Bifold integrated blinds

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

I posted a couple of weeks ago asking for advice on blinds for our planned sliding doors, and lots of lovely Mumsnetters helped me decide on roller blinds.

Shortly after that, DH confessed that he really, really, really wants bifolds, and he really, really, really wants integrated blinds. He hasn't stuck his neck out for much in terms of how he wants our refurbished ground floor to look, so we're going to go with it. However, I do have questions about the blinds, so if anyone has them, I would love to get your opinions.

The two solutions we're looking at are magnetic and electric. Neither are cheap, but electric adds on another £400.

I'm leaning towards magnetic, but I've seen that will result in an extra strip down one side of each door to house the sliding mechanism, effectively making the frame wider on one side. Does anyone have this system? Does it look OK, or does it annoy you?

And does anyone have electric blinds? Are they worth the extra? Are they reliable?

If you're going for a fancy finish you may as well have the fancy gizmos! If there's cash in the budget go for the electric.

Do read around though, I've heard of some people having issues with integral blinds; they clag up and jam or get filth insode you can't get rid of etc. No personal experience of them though

Thanks, Loofah. Yes, the finish will be quite fancy. I think we probably will have the cash, but it might mean cutting something else elsewhere, and as you say, I'm worried about the added potential for failure.

Going to have a search for some real life experiences, but hoping someone else might be along to share theirs soon

We've been going back and forth on them too but can't quite make our mind up. We've been quoted £620 + VAT for each pane if we want the electric integrated ones. We have 5 panes so it's quite an escalation in cost!

We're not keen on the magnetic ones, seems a shame to lose the space down the side of the frame. I'm not sure they're much better than external perfect fit blinds.

Where are the bifolds? If at the back of the house I would question whether you even need blinds - you probably won’t ever use them.

we looked at this for our 3.5m 4 panel bifolds. the door is slightly overlooked and gets strong sun all afternoon, so something was essential.

In the end we went for a heavy folding curtain with pole/rings, making sure to leave space either side (~30cm only) for curtains to be fully opened and not crowd the door.

Several problems with integrated blinds, they can be a hassle if they go wrong, they take up space that could otherwise be glass, and they only provide shade if the door is closed. We can have our bifolds fully open in the summer, with curtain all or partly drawn and it's lovely.

@Ecthelion Ouch! We haven't been quoted anywhere near that much! Ours are £435 + VAT per panel for electric and £306 + VAT for magnetic. I mean, hardly cheap, but now feeling like a better deal!

@GrumpyHoonMain Sadly some sort of window covering is mandatory - the room will be used for occasional overnight guests, so we'll definitely need something. Otherwise, I agree - I might not bother.

@oldwhyno You know, I'd actually love curtains, but DH is dead set against. Sigh. And to be fair, he's not totally wrong when he points out that we really don't have even 30cm of space to lose either side.

I'm currently thinking in for a penny, in for £1700, let's go electric!

We have manual integral blinds - the first pictures are of one's that are in a slider (on the RHS) - the thee photos are down but open, down but closed and up. The back of our house gets sun first thing and without them down it gets very hot. I'm so glad we did it.

We have a couple of wider windows which have a different internal blind which is operated by a rope not a slider

These ones we have down most of the time as our neighbours could see into the house (if they were in tippy toes I admit).

Which ever you do, do play with them in real life. Plus if the mechanism goes on the frame (I've never the electric ones just the magnetic) don't have the control on the same side a door handle

@didireallysaythat Oh thank you! That is so helpful! Can I ask why you would't have the control on the same side as the handle? Is that just on traffic doors?

Yes it's the traffic door. I didn't explain at all well. The slider mechanism for ours runs on the frame, and thus has to go past the door handle. The first traffic door we got it wrong and you skinned your knuckles on the handle when sliding the thing past it. We had to get all the windows replaced (manufacturing glitch) and they remade it with the slider on the other side.

Maybe these three pictures show what I mean? Feel free to message me if you want more pictures or info. But blinds absolutely made it for us - we have 2 X 2.5m and all that curtain would have either taken up a lot of window or covered a lot of wall (plus we have a pillar less corner so nowhere for the fabric to go!)

@didireallysaythat - fantastic, that is so helpful, and something we hadn't considered. We will have an even number of panes, which means we will have a double traffic door. That in turn means that we would need to have the blind mechanisms on opposite sides of the door depending on the panel, and I don't like the look of that, so I think we'll go electric

Happily, we've made an (unrelated) decision to downscale another element of the refurb, so finding the cost shouldn't be an issue.

We have the ones with the manual slide. They are great. No complaints. Electric ones would be be even lovelier, I’m sure

We have perfect fit blinds on our bi-folds. Just manual ones. I thought £100 a panel was a lot but apparently I was sorely mistaken! 😂 they are great though, particularly for being able to open the bifolds without blinds/curtains getting in the way

@PlanBea perfect fit blinds don't fit on aluminium windows, I tried to buy some unfortunately for our aluminium bifolds.

We have integrated electric blinds on our bifolds and magnetic ones on our kitchen window. We lose a small strip on the magnetic ones but have a motor on the e,extricate ones. Of the two types I actually prefer the magnetic ones because you don't have to charge then and they were lots cheaper.

Yes, PlanBea, I was a bit gutted when I learned that PerfectFit ones wouldn't.... erm.... fit

You can get something called ClickFit blinds from Blinds2Go that will work with aluminium (apparently), but DH isn't keen on them.

Hi there! We are currently considering integrated blinds in our bifolds. I was wondering whether you went with those in the end and what your experience has been?
thanks for any update!

Hi, @Pamela23 - sure, I'm happy to share what happened next!

Ultimately we decided that we just couldn't justify the cost of integral blinds. Instead, we went for the ClickFit blinds from Blinds2Go that I mentioned in my last post. Unlike the PerfectFit ones, they are suitable for aluminum doors. DH was originally very opposed to them, but they were just so much more reasonable. When we discussed it, it turned out that he hadn't realised that they move with the doors, and that they stay very close to the panes, and once he got his head around that, he was fine with them.

They are very easy to fit, but we have found that they are quite tricky to tension, and the tension does slip over time, so you have to tighten them fairly regularly. They do look smart though.

Now I've got the doors in, and I can visualise it better, I wouldn't have any issue going with manual, magnetic blinds. I don't think the control strip would be a problem at all.