Do you need curtains with wooden blinds?

[Cookiecrumbles2020]

I want my whole house done in wooden venetian blinds with a fabric cornice box for the living room. Do you need curtains too? I was only planning for curtains in the bedrooms for extra darkness.

I don’t think you do unless you find your rooms feeling a bit bare. But a definite yes to the bedrooms as blinds do let in a bit of light.

No we never had curtains with wooden venetians as it defeats the purpose. Might as well just get lace panels and curtains.

Not sure why that would defeat any purpose? We’ve got both in the bedroom. The blinds can be turned to managed light vs privacy. However, they aren’t really sufficient at nighttime so we have blackout curtains.

I'm not sure about the fabric cornice without curtains. My living room has 11' ceilings and bay windows. I have half shutters and full length curtains with fabric box cornice,and I think it would look odd of the curtains were not there.
If you are going for just blinds I would make sure the cornice is in proportion. I personally like shutters over Venetian blinds but they are more expensive.

I thought the whole point of wooden blinds was not to need dusty curtains. Maybe that's just me

I have wooden blinds throughout and no curtains in any of the rooms

Wooden blinds in round bay window (MTM) make our room pitch dark

Love the look but they are buggers to keep clean and rattle if you leave a window open on a breezy night. They swing away from the window and then hit back on the sill. Very annoying.

Blinds need regular dusting and curtains need a clean too.

We have both apart from in the hallway and the kitchen. Just find they dress the room and block out any remaining light when needed.

Blinds/ shutters here no curtains , you might need them in the bedroom if you need blackout to sleep , but other than that no point in having both.

My MiL has lace curtains with her venetian blinds because she thinks it's more respectable. She thinks going without lace curtains is like going without underwear.

Depends on the room, style and window. We have wooden blinds with curtains in the living room because the room has an Arts and Craft style, but the blinds are for privacy and sun filtering.
In another room where the windows are much larger the blinds look ok on their own. In the bedrooms, again the aesthetics of the rooms don’t look right without the curtains.

Good advice thanks everyone. I will go for blinds first and see how they go without curtains. I thought a fabric cornice or pelmet box would “dress” the windows so to speak, so it didn’t look too bare but didn’t have the block out of curtains. No idea where to get them made though!

A fabric pelmet box? Unless you’re speaking to us from 1985, I wouldn’t.

I mean one of those fabric covered window boxes, not sure what the proper name for them is! Not a 90s pelmet...

@Monty27

I thought the whole point of wooden blinds was not to need dusty curtains. Maybe that's just me

Not just you, me too. Curtains are often cheaper so I can’t imagine why someone would go to the expense of beautiful wooden venetians only to cover them up in dusty cloth lol.

We have wooden blinds in all windows but also black out curtains for the bedrooms.

I have plantation shutters and have no curtains so I'd imagine you don't need curtains with blinds. However I have seen a house where the owner couldn't be bothered to take down the old blinds left by the previous occupant and installed curtains. Looked odd to me but I think the curtains provide extra warmth

We have built in shutters in the sitting room and no curtains. We have Venetian blinds in the other rooms, plus curtains. It was cold and bare with just the blinds. I think a fabric cornice box without curtains would look really odd.

My curtains aren’t dusty though, because we clean them regularly.

it's all about temperature/insulation? Maybe curtains up just in autumn and winter? Not so much with full shutters - more solid

OP plantation shutters are the way to go.

How much roughly to do a three bedroom house with plantation shutters though? I know that varies depending on window sizes but just an average price would help. I thought they were really expensive.

The pic is what I had in mind with blinds and fabric box. Does that look weird?

Yes that looks weird!!

Plantation shutters do cost several times more than wooden blinds. They also have a bigger frame so block a fair bit of light even if you want it. Other than that, they do the same job so shutters are a bit of a pointless expense.