and upgrade their window blinds before they are no longer trending.
Choose Your Perfect Blinds with All About Blinds & Shutters
Choosing the best blinds is easy when you know what features matter the most to you. Find a few key points that will help guide your decision, whether you need traditional shutter style blinds, adore sheer fabrics, or want a simple solution.
Overall, blinds are an inexpensive and timeless way to dress windows, allotting for sufficient light filtering while providing an extra layer of security from prying eyes. The style and material of window blinds will influence your cleaning schedule, their performance and longevity, and how it fits into your home’s aesthetics.
