Venetian blinds

[plasticpigeon]

Hello. We have decided that putting curtains round our bay window will be tricky so will put curtains across instead. However we still want to have some privacy during the day, and also in the evening but still be able to use the area enclosed by the bay, ie without the curtains drawn. We were thinking of using venetian blinds. I think I can adapt cheap ready made ones to fit as otherwise the price would be eye watering. At the moment I think it would be nice to have the binds mounted so that just the lower section of the window is covered by blinds leaving the small upper lights uncovered. I'm not sure that this was traditional as I think lace curtains would be traditional but they can't provide evening privacy like venetian blinds. Do people think blinds covering the lower windows would be good or should they be longer and cover the whole window?

 

[kreyszig]

I'd go full length, and try and hang them high enough that when they are fully up you can still see through the top part of the window. Looks like you won't get much privacy from the upper windows of your neighbours otherwise.

Don't know if it's any interest but I had success respraying some IKEA blinds that came with the house when we did a bedroom recently; they were a nasty brown but are now French Grey and look pretty cool, if I do say so myself. I did waste my time spraying the other side an off white though, the darker colour reflects off the white so the effect is very subtle. You could match yours to the window woodwork. I used zinsser 1-2-3 primer before the top coat (three of).

 

[livias]

Or you could have a floor standing screen in front of the window

 

[LadyArowana]

I find myself without a polite way to say this, so I will just come straight out with it. Whatever the problem the solution is not and never will be Venetian blinds. Aesthetically they are a bit "meh" and I can take them or leave them, but they are the worst things to keep clean. The WORST, believe me, worse than 2,000 elephants bad, worse than the shower that gets used every day bad, worse than under the fridge bad, or behind the washing machine bad. We have them ( not our choice ) and for the love of all that is holy I beg you not to. A nice roman blind in a sheer fabric, even dare I say it some net curtains, but please please please not Venetian blinds.

 

[mims&pip]

Or you could have a floor standing screen in front of the window

This is what we did at our first house - a Victorian terrace with very shallow forecourt - and we employed it again at our next house (whilst waiting for our hedge to achieve significant height!) that had a bus stop right outside our front garden.

Sorry, PP, but I have to agree with Her Ladyship and personally I wouldn't want Venetian blinds in any situation. Plantation shutters are a slightly different matter (and we did have these in our teenage son's room at a previous house - his choice :roll: ), but I can't see these in your room either tbh......

Our last house - although it was in a rural village - fronted straight onto the street and saw a fair amount of passing traffic which contributed to the lack of privacy felt in the three ground floor front rooms. The dining room was only used at night/special occasions as we ate our everyday meals either at the breakfast table or kitchen island and the kitchen had original Georgian shutters, although we supplemented these by the addition of obscure window film on the lower portion.

In the snug we chose to place our high-back vintage sofa in the window which again was sufficient to prevent passers by from seeing into the room.

In other houses we have adopted the roman blind option - in an assortment of sheer and standard weight fabrics - all of which have proved more than satisfactory and look far more attractive than Venetian blinds which imho don't convey a period aesthetic :wink:

Mims x

 

[plasticpigeon]

Ok, well that is interesting. Venetian blinds were certainly used at the turn of the 20th century, but I can imagine them being a pain to keep clean. Actually lace curtains were my original preference, but my other half won't have lace and wanted some kind of crappy looking net curtain with no pattern at all, so the Venetian blinds were really an option that neither of us hated. I can see that net or lace from the middle rail, and Roman blinds from the top could work well. I shall investigate this option, thanks for the advice so far!!!

 

[TheRoost]

We have similar height/width windows to you in our living room, but as two separate windows rather than a bay. The Previous owners left behind full length wooden venetians, and while we will probably replace with curtains, there are a few things I like about them. When the opening is angled correctly you get full sunlight through the windows without any blocking from drawn curtains at the sides or roman blinds at the top, we never actually pull the venetians up to the top. The mounting frame is only about 20mmx20mm section so you could mount them over the lower windows tidily, although if you pull the blinds up, they may look a bit odd. What material did you have in mind? aluminium venetians are quite a compact 'stack' when pulled up, but wooden ones are quite chunky and block quite a bit of the top window. Dark wood does show the dust easily but not that bad to clean with a vacuum brush tool once in a while.

Andy

 

[88v8]

Nets from the middle rail.

Ivor

 

[Feltwell]

I very, very, very reluctantly say nets as well. And I really hate net curtains!

People love staring in our bay window as they walk past, we've got used to it, but we have got a huge climbing rose and clematis that almost make a hedge, between two rose arches for support, at an angle to one side of the window. Even in it's fairly bare winter state it adds some privacy, and doesn't cut out much light. A bit hard to describe but the old picture below shows it - have you enough depth in the front garden to do anything like this? Although you can see through it it does draw the eye of all those walking past away from the window, and of course in summer it's much denser. And it has lovely flowers, albeit only briefly each year!

 

[MatthewC]

I have net curtains from the middle of the large sash window in my front bay; although you have a very high "middle" rail, I would still go for net as at least (a) it's cheap and so (b) you can always change your mind later without too much worry; there are some good innocuous patterns out there.

I agree with her ladyship about blinds - we have a small one in the bathroom as that also looks out to the front and it really is always dirty despite cleaning which is a pain to do.

M

 

[plasticpigeon]

Nets it is. No space for an arbour in the garden. I am trying to cultivate a privet hedge but it is ridiculously slow growing and still looks weedy after 3 years.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Shutters, split top and bottom would be my first option. However, there are some roller blinds can be pulled upwards from the sill to the main part of the sash, or you could have roller blinds from the top downwards in a daylight cloth--then they could be rolled down as far as you want. Of course (tongue in cheek here) blinds should have a nice central pull cord with an acorn or tassle on the end, not side winders!!

I am cursing the venetian blinds that we inherited when we moved here--dust and spider traps!

 

[Feltwell]

Poor spiders!

 

[MatthewC]

Nets it is. No space for an arbour in the garden. I am trying to cultivate a privet hedge but it is ridiculously slow growing and still looks weedy after 3 years.

My front hedge is hornbeam (looks like beech but is more suited to the local soil I was told). It grows very well - I planted 1 metre plants and within three years I was trimming drastically to keep it below 2 metres. The real pain are the ***** peasants who put their rubbish in it.

 

[a twig]

Whatever the problem the solution is not and never will be Venetian blinds. Aesthetically they are a bit "meh" and I can take them or leave them, but they are the worst things to keep clean. The WORST, believe me, worse than 2,000 elephants bad, worse than the shower that gets used every day bad, worse than under the fridge bad, or behind the washing machine bad.

Can't say we've ever had that same problem, a robust set of Venetian blinds in our last place meant we had a very simple cleaning routine. A brisk couple of rolls up and down dislodged the dust, followed by a hoover of the window sill - done... :twisted: