Shopping For Roller Blinds – 5 Easy Tips

 

When it comes to buying roller blinds, it can be a little daunting, especially if it’s your first time. Browsing, ordering free samples of fabric, measuring your windows, entering them into a web site and hoping you got it all right when they arrive ready for you to fit them can seem like a bit task, but it needn’t be difficult. Just take it all one step at a time with these easy tips.

 

Always Order Free Samples

Free samples of blind fabric are absolute lifesavers when it comes to buying blinds. Go through the site and order your free fabric sample (or slat sample if you’re looking for a venetian blind) from any blind that catches your eye. This lets you see the fabric in person which is very important. You’re able to see how the fabric reacts to light, whether it lets in too much or blocks out too much. You can see the colour uninhibited by screen resolution and varying brightness which can sometimes make the fabric colours look a little different.

 

Measure in 3 Places

When you come to measure up your window, having followed the measuring guides that are easily available online, be sure to take three measurements for the width and three for the drop. By taking three from various parts of the window you’re able to see whether the window changes shape midway.

If you were to only take one measurement near the top, you may find that the area near the bottom of the window is narrower, so your blind won’t fit right to the bottom. So, take three measurements. If there is any variation in the drop, go with the largest and if there is any variation in the width, go with the smallest.

 

Choose Made to Measure Blinds

There are so many affordable, high quality made to measure blinds out there that you don’t need to go to your local hardware store and buy a ready-made blind that you may need to cut to size.

Made to measure blinds are custom made to fit your window perfectly. However, it isn’t simply down to whether you have to take a set of scissors and a saw to your blind, it’s the materials the blind is made from.

Readymade blinds are typically low quality because they need to be easy to adapt. Quality made to measure blinds use components such as a metal barrel to hold the fabric, whereas readymade blinds have cardboard barrels that sag and become damaged easily. Details like this are an indicator to the quality of the product you’re buying, and if you don’t want to be let down by your window blind, be sure to go for a custom-made roller blind.

 

Understand Each Type of Blind

Now you don’t need to study every blind, but it’s always a good idea to know which blinds are best suited to which environment. For example, blackout roller blinds are ideal for bedrooms and cinema rooms whilst dimout fabric blinds, which are a more voile style fabric, can reduce glare in a room but still let in plenty of natural light. It’s worth figuring out some of the features of a blind too, such as child safety, water resistance, solar reflectivity and flame retardancy. Each feature plays important roles in the room’s they’re installed in.

 

Be Extra Child Safe

Roller blinds are a great way to shade your room, but did you know there are more ways to control a roller blind than just a chain? All blinds by law must come with a child safety device, and be child safe by design, however, there are other blind mechanisms out there render a blind completely safe. These can be crank roller blinds or remote-control electric roller blinds which have no chains or cords that could pose a potential risk of entanglement for children.

If you do choose a blind with chains or cords, be sure to install the child safety device, even if you don’t live with any children. Visiting kids and pets deserve to live in a safe environment, and for the sake of one screw to install a child safety device, there is no point taking the risk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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