Blinds - vertical v ventian - views please!

[niftyfifty]

I was planning on having vertical blinds at the front & back of the dining room - we already have them on the patio doors - plus two front windows upstairs. DH suggested wooden venetian blinds, which I like the look of, but TBH am worried that they will need constant dusting (which won't get done!). Any advice/views welcome!

I found their service to be excellent - I requested samples which came within 2 days (then requested more, as I couldn't make up my mind!) and then when I finally ordered the blinds they arrived within a week, after I was given an estimated delivery time of 28 days. They were well packaged and the fitting instructions were really easy to follow - it only took us about 10 minutes to put each blind up. My mum had a minor problem with one of her blinds, as she was sent an extra right-hand bracket instead of a left-hand one, but she called up and they sent the correct bracket to her by next day delivery.

I don't know about the Luxaflex blinds as ours are all their 'Designer' wood venetians, but they're very good quality. Ours are quite big and are very, very heavy! And all real wood - even the pelmet and the little stoppers on the ends of the cords - no plastic at all.

Thanks MrsL, that's good to hear, I really wanted to get shutters but at these prices am quite tempted by the blinds...

You and noddy should ask for a discount off your next order after this thread, working on commission!

So vertical blinds are big in Suffolk as well then lol - I'm in South Wales! They really are very popular, at least in the area I'm in.

Am definitely going for the wooden venetians after all your comments, and thanks for the suggested sites. Not so sure about fitting them though - it may have taken MrsL 10 minutes for each blind but it will take DH longer than that plus the usual swearing & shouting that goes along with all DIY at the nifty household!

Oh no, that INCLUDED the swearing, shouting and tantrums! DH can't even pick up a screwdriver without turning into the incredible hulk. To give you an idea of his DIY skill level - two weeks ago we bought some coat hooks for the hall, and we spent a good ten minutes deciding exactly where they should go and at what height. I left him alone for literally five minutes, and came back to find that he'd drilled the holes on the wrong wall and at completely the wrong height and they were wonky! So believe me, if mine can do them in a few minutes so can yours!

If they're going inside the window recess it's really easy because you don't even need to measure where the brackets go, they just screw in right at the edges (you've got a bit of leeway anyway, because the brackets are quite big). And the pelmet is held on by two or three little clips that have sticky pads on the backs, so you just stick them into place to check their position and then put a little screw in them to secure them. The first blind took a little bit longer than 10 minutes (due to the aforementioned tantrum) but after that he knew what he needed to do so they were really easy! the only thing I would say is that the pelmets don't come cut to size, so you may need to trim a bit off them with a saw, but it's only 3 inches of wood so it takes seconds.

Glad it's not just in our house MrsL but your poor coat hooks! What is it with men? The other thing that drives me mad is that I can be busy doing any number of things elsewhere in the house but if DH is engaged in any DIY I have to keep stopping what I'm doing to get things for him! Drives me insane.

The blinds do sound pretty easy from what you say though so fingers crossed ....

Thanks for the website noddy. Was browsing this topic hoping there would be a thread on blinds as we need them for 2 rooms so I was impressed to see there was a current thread that was very useful. Have now ordered blinds so hope they are good. Certainly cheaper than anywhere else.

I'm in Suffolk and yes we are surrounded by vertical blinds, which I hate. I am going to make use of Noddy's advice and get wooden verticals everywhere when we move in 7 weeks. They look great in the new neighbouring house - I just hope they don't think we're copying!

Am wanting to order venetian blinds for all of the bedroom windows - what do the cream blinds look like? Although I think maybe natural wood would look nice too - have yet to decorate all of the bedrooms (master, guest & 2 kid rooms).
Any tips?
Thanks

We had cream blinds in our last house and pale wood before.
I prefer the cream, they look a bit softer and show the dust less than wood as well.

Yes go for light coloured horizontal ones, I had dark wood one but they show the dust dreadfully and shutting them and dusting didn't work as where the slat above over-lapped it trapped the dust meaning when you re-opened them there was now just a thin line of dust along the back of each slat

I used to hoover dust them and move the slats up as I hoovered them.

Please don't get office blinds for a house, verticals are awful

Ours came on Wed and dh got them up today. Went for light wood as dh didn't want cream. They were easy to put up and look good.

Ok, so the general conscensus is cream venetian blinds May order a few samples...
Thanks