Rob Campbell
Every house should use fabric blinds in at least one room. It’s rather surprising to me that with all of the home renovation and decorating shows on TV these days, that fabric blinds remain such a mystery. Easy to use, efficient, and beautiful to look at, these window accessories provide a simple way to change the mood and style of a room at a much lower cost than most other designer options.
Fabric window blinds can provide a distinctive look to a room, and also offer the benefits of traditional horizontal blinds, yet all without the austere appearance of metal or plastic blinds. For example, Levolor fabric blinds are a pleated accordion shape, which avoids the slats and gaps of the other styles. As well, made of fabric, they impart a warmer look to the room, which is much more appropriate for a home. After all, it’s not a coincidence that metal blinds are typically used only in offices, while fabric drapes remain popular in homes!
For experienced home decorators, installing coloured fabric blinds is just one element of a window makeover. They must also consider noise barriers, light restrictions and style motifs. Here too, fabric blinds win out over their plastic or metal counterparts, since they don’t make or reflect noise, become tangled or attract dust and dirt. This means they are easier to maintain and that’s a big plus for any homeowner. As well, they come in more colors than the average store-bought blinds, making it easier to match the look of the room with the blind color, for home harmony.
Fabric blinds are flexible. You can order different styles for your design needs. For example, the blinds come with or without the drawcord (the non-cord version is moved via pulling or pushing on the bottom edge). The blinds are also available in different thicknesses, allowing you to provide a darker, more opaque look for a bedroom, and a lighter, more translucent one for a living area. Yet even that can be adjusted, since you can order a combined two blinds into one, creating a darker blind with both drawn, and a lighter blind with only one pulled down.
Another aspect of fabric blinds is the ability to fit different window styles; for example, Levolor can custom-make a blind in a half-circle called an arch (like those over some doorways) as well as skylights, so you decorate all of the windows in a room with a single style. Additionally, they offer blinds that both draw up from the bottom, and down from the top. The different look of the top-down blind needs to be seen to be appreciated, as the result is reminiscent of half-window curtains, and very distinctive.
Designers that would like to experiment with fabric blinds should check Levolor’s styles; you can browse their offerings online, and even order a free sampler of fabric blind color swatches.
As an option to give a room a new look, consider a fabric blind. For a lower cost than even the simplest of home renovations, you can change the appearance of a room drastically, adding warmth, and bringing color to any room easily.
