blinds or curtains?
At the back of our house we don’t have shutters but need something particularly for the parlor & garden floor windows for privacy & insulation. What have you done? As background, our place is mixed modern/old aesthetic with the original moldings around the windows which are attractive but mostly more modern furniture etc. Other considerations…
At the back of our house we don’t have shutters but need something particularly for the parlor & garden floor windows for privacy & insulation. What have you done? As background, our place is mixed modern/old aesthetic with the original moldings around the windows which are attractive but mostly more modern furniture etc. Other considerations are maximizing light when curtains/blinds are open (blinds prob better), blocking cold when closed, ease of washing (curtains prob better than blinds but maybe there are rollup blinds with removable material???), desire to avoid clutter (curtains potentially problematic if outside the window box…)
To avoid any curtain or blind on the inside, consideration of an exterior shade is always an option. If not, the best solution is a blackout roller shade system (1 1/2″ roller) mounted inside the opening of the window. The best blackout fabric for ease of cleaning is our Pantaflex 4-ply vinyl fabric that can be easily cleaned with warm water and a mild detergent. This roller shade system can be pull-chain or motor controlled.
You can find interesting products on the web site: http://www.arquatiusa.com/solar.jsp
I would go with wooden blinds with a patterned fabric tape.
I can’t get into the complete aesthetics of it, but I recently got blinds that open from the top down, so that I have sunlight and complete privacy at the same time. I am very happy with them, and they have a lot of options at Lowe’s etc. I can leave them open from the top at night, no one can see in, and when I wake up the room is full of sunlight. They are custom ordered.
shades – so many more options than curtains or blinds. you can get top down/bottom up shades to maximize light. and get different fabric choices from modern to traditional. blinds are so plain – unless you get wood blinds with a taper.
check out – http://www.smithandnoble.com for ideas. we used them, they are great.