Venetian blinds advice

[iansr]

I’m looking to fit some internal Venetian blinds to various windows and so I’m looking for general advice:  what blind material is recommended (aluminium ??) and what should I avoid?   I get the impression that there are lots of companies making super profits on blinds so any recommended good VFM suppliers ?

 

i also want to fit some roller blinds to some other windows.

 

Any other general advice about blinds would be appreciated.

[markc]

I have had alu Venetians and never again, they kink and crease too easily and then look terrible. Recently got some made to measure off eBay, wooden slats and they are really good, although a bit fiddly to fit because of this particular support clip design.

[iansr]

OK thanks, that’s helpful.

 

Anyone else care to comment?

[RichardL]

My experience buying for a Bathroom conversion and home office DIY:

Shutters
Blinds/Shutters - Hilary's are pot luck re your installer and charge a premium of course. If you order the wrong product or get the wrong installer its a nightmare (family experience)

Seems like everything is sourced in china anyway so your looking at 6 weeks-2 months on delivery.

I used 'California Shutters' (https://www.californiashutters.co.uk) - which are decent enough, needed some fitting into the frame, but thats up to you how tight you go on dimensions/how square your frames are etc.

You have to get that order right first time and no-one to look at if it doesn't fit!

Also if you're unlucky (top right my picture) some surface damage in shipping which I had to rectify - they did offer and good response / options -  however I opted to fix it vs. weeks delay on a replacement part.

Rollers
Not keen on rollers - pleated blinds are worth a look & blinds to go very good - quick/good products https://www.blinds-2go.co.uk/pleated_blinds.htm

Again ownus is 100% on getting the order spec right first time & eyes open re fitting in/around lintels etc.

Depends on what your into - above may give some options?

[dpmiller]

Fake wood venetians from Blinds2Go here. They're a bit heavier than aluminium but are plenty rugged and the customer service was great.

[Alan Ambrose]

We have simple white aluminium on all our front windows. They're fine. Got a local blinds guy to measure and fit. Not expensive. Yes, if you are careless or it is windy you can bend them, but they mostly bend back. I've also used binds2go for vertical blinds on my mum's property. They were fine. I think expected lifetime is maybe 5-10 years depending on how rough you are with them.

Edited November 12, 2023 by Alan Ambrose

[Gone West]

We've used 247Blinds several times, good choice and reasonable prices.

 

https://www.247blinds.co.uk/

 

[oliwoodings]

I can no longer recommend blinds2go, we had an absolutely TERRIBLE experience with them recently. The first set arrived damaged, they then 'forgot' to submit the replacement order, then only one part of the replacement arrived, eventually and unexpectedly followed by the second half over a week later. Should have quit at this point but thought '(expletive deleted) it they are here now'. Installed them, went to pull them open, both sets snapped. The mechanisms on their vertical blinds is atrocious, cheap flimsy plastic connecting the wand to the runners. Getting a refund out of them was like pulling teeth, took 2 hours on the phone and 3 videos (during which we found their support system silently rejects emails containing more than 3mb of attachments). Ordeal lasted over 4 weeks since the time of ordering.

 

I've used swiftblinds before, service and product was much better. We will probably just use recommended local blind suppliers in the future though to be honest.