...to think that vertical blinds

[LampingPolars]

...live in offices and not people's homes.

I'd agree that in sitting rooms, bedrooms etc they are not nice - much better to have curtains or voiles.

BUT - I have a large double door into the garden from the kitchen/sitting room. What else could I use? I really couldm't use curtains or voiles, not in a kitchen (greasy fabric ) so verticals it is. And as a PP said - v practical on a southfacing window (although the kitchen window has venetian blinds, not verticals)

I'd agree that in sitting rooms, bedrooms etc they are not nice - much better to have curtains or voiles.

Personal taste. I don't think it's much better to have curtains, I think thy are horrible things and voiles are just nasty.
Horizontals are just nasty dust collectors. I was so glad when I got shut of mine. They were expensive but I could only cope with them for about 9 months before I got them all removed.

oh well, wrong again. I don't have them (not overlooked) but know houses that do. They don't attract as much dust as horizontal ones and are much easier to adjust to block out glare when you want it and provide privacy as needed.

they are a small child hazard, so in rooms where children are left unattended they need to be secured with a clothes peg at the top. This stops the kid opening them and sticking their head in the joining cords. All blind cords (roller as well) should of course be secured so they are tight. You can buy retrofit devices if the blinds don't already have them.

For safety we removed the joining cords at the bottom of ours (they are floor to ceiling), they just hang freely. Makes it a lot easier to take them down and wash them as well, you just unhook them all from the top and bung them in the washing machine. We shortened the loop which turns the slats so it is over 5' from the ground and with the opening and shutting cords we took the weight off the bottom, cut them as short as we could and attached a small brass curtain ring to the bottom of each to act as a little handle, this was about 10 years ago, I don't think safety devices were readily available back then. They are actually easier to use now that they were before, you can always see which side of the closing cords to pull by which brass ring is up at the top.

I'm desperate for some horizontal blinds for our living room! Our window is wall to wall, ceiling to floor, and at the moment we just have curtains so sitting there in the daytime is like being in a fishbowl.

.. I mean vertical blinds.

We are replacing our horizontal blinds with vertical ones soonish. I would Never (note the capital N) have horizontal blinds again. They're dust magnets, a PITA.

We have a SW facing living room and it can get very bright. I have linen Roman blinds to put up, which should hopefully solve the problem but I've had them 4 years and they are still in the packet