Blinds/shutters for 1930s bay window

[Witchlight]

Hi, I’m at the end of the renovation of a 1930s terraced house in SE London. As such, I have about enough budget left to buy bin-liners - but only if the are own brand,

I’m looking for window coverings for a 5 window curved bay, for the ground floor front room.

So my options are:

Sell my firstborn and get Venetian shutters. Does anyone have any recommendations of an inexpensive SE London company and price estimate?

Get 5 separate blinds from blinds2go or the like - bit of faff having to lower and raise 5 separate sets.

Use Windowlene, until I’ve saved for a few months! Then just get used to no covers, or privacy.

Does anyone have any other cheap options? Nb there is a radiator directly under the window, so curtains are out.

Glass stickers?

Windowlene. And draw faces in it 😀. Or stick some of the bin liners together and make a darkroom till you can get the shutters. 👍

I have the same style window and same problem.
I ordered one of the perfect Venetian blinds to try, but the heading is too heavy and I was daily adjusting it as it kept slipping down.

I’ve looked at Venetians but can’t envisage how they will be neat, and if the angles of the headers will be wrong, IYSWIM?

Currently considering floor length voiles and curtains to go over as no radiator on that wall.

We got 5 roman blinds for blinds2go and actually received loads of comments.

We saved up for new windows and got them done before we then got the shutters done too.
Now set for the longterm.

I like Roman blinds but they don’t offer privacy for during the day.

I bought cheap Roman blinds in our last house and whilst they were not perfect they looked ok and gave some privacy

I currently have these from IKEA until I work out what I want to fit permanently. They’re made of a lightweight but durable fabric which filters the light, can be cut to size and I think were £2.50 each. They’ve ended up being here a lot longer than I thought they’d be because they actually don’t look half bad. Long term I’m probably going to opt for five individual day-night roller blinds.

What do you want from window dressing? Privacy, heat retention?
Sticker film or blinds like @ComtesseDeSpair’s.

We live in a 1930’s house & have a bay window. We have shutters on all the windows. The company we used let us pay over 3 months. They are expensive but well worth it. We only got 2 windows done at once too to spread the cost. I’m not in London but this may be an option for you?

We used diamonds shutters and if you call them and give them measurements they can give you the price.
We had them in our last house too and they look fab.

We got blinds from blinds2go. Venetians with the thick tab. I think they are great and are much better value than shutters. You would have to adjust the shutter panels separately anyway so 5 blinds is no more faff. And I think that shutters are generally more bulky and so let in less light when the slats are open than blinds do.

Yes we got the whole house measured/quoted and then did a room at a time.

We got shutters throughout our entire house. Expensive, yes, but worth it. You can get cheap paper blinds to tide you over until you can afford them.

Those look a serious contender Comtesse. I might manage £12.50 (just)

I did have a budget.... then I saw a Roger Oates runner for the stairs, in the sale....bye- bye blind budget.

Ideally, I want shutters as I need privacy, while letting light in. Heat loss shouldn’t be a problem as there is triple glazing.

I’ll have a look at Diamond Shutters, thanks.

If you’re triple glazed definitely look at privacy film- it’s super cheap and comes in lots of patterns

Yesterdays' newspaper.....

We've just had shutters fitted throughout but probably not what you're looking for presently.

But if you're interested in shutters I can highly recommend Chichester Shutters. Pretty sure they are happy to travel.

Another vote for the £2.50 blinds from IKEA! We also have them in our large downstairs bay as a temporary measure before we get our shutters in... But they really do look pretty good and are easy to put up!

We Habe just ordered shutters for 2 5 window bays and it cost about 3.4k

Thanks everyone. Ikea blinds it is, until more money is available.

Mirrorxx, thanks for the price. I really do think shutters are the long term solution.

I’m quite please to be putting off the final decision, as there are so many competing decisions to be made that I don’t get to give each one enough head-space compared to the cost spent.

The blinds are now £3.50 humph!

@ComtesseDeSpair sorry to derail the thread a bit but please can I ask where your curtain pole is from?!

We have what sounds the same as @Bimblybomeyelash, white wooden Venetians with thick ribbons from Blinds2go. Terrible name, great blinds. I have even had a few compliments on our “shutters” from people who have seen them from the outside.

Do those IKEA blinds offer ANY privacy at night?

@FlopMadeMeDoIt - Dunelm, it’s the Ashton bay pole in satin steel effect. Really impressed with quality and ease of putting up. Saw loads of more expensive ones which didn’t get great reviews and was getting ready to get one custom made but then found this.

@Bimblybomeyelash - they’re at the opaque end of translucent. They filter light but you can’t see anything through them at all, even from the outside at night.

I can also vouch for the Dunelm bay window pole. We have three of them in our house, easy to fit and look great.