Blinds or curtains - which do you prefer?

KateLiana27

Title says it all really. We currently have nice vertical blinds in our (modern) rental flat and they're great, but will they look out of place in a 1930s home?

Yorkie1

Personally I think they look far too industrial for a 1930s semi.

tanith

I live in a 1930's semi and have a mix of vertical blinds for my kitchen and patio doors, and wooden blinds on the rest of the house... I hate nets and with the blinds I'm able to adjust them as to how much light or vision I want into the house... the vertical blinds are perfect at keeping the back of the house cool as the sun shines on there most of the afternoon and I just adjust them but I'd hate to have to pull the curtains . I got rid of all my curtains 4yrs ago the house is so much lighter without half the window being blocked by the curtains.. I just love opening the blinds in the morning and let the sun come pouring into the house.. and I don't have to take down loads of dusty curtains for washing I just lightly hoover the dust off every 6mths or so.. I'm very lazy lol

abankerbutnotafatcat

We have blinds in our 1901 townhouse and they look fine. We have blinds in the kitchen and bathroom and curtains in the other rooms. Never nets and always curtains that can be machine washed. We currently have nothing on the French doors in our dining room and i'm considering shutters but they're quite expensive so we're squinting in sunny weather until it's their time to be purchased!!

lagi

I always think the 2 go together nicely as the curtains shape the window. If you have the blinds up it doesn't look bare and you have another option. Not so good in the money saving but does look nice from both sides.

KateLiana27

Thanks everyone! Food for thought. I do like the way blinds block less light from the edges of the windows and, if I'm honest, I'd be very unlikely to ever wash my curtains (disgusting I know). However I want to avoid the industrial look. Hmm.

pinkteapot

For me it depends on the room. I just redecorated our fourth bedroom which is used as a library. I replaced the curtains with a wooden Venetian blind and it looks lovely. The room looks bigger as a result too! The bedroom next door is a study and I think I'll put a blind in there when I do that room.

For bedrooms that are bedrooms I prefer curtains as they are a softer look, but that's a personal preference.

I don't think wooden horizontal blinds look industrial at all. Vertical blinds can do, and I think aluminium horizontal blinds look less homely than wooden ones. Having said that, there are vertical blinds in our lounge and dining room from the previous owner and I quite like them. The lounge is a square bay window so expensive/fiddly to have curtains fitted. There are floor length curtains on each side of the square bay (which get left open as we have furniture in the bay) that soften it.

Again in the dining room we have curtains as well as the blind. The blind is brilliant in summer as the dining room gets the sun all afternoon so (a) gets hot and (b) the carpet fades. Closing the blind keeps the light coming through but keeps the worst of the heat out.

When winter is particularly cold curtains seem to insulate better than blinds and do feel cosier. I moved into our house from a flat and blimey, houses are a lot colder in winter than modern flats!

One final thought - personally I don't think roller blinds belong anywhere other than bathrooms, kitchens and maybe a small hall window if there is one.

Oh, and a second final thought (!), if any rooms will be kids' rooms in the future then don't use blinds. The cords can be dangerous for young children (although you can buy cord tidies to keep them out of the way).

Leif

What about a venetian blind and curtains, does it look odd i.e. overkill? I would like to block visibility into the lounge whilst allowing some light in during the day, but have the option of curtains because they look nice.

abankerbutnotafatcat

pinkteapot wrote: »

I don't think wooden horizontal blinds look industrial at all. Vertical blinds can do, and I think aluminium horizontal blinds look less homely than wooden ones. Having said that, there are vertical blinds in our lounge and dining room from the previous owner and I quite like them. The lounge is a square bay window so expensive/fiddly to have curtains fitted. There are floor length curtains on each side of the square bay (which get left open as we have furniture in the bay) that soften it.QUOTE]

Exactly. I should have differentiated between vertical and horizontal blinds. Ours are both horizontal. The vertical blinds that spring to mind are those used in offices and they don't even look good there!!

Leif

abankerbutnotafatcat wrote: »

Exactly. I should have differentiated between vertical and horizontal blinds. Ours are both horizontal. The vertical blinds that spring to mind are those used in offices and they don't even look good there!!

Where I live loads of people have the vertical blinds in kitchens and lounges overlooking the road. They look fine from outside. Dunno about inside though.

Susan1942

My dilemma is that I have just put in a new Kitchen and I have a Velux window in there. Previously I had voile top and botton on a rod but would like to do something else this time around.
I have white gloss units a dark grey worktop and porceline polished tiles same colour on the floor.
I have ordered Gretian Spa glass splashbacks and upstands so strong green/turq colour. Just painted in a very pale shade from the same colour spectrum

Ideas would be welcome

Sue