Venetian blinds

[Katsma]

I have a huuuuuuuge kitchen window (about 18ft by 5ft) and at the mo we have no blinds/curtains/whatever.

We are also overlooked by several town houses (ie 3 storey), so am thinking venetian blinds would be best for blocking out nosey neighbours without blocking out the sunlight.

But....are they going to be a complete PITA to clean? Have seen a spongy gadget for cleaning several slats at once. But have seen some blinds at other peoples houses that have 'orrible mucky strings (sorry MIL!)

Kim and Aggie say you can just take the blinds down and bung them in the bath. But K&A can't be taken as gospel can they

And if you get blinds that are, say, wood effect, the strings must already be dark and less likely to show me up surely?!

Am I crazy to even consider them?

I personally wouldn't have venetian blinds in the kitchen - ime grease gets in the air and settles on anything not in a cupboard and the blinds would be a pita to clean - I have wooden venetians in my living room and it is bad enough just dusting them - if they actually needed cleaning.....

I prefer not to have any window "treatments" in a kitchen but I can see your point about being overlooked. How about voiles?

I have wooden venetian in my lounge and have a hoover attachment for "dusting" like a kinder version of the brush attachment you find on all hoovers, it is for my dyson.

I therefore dust each slat whilst sucking it all away with the dyson, it works well for dusting anything but will say that in a kitchen the added grease would be difficult to clean.

The sponge gadget thing is naff, I have one. Cheap venetians you could put in the bath but they would have to be plastic or aluminium, wood would swell with the water.

How about roller blinds? I assume you want them lowered some part of the way to block out the neighbours (we have done the same in our conservatory as we live in a hilly area so they can see over our fence) If you went for a light colour it would still let in loads of light.

18ft by 5ft

Try a roller blind. No cleaning involved.

Roller blind is an option, but why don't they need cleaning glitterchick?

Voiles would be dead easy - just chuck in washing machine. But they just hang there don't they being, well, unadjustable iyswim!

Glad for the warning that the spongy gadget is naff - had a feeling that might be the case.

And I know totaleclipse - it's ridiculously big isn't it - not much room in my kitchen for wall cabinets! And for a room with such a big window, it's surprisingly dark.

DP says that any window treatments (he didn't use that word obv!) will be too expensive, and we should just get used to being the neighbourhood entertainment and put on a show

You can get roller blinds that are like nests, so you dont lose light if you want them down in the day, not sure where I have seen them though.

gosh that is a huge window more like a glass wall, not sure venetians would do it any favours.

I have one on the landing and Enid (I think) said the easiest way to clean was to close them one way and wipe all over with a duster then close them the other way and wipe all over the otherside with a duster.

The problem with closing them to clean them is they overlap slightly so you can still get a strip of dust across the top of every slat. You have to separate them out and do each one individually.

They are complete dust traps which is why I hoover mine.

Would get rid if it wasn't for the filtering out of bright sunshine straight into my lounge.

i always shower mine in the bath

fizzylemonade - that is why you close them both ways and wipe so you don't get that strip of dust.

Thanks all

Looks like venetians are gonna be hard work then! Will have a rethink.

Intrigued by totaleclipses roller blinds like nests though! Do you mean like woven twigs?