Tips On Using Blinds To Decor A Room

Our team at Curtains And Blinds Direct Pty Ltd have compiled 11 Tips that you can use while furnishing your windows using blinds.

Tip 1: Using Your Blinds As A Focal Point
Focal point in a room is usually done with things like for example a fire place or a wallpaper and bed in front or even a decoration piece. You can also use blinds to create a focal point. To achieve this you need to consider two factors. One, the colour should always be brighter, darker or in some cases lighter than the surrounding creating a contrast. Secondly, the patterns used should be carefully selected. For example if there aren't any heavy patterns in the room than you can simple use fabric in the blinds with some heavy patterns. Also, you can use timber base blinds as well. For example, white walls and light surround with a teak or mocha colour basswood timer venetian blinds, or dark wall with white or light colour PVC venetian blinds.

Tip 2: Blend In With The Room's Theme
Consider a situation where you already have a lot going on for example timber floors, timber finish furniture and mid dark colour walls. In this senario you can have timber venetian blinds to blend in and avoiding making the room too busy. Also another situation where you have light walls and light interior (more common now a days) but dark furniture. You can use for example a dark or even a light colour roller blinds to blend in. The light colour will blend with the walls and if you go for a darker colour it will match with the furniture.

Tip 3: Blinds Can Make Your Room Look Big!!
There is always one room in the house thats small or often many rooms in the house that are small. How do you tackle this problem using window furnishings. There are many ways to do it but the key is colour. If you have a off white wall and you use a contrasting colour in the blinds then the problem is that you are creating more activity in the room. More activity doesn't always reduce the size of the room (visually) but it has to be done perfectly to give a positive effect. So whats the easy way out? Match your blind with the walls, by the doing this your blinds will blend in with your room and give you a wider vision. Secondly, you can also use for example vertical blinds. The effect from vertical blinds is that when open they "bring the outside in". Thirdly, use sheer view roller blinds, they will do the same thing as vertical blinds and you can match the colour with the walls so at night they blend in as well.

Tip 4: Making Sure Your Blind Selection Is Practical
This is a important factor when decorating. Very often we do get taken aways with decorating our rooms or house and often miss out some practical element that we should be considering. For example maintenance, child safety and ease of use. Let say venetian blinds for example, its not recommended for large windows or door as they become too heavy to lift. Putting roman blinds on a sliding door might not always be a good idea as you might bump your head while using the door. Having vertical blinds in windy room would not help them stay stable. And using timber blinds in wet areas would lead to the blinds getting wet and wearing out very quickly. When you fit multiple roller blinds for example three roller blinds on a large window you need to safely fit the control chain on a child safety hook, where would you hook the middle one?

Tip 5: The Blinds Should Be Safe For The Room
Safety is considered as high priority at Curtains And Blinds Direct Pty Ltd. We always highly recommend safe product and promote safe practices. When choosing blinds and in particular blinds for children's room we highly recommend going for blinds that are safe for children or at least you consider taking measure for child safety. Click here to read more on tips for child safety.

Tip 6: Insulation Where Required
Insulating your windows is becoming more and more crucial as the energy prices go up. It's important to consider heat and cold when talking about insulation. Obesely blinds that are good insulant with heat are also good insulant with cold. Materials that are a better block out as better insulant as well. Plus, you can consider using multiple blinds on the window, one sheer view and another block out to achieve better energy efficiency. Block out roller blinds, roman blinds and honeycomb blinds and good with energy efficiency.

Tip 7: The Conditions Around The Window
Always remember when measuring of blinds or deciding on window furnishings options, you look in and around the window. For example vertical blinds fitted on the inside might sound like a good option for sliding doors but consider the handles on the door as it might be creating a obstruction. You might want to have roman blinds fitted on the outside of the window but having a couch right in front of it would make it hard for you to reach the controls. All in all its important that you consider things like clearance around the controls, no obstruction in the flow of the blind and also how much clearance do you have when your blinds are open. For example image a situation where you have a small sliding door and you fit a panel blind on it. When you open the panel blind it will still be occupying a certain portion of your window.

Tip 8: Bathroom, Kitchens and Other Wet Areas
With wet areas always avoid using fabrics which can lead to mould on the fabric. Try and use 100% polyester fabrics without a back coating. This will also be very easy to clean. Also, if you are keen on having venetian blinds then use PVC venetian blinds instead of real timber like Basswood Timber Venetian Blinds.

Tip 9: Constant Flow of Light Required
There are certain area where you require content flow of light for example in your laundry room if you have a small window above your trough, use a translucent roller blinds or even a PVC venetian blinds. The flow of light will be content and you will require to use less energy. Plus, the laundry room will usually to used during the day anyways. This products will keep the room looking light and clean. You can use the same formula in a bathroom or toilet as well.

Tip 10: Dusty Areas
With dusty areas you don't want to have patterned fabrics that are hard to clean. It's better to use fabric and blinds that are easy to maintain. The best ones for dusty areas are roller blinds, vertical blinds and panel blinds.

Tip 11: Use Neutral Colours and Patterns
The colour and patterns you use are important as you will be having these blinds for a very long time. If you for example use cartoon characters on your blinds in you kids room it might look good for the starter but later on when you kid gets bored with it, it will cost you to replace it. So, a better idea is to use softer colour or very young toddlers and brighter colour for young kids. But its important that you keep it neutral as you will be able to decorate the walls and furniture instead.

Team CABD

Few Tips On Child Safety

Child safety is a priority for us and we believe that would also be the case for you. The governments in all states are constantly improving on laws to make window furnishings more and more child safe. There are a few simple things that you can do to make sure that your kids stay safe.

Keep Window Clear
Do not keep a stool or any such things near a window which can be used to climb on. If you take all the necessary measures, there is still a chance that the kids could climb on something and reach the cords. So in short keep the windows clear.

Keep The Controls Short
The bottom of the control cords should be at least 1500mm high from the ground. This will keep the cord away from children.

Use Child Safety Hooks
All our products are supplied with some sort of child safety device. These can be used to tie the cord so it doesn't hang loose. The other purpose for example with roller blind is to create tension in the cord so that a child can't get there hand or even necks stuck in it. Victoria was the first state to make child safety devices compulsory on every products.

Choose Safe Products
The ultimate solution is to choose products that are safe. A lot of products have variation that are very child safe. Vertical blinds can be made chinless at the bottom and can have a single wand to manage both operations. Honeycomb blind and some Venetian blinds can be made completely chainless and hand operated. Roller blinds and even curtains can be motorised which is very safe as well. Curtains can be made hand driven and infact curtains and sheers in eyelet and tab top headings always comes cordless.

Team CABD

Custom Made v/s Ready Made Blinds?

In this article we have tried to break down the comparisons for you in regards to the difference in a ready made and custom made blinds. Ideally, if we were to ask you this question most people would say that ready mades are cheaper and therefore bad quality... Is that it? And is it really true?

Also, is quality the only difference between the ready made and custom made products? Why is there always a price difference?

Below are a few point that answers these questions and many more:

Flexibility
Flexibility is achieved when it comes to custom made blinds. If for example you want a blinds that is 545mm wide and 967mm drop, its not possible to get it with a ready made blind. So your only choice is custom made blinds. Also, there is a lot more flexibility in colour and material choice. If you like a specific fabric and a specific colour in that fabric you can't always have that in ready made but it certainly can be tailor made.

Origin
Most of things now a day are imported. Of course, in most cases it's China or some other asian country where labour is cheap. When we talk about custom made blinds for example its best to manufacture in Australia, it can be made overseas but its not that practical. So, when you go into the market to look for custom made blinds, there are very high chances that its made in Australia. With ready made blind cost is the most important factor, therefore there is a very high chance that its imported. This is also the case even if the same fabric is available in custom made (Aussie Made).

Quality
When talking about quality the first thing to know is you get what you pay for! This is also the case with ready made blinds. For example you can get ready made blinds for $15 or even $50, of course there is a massive difference in quality between them. Now lets add custom made blind to the situation. The same situation applies. You can have different qualities and this is reflected by the price. So, if you can have a good and a bad quality ready made blind the same is the case with custom made blinds.

Price
If we say that cheaper is bad quality than of course ready made is cheaper than customer, does that mean ready made is bad quality??? Not necessary. Ready made blinds can be made with the same component and same fabric as a Aussie custom made blinds and it will be still cheaper. Two factors are in play here. Firstly, ready made blinds are made in large scale therefore it is cheaper to make. Secondly, as the sizes are fixed, it can be manufactured overseas where the labour is cheap. So, this leads to ready made blinds being cheaper than custom made blinds.

So how should you choose between ready made and custom made blinds?
A few things to look at when making your decision:
- Check if you can get a ready made product. If you can then check if its good quality and price.
- If you can't get a ready made product for your window size or want a different fabric or colour, go for custom made.

From Team CABD

What Side Should I Have My Controls?

Deciding the side of your controls is a simple problem with simple solution. But on another note you could consider some factors which will help you make the right choice and avoid a situation where you have to scratch your head and think, you wish you had put the controls on another side!

Window Opening: It best to have the controls on the opposite side of the opening of the window. For example if your window opens from left to right, put the controls on the right hand side. The idea is that when closing your window the cords or chains don't get stuck in the window.

Layout of the Room: The controls can be decided based on the layout of the room. In the diagram on the left as you can see there is a bed next to the window. Right control will be more suitable here as if you have the control on the left hand side it will get in the corner. This will make it hard to access. Plus in this particular situation having the control on the right also makes it close to the door.

Multiple windows next to each other: When you have multiple window next to each other like shown in the diagram on the left hand side, it is a good idea to have the control in the middle as shown in the diagram. By doing this you will be able to access both the blind or curtains while standing in one place. This kind of windows are usually found in the front of the house and are very common in the new homes.

Close Proximity to the Door: Another tip is to have the control at close proximity to the door. The advantage to this is that if you walk in to the room just to close the blinds then its quite easy and usually this area has more space.

Arrangement of furniture: The arrangement of the furniture around the window is something really important to be considered. In the diagram on the left you will notice that the left hand side is occupied therefore the control will be more suitable on the right hand side as there is no obstruction on the right.








These tips are like common knowledge but these minor factors can make a decent difference if you consider them. The whole point is to make life easy for your self and your family and improve on safety.

Team CABD

Link Brackets For Roller Blinds Explained

Roller blind is a really versatile product. The best part about it amongst many others is that it can be used in several different ways. You can put it on top of each other by using a double view bracket, you can put side by side for very large window, and many more ways to use it.

In this article we are going to talk about placing roller blinds next to each other like in the case of a large window or sliding door. When two roller blinds are placed next to each other there is large gap of approximately 35-40mm. This can bring in light and reduce privacy. This is because each roller blind has its own set of pair of brackets. Now, someone clever invented a bracket that can hold two roller blinds together and at the same time reducing the gap space. This can be seen in figure 1. This is call a link bracket.

The link bracket comes in two different types. For example we have two blinds and we have connected them with a link bracket. One option will be to have a single control for both the blinds and the second option will be individual control for each blind.

Single Control For Multiple Blinds

Having a single control for multiple blinds is often quite helpful. This is useful in several case as listed below:

1. If you have a large sliding door and need to have two separate blinds for each panel. You also want to operate both blinds with a single control. This is demonstrated on the diagram on the left. In the diagram the control is on the left hand side, there is only one bracket (link bracket) connecting the two blinds in the middle and the right blind doesn't have any control. This scenario will save space where the link bracket is as well as on the right hand side.

2. For example if you have a large window which has multiple panels and you don't want too many chains hanging or don't even have the space to fit the safety device.  The link bracket will also reduce the gap between the blinds. In the diagram on the left there are four blinds. The extreme left one has the controls. Then, first and the second blinds is connected with a link bracket, second and the third blinds is connected with a link bracket and the third and fourth blind is connected with a link bracket. Now the last one doesn't have any controls adjoined to it. One thing to remember is that the chain rotation mechanism for operation will take more space, so in the last blind there is no chain on the right meaning it will require less space as well. Thereby, reducing the gap for light coming in.

Please note: There are limitations in this system. One, how many blinds can operate with one control? This will vary with different systems. Second, maximum width for the link bracket system? This will also vary based on the system.

Multiple Control For Multiple Blinds

Very often you will need multiple blinds next to each other and will need for them to operate separately. This can be achieved as well. There are several situations where this would be required. below are two examples to show how this can be done.

1. If you have a sliding door and want to have two blinds operating separately, here is a solution. This is very useful particularly if you are using the sliding door very often and don't want to be having both the blinds to go up at the same time. On the diagram on the left hand side the left blind has it's control on the left and the right blind has a control on the right. Both the blinds are connected with a link bracket in the middle. This helps in reducing the gap between the two blinds. Click here for guides on How to Measure for Sliding Doors.

2. If you have a large window with multiple panels and want to have controls on each blind. That is possible with link brackets as well. This is demonstrated on the diagram on the left. One thing to be careful about is that when you have a situation like this make sure that you have some place to fit the child safety device. We would not recommend this arrange if there was no space for child safety device to be fitted. The each blind has its own control. In the example we have the controls on the left. The first and the second blinds is connected together with a link bracket and the same is done for the rest.

Combining "Single" and "Multiple" Control For Multiple Blinds

There are situations where you need four blinds for example to be fitted on a large window. Now you want three to operate together and the forth to operate independently. This is quite common on a sliding door.

In this example on the left as you can see there are three blinds. Now, this is a sliding door and the situation is that the door opens on the right hand side. Now, you want the right hand side blinds to operate independently as you will be using that section of the door most frequently.

So, what we have here is that there is a control on the left hand side which operates the left and the central blind. The extreme right blind has its own control and it operates independently front the rest. So if this was your sliding door at the back of the house and you are having a barbie and have got people moving in and out all the time. You can just put up the right hand side blind up for access and the rest can stay down.

Double View Link Brackets

Link bracket are for all types of solutions. There are specialised link brackets that can be used when you have multiple blinds on one bracket (Double View / Combo / Dual Blinds). So now you can customise you windows like never before.

Hope this article is helpful in better understanding of how to Furnish your windows in exactly the way you want with Link Brackets. We look forward to hearing from you. Let us know if there are any specific situations you want our Decor Consultants to talk about. We are always happy to help.

Team CABD

We Are The First Online Based Curtains And Blinds Company in South Australia

We are proud to say that we are the First Online Based Curtains And Blinds Company in South Australia. This also makes us the biggest and the Best.

We work hard to be at the forefront in everything what we do. Being the first in South Australia is for the starters. Our revolutionary website CurtainsAndBlindsDirect.com.au is designed to be User Friendly and is loaded with features to ensure that purchasing Blinds and Curtains is an enjoyable experience for all our customers. We strive to continuously improve our website and provide you with innovative features.

Our standards are very high and we expect to outperform ourselves by giving 110% every time. All this effort is taken to make sure that when our customers are purchasing with us they are always fully satisfied. We at Curtains And Blinds Direct believe in making things simple and enjoyable.

We believe in being the best, providing the best quality and offering the best deals. We welcome our customers in helping us improve not just our website but also our procedures. If our customers face a problem no matter how big or small it is, we take immediate actions in resolving the issue and also make sure we constantly keep a check on things.

At CurtainsAndBlindsDirect.com.au we value our customers and strive to serve them with the best product, quality, price and service.

We look forward to serving you as our customer and again.

It's Simple. It's Fun.

Team CABD

Tricks On Using Readymades To Minimise Your Cost

In this article we will be talking about how you can have a combination of ready made and custom made blinds without compromising quality and still reduce your cost. You can do so by making some smart decisions and they are very simple for anyone to follow. You can always contact CurtainsAndBlindsDirect.com.au if you need a hand in making a smart selection.

Fabric Selection

When selecting the fabrics for your window coverings there is one important thing you should consider. Is the fabric/material that you are selecting available in readymades?

Size

Before ordering custom made product always check if the size that you are after is available in readymades. We at CurtainsAndBlindsDirect.com.au also have a additional service whereby you can modify the ready made blinds (cut to reduce the size). Although, do keep in mind that some ready made blinds can't be modified and with some you can only modify the width. But its always a good idea to check the availability.

Combining Different Styles of Products

Lets say that you have used roller blinds throughout the house including in the bathroom/toilets. You decide to out ready made roller blinds therein. However, the drop of ready made roller blinds can't be modified. Solution....? Simple! You can switch the product! Instead of roller blinds, why not use something like PVC venetian whose width and drop, both can be modified and will look nice and elegant in small as well as large windows. Also, perfect for these areas as they are water resistant and provide great privacy. Whats more...they come with matching palmets t give you the complete look, without a large dent in your pocket!

Dual Roller Blinds

Here's a special trick for dual roller blinds...to keep the cost low and yet have that comfort. Simply select the ready made roller blinds, one block out and the other sheer view roller blind, of the exact same size and also order a pair of small brackets from our accessories section. Here is the link. Its Simple.

Example

For example, you would like to have roller blinds throughout the house, PVC venetian in toilet and bathrooms and vertical blinds in laundry.

Firstly, most bathrooms and toilets will be suitable for Readymade PVC blinds. We have a service whereby you can get a readymade blind cut for the price of $25 per width alteration and $25 for drop alteration (as of 8th April 2012). This will significantly lower your cost for your bathrooms and toilets.

Now, moving on to your bedrooms, kitchen, etc where you will be having roller blinds. With roller blinds you can't cut the drop. The alteration service is only for width. If you are skilled then you can cut the drop yourself but that will be at your own risk. Better still, order a custom made one. The idea is to look at windows that are long but not that wide.

Lastly, vertical blinds for your laundry.  Ready Made Vertical Blinds can't be modified. But the trick is to measure it as a outside fit or face fit, meaning not fitting the blind on the architrave. Therefore, a  blind which is slightly larger will fit perfectly as well.

In conclusion, you can achieve the look you desire within your set budget. The trick is to choose the blinds wisely. We at CurtainsAndBlindsDirect.com.au aim at providing you the best solutions for your Window Furnishing needs. We aim at giving you an experience and our Expert team of Decor Consultants are always striving to provide you with that. If you need any specific advice, we are here to help. Contact Us.
These were just a few tricks we thought we should share with you. With Curtains And Blinds Direct Pty Ltd, its not just about spending within your budget, but its about spending wisely. :)

It's Simple. It's Fun.

Team CABD
CurtainsAndBlindsDirect.com.au