All about blinds

When the cold season finally gives way to sunny and warm days, you always want to keep the cool and comfortable atmosphere in the room. Hinging the windows with thick curtains, you can, on the contrary, find yourself in an even more stuffy room, but there is a great alternative - to install blinds on the windows.

Initially, blinds were considered an office option, but today it is one of the most popular and practical light-protective options for the home. In this regard, a large variety of materials and types of blinds for ordinary windows.

This device has many advantages and advantages over curtains and curtains:

• Blinds, unlike curtains, do not accumulate dust inside themselves, tBy doing so, the air in the room will be much cleaner, and the surface itself can be simply wiped with a damp cloth every two months.Due to the presence of individual lamellae, the air will not stagnate in the room, but will circulate freely.
• Pleasantly please and price. Buying fabric or ready-made curtains on the windows will be much more expensive, because, besides them, you need to purchase a cornice on which the curtains will be hung. Plus to all, they get both tulle for the daytime and thick curtains for the evening time. Blinds are much more functional, they can be used both day and night.

There are no drawbacks as such, but there are a number of features. If they are saturated with PVC, it is better to refrain from buying them. When heated, they will emit an unpleasant and toxic odor. It is worth noting that metal blinds can create a slight noise in the wind, which can not very beneficial effect on sleep or rest.?

The modern market is rich in a variety of models of blinds. You can attach them to both ordinary windows and eurowindows. There are suitable designs even for non-standard triangular windows or panoramic.

• Horizontal blinds Also called Venetian, due to their design, the guide lamellae are parallel to the floor or windowsill. They are assembled or laid out from the bottom up. This view can be hung on windows as well as on ordinary wooden windows. The standard dimensions of the rails in width are about 25 - 50 mm, it all depends on the material used. This may be plastic, metal or the gifts of nature (hay, wood, grass).
• In stores often there are louver designs of cellular type. They consist of hollow metal, plastic or paper tubes. They can be double or single. Their interesting structure creates an unusual relief structure.

• Cassette blinds are the prototype of the usual horizontal. At the heart of the design is a cassette that is attached directly to the sash of plastic windows. Curtain panels are made of plastic or fabric with an excellent sun-reflecting coating.
• Vertical blinds will help visually increase the height of the room. They consist of the main holding eaves, runners, weighting to maintain shape,connecting chains for slats and ropes to control the solar flow from the window. As a rule, such curtains blinds are made of fabric, but there are variations.
• Vertical lamella arrangement best suited for ordinary room window openings than for office space. On the canvas can be applied drawing or interesting and acceptable texture for the room. Forms can also vary, there are both straight and beveled edges.

• A variety of blinds are roller blinds. In the people they are also called - rolstor. They consist not of separate components, but of solid material. These can be thick fabrics, paper or natural materials. The thicker the material, the better and better the opacity. It is possible to install roller shutters both on the window frame itself and on the sliding loggias.
• There are fabric Greek curtains, which are collected on the type of horizontal. They are made of a double layer of fabric, inside which rope, wooden or metal rods are sewn.
• Pleated blinds just recently appeared on the market. They are one-piece solid material,which is evenly and neatly assembled in the same folds, creating an accordion effect. The lifting mechanism is similar to the design of horizontal blinds.

• Roller shutters belong to protective blinds. They can be used for home window openings, and for office space. Very often there are louver doors that can be remote-controlled or simply inertial. They are made of metal to directly perform their function of protection against hacking or penetration.
• Still allocate sliding blinds shutters. They can be fastened both from the inside and from the front side of the house or apartment. They also belong to the protective type. The frame and lamellae are arranged horizontally. For durability and reliability they are made of wood, metal, bamboo.
• One of the unique types of curtains can be called vertical blinds with pelmets. Their peculiarity is that they can combine several materials at once (cloth and metal, paper and plastic, etc.). The first layer on the blinds, eaves go transparent tulle lamellae or dense fabric, with a reflective coating.On top there is a pelmet - an arched decoration made of plastic or thick fabric. It can take not only the form of an arch, there are lambrequins in the form of a wave, an oblique ladder. It can be straight or oblique. Most often, such designs are not hung on one small window, they are placed in large dining rooms or office rooms.

• To the great joy of demanding customers, there are interior shutters on the market. According to their characteristics, they are no worse than ordinary doors. They have good acoustic qualities, namely they restrain the flow of noise from another room.
• For decorative zoning of space, sometimes louvered screens or partitions with ceiling fastening are used. They have a vertical arrangement of fabric or filament lamellae. They beautifully decorate and divide the space into zones.
• If you want to have unusual and beautiful blinds on the windows, but these are not in stores, then the best thing to do homemade. For the price they will come out much cheaper, and the quality and uniqueness are guaranteed exactly.

Blinds are a type of protection from the sun and prying eyes,which is made of completely different materials. It can be plastic, metal, wood or fabric. The most common is plastic blinds.

• Plastic, as a material, in itself is not bad, but on the sunny side from high temperatures it tends to melt, thereby violating its integrity and functionality. It is best to hang plastic blinds on the windows from the shady side of the house.
• Iron, namely, aluminum, the model is much more practical than its plastic counterpart. They will be a little more expensive, but the price justifies the quality. Also, rich colors will please you, which you can choose to absolutely any interior.

• There is a hybrid - blinds with a metal-plastic frame. Inside the main panel is a metal rod, which is covered with plastic on top. The metal will give strength, but nobody canceled the properties of the plastic, so this design should also be hung on the shadow side.
• One of the most popular, practical and quiet materials is textiles. The rag blinds have an incredibly huge selection of colors and textures, and they are also easy to maintain and operate.A nice bonus is the fact that you can choose the degree of light protection yourself. They are easy to care for, and most importantly, they do not break and do not melt from the sun's rays.

• A type of textile blinds, are tulle blinds. They gently diffuse the light around the room, leaving natural light as comfortable as possible. Usually, they make roll constructions from tulle, so that there are no clues and creases on the material.
• Fabulousness and lightness of the room will help give a cotton blinds. As a rule, these are large synthetic threads that romantically flutter in the wind, and make natural lighting much softer and more comfortable.
• For lovers of Oriental style, an interesting solution would be to install a paper design with velcro. Curtains of paper have many colors and shades, reasonable cost, a variety of shapes and different thickness of the material itself, which allows you to control the luminous flux.

• Recently, unique design blinds appeared on the market. with glass lamellaswhich can be automated, namely, they are revealed and assembled at the first press of a button.The glass itself can have different degrees of protection from the sun, as well as different texture and color.
• It is very important to observe fire safety in the kitchen, so it is better to hang PVC blinds on the window. They are distinguished by their resistance to acids, oils and solvents. And also do not burn in the air, which is very important if the window is next to the stove.
• Lovers of natural materials and textures will love straw blinds. They are produced mainly from rice straw, cane or reed. They look specific and at the same time spectacular. They are distinguished by their low weight, ease of care and environmental friendliness. The only disadvantage of such material is that it should be cleaned only with a dry brush or napkin.

Before buying blinds, it is necessary to make measurements of the window to which they will be directly hung. This can be done both by professionals and owners of windows, the main thing is to follow a certain sequence:

• First you need to decide on the type and model of the blinds, and on what surface they will be mounted, it is of fundamental importance, since the measurements will be different.
• If horizontal blinds were chosen and decided to mount them on the inner casement window, you need to measure the width between the two beadings and the usual height of the window, from the very beginning to the sill or higher.
• Knowing the height, width and depth of the window opening, you can calculate the appropriate design for the internal opening of the window. It is very important that the opening window does not touch the blinds, as it can hook and deform it.
• Sometimes they hang the construction on the wall. To do this, you need to find out the width of the window opening and add 5 to 10 centimeters on each side, so the blinds will look much prettier than they would be at the same time.

Experts advise for large windows to use blinds with large partitions, and for mini-windows, on the contrary, narrower slats. Vertical blinds can be mounted as well as horizontal, but also to the ceiling.

• Before installing the vertical structure in the window opening, measure its width and subtract 1.5 - 2 centimeters, this will be the optimal width for the blinds. By the way, the height of the vertical structures is very easy to adjust. To do this, it is necessary to find out the suitable height, after that the weighting agent is pulled out of each strip, then the slats are trimmed and hemmed, with the calculation of the turn for the weights.
• If the blind curtains are attached to the ceiling or wall, the width will be the same parameter. The length will be different, because, hanging the cornice on the ceiling, you need to add to the height of the window the distance from the ceiling to it. It is very important to leave a small distance between the sill protruding beyond the window opening and the ends of the blinds, approximately 7 to 10 centimeters. This is necessary so that the weighting agents are in free flight and do not cling to anything.

The same applies to large windows: too short lamellae will visually reduce the window, and also will not fully protect from direct sunlight.

More recently, shutters stopped to consider office window decoration. In modern apartments and houses are increasingly abandoning the usual tulle curtains. As a rule, vertical blinds are more suitable for the apartment variant, since they are most often made of fabric. Fabric material can have all sorts of colors that are easy to match the overall color scheme of the room.There are both standard colors (black, white) and bright, saturated (pink, red, green, purple, yellow, etc.).

Increasingly popular louvered designs with 3D pattern. Lamels can be made of polycarbonate film. It is a translucent material, which has an unusual pattern, excellent reflective properties, and evenly diffuses light around the room due to its glossy surface.

There is another option, namely, 3D printing on blinds. On the whole sheet of the future lamellae a drawing with perspective is applied. Hanging out such curtains, it will seem that the forest, the sea, the tropical jungle or any other place that the customer likes will begin outside the window.

Also, buyers prefer blinds made from natural materials: wood, reed, pressed hay. These materials are very beautiful and textured, as well as eco-friendly. They can also be colored. Usually, these are shades of green, yellow, brown, burgundy, sand. Sometimes decorative dried flowers are added to them.?

They are made from colored fabric or paper.Such stylish and solid blinds will make windows not just a source of natural light, but also a weighty decoration of the room.

Technology does not stand still, and manufacturers began to produce mirror blinds. Most often it is a horizontal design with metal lamellas. People often glue foiled film on the windows so that the rays of the sun reflect and do not heat the window and the air in the room. In this regard, the designers have figured out how to combine functionality and aesthetics (the film on the windows looks cheap and ugly). It was decided to glue the aluminum film on one side, respectively, and it should be turned to the window. Thus, in the room, even on the hottest day, there will be a pleasant atmosphere.

Each type and model of blinds has a certain set of accessories, and also additional spare parts or accessories. Standard equipment for both vertical and horizontal blinds consists of slats - these are identical strips of fabric, plastic, metal, or other materials that were chosen by the buyer. The exception is blinds, they consist of a single piece of material that is wound on a shaft.

• Cornice - this is the body part of the structure to which all the components of the blinds are directly attached. As a rule, it is made of metal (aluminum), but there are also plastic (many buyers do not recommend plastic, since it is very fragile, quickly deformed and fade in the sun).
• Weights or weights necessary to stabilize the light lamellae, so that they do not flutter in the wind, but calmly and evenly sway.
• Runners attached simultaneously to the rail and to the strips of component material. They create a mechanism for the movement of slats on the blinds.
• As for connecting chains they fasten the weighting to the bottom at the same distance so that the strips of fabric do not fly apart in different directions from the blow of the wind.
• Cord The controls are needed to push and slide the blinds when necessary.
• Horizontal blinds have a similar set, with the exception of weighting and a chain, fastening lamellae at the ends.
• If there is no desire to make holes for screws in the wall or window opening to hang louver construction You can use special mounts: magnet for blinds or brackets. They will help to install curtains without additional holes in the wall or window frame.

To additional accessories can be attributed latch lock, automatic switch with remote control, care products, namely – specialized brushes for blinds. All this can be purchased in the same store where the blinds were bought.

You will learn more about choosing blinds from the following video.

Like any other household object in the house, blinds also require a certain care and operating rules.

• One of the most important conditions for durability the design is that you need to smoothly open and also close the sash. Otherwise, there is a risk of deformation of the lamellae or the control mechanism will constantly jam.
• It is very important to clean the blinds from dust and dirt., if they are. For this there are special brushes. They consist of several fleecy surfaces that are inserted between the slats.Some housewives use a vacuum cleaner without attachments to the suction pipe. To do this, lower the slats down and fasten them more tightly to each other, then with gentle translational movements, you can vacuum.
• For preventive and quick cleaning, blinds are fixed in the raised position and vacuumed simultaneously the entire structure as a whole. If you do this procedure at least once a week, you will not have to clean large accumulations of dirt and dust every six months.
• It is important to know and features of cleaning of various materials. If the blinds are metal, they can be washed with the use of gentle cleaning agents, but in no case should water be allowed to get into the internal metal parts of the eaves, they may rust.
• Do not use hot water when cleaning plastic., as it easily deforms thin plates.
• With a cloth much easier, it can be vacuumed, it easily gives in to a delicate wash in warm water. If a greasy stain is formed or someone accidentally smears the surface, then you can use a detergent. Soiled patches can be collected in the basin and soak for 10-15 minutes.After washing, you do not need to iron the fabric with an iron, as it will stretch itself under the weight of weighting agents.

To choose the best blinds for your window, you must determine their varieties. Blinds, as we know, happen horizontal and vertically directed.

• Vertical blinds are mostly textile. They look much cozier and prettier than the horizontal ones, since they are often installed in office premises rather than in apartments. In the house, a person is more accustomed to fabric curtains. In this regard, you can make a very beautiful and unusual combination: on top of the blinds to hang transparent tulle.
• Modern fabric louvered curtains can have non-standard 3D drawings or prints. Such blinds will not only protect from the sun, but will cheer up every day.

• Before buying a horizontal structure, you need to know what material the eaves are made of: plastic or metal. Aluminum is much stronger and more resistant. As for the slats themselves, it is better to give preference to the same aluminum or to a more stylish material today - wood. For the home - this is also the best option.
• Production of blinds is carried out in many countries, but most buyers, oddly enough, prefer French or Italian blinds. This is due to the fact that the initial production of the structure originated in Europe.

Most recently, blinds were intended only for office space and business offices, but today this stereotype is almost destroyed. They began to be used for home windows of the halls, living rooms, bedrooms or kitchens.

Today it has become a fashionable trend to combine opaque blinds and curtains. It may first seem that the blinds and tulle on one window will not be combined, but in practice it looks very beautiful and stylish. There are several options. At first, horizontal blinds made of metal or natural materials are hung on the window, and tulle is hung on top. Or the first layer is the curtains, and a decorative lambrequin from the blinds is hung on top.

An unusual solution would be to use blinds for zoning a room.As a rule, they hang a thread construction or a fabric one, so that air can freely circulate around the room.