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About Blinds
This page provides general information about blinds, and in particular blinds custom-made by New Zealand soft furnishing businesses. We hope you will find this information useful, and that to get further professional assistance you will check out the local firms that make blinds and other soft furnishings in New Zealand. There are several different types of blinds popular in New Zealand, the main one being roman blinds and timber venetians. Others include austrian blinds, cascade blinds, festoon blinds, swedish blinds and london blinds. Some specialists categorise blinds as being made of fabric or not. Blinds are particularly favoured for smaller windows or where space and operation make curtains a nuisance (or even impossible), such as above the bed in a bedroom or small feature windows in a living room. Kitchen and bathroom windows also lend themselves to blinds that fold up out of the way of splashes. If you have a plain or ugly window frame you want to hide, the blind should be made larger than the window frame. If it's a beautiful frame, have the blind fitted within the architrave. Blinds can also be used for very large windows (say, wider than about 2.5 metres), by using two or three separate blinds across them. How long should a blind be? If attached to the inside of a window frame, it should just touch the sill when closed. If installed above the frame, it should finish about 10cm below the sill. Choose from a variety of exquisite materials for your roman shades here and express your personality! 
ROMAN BLINDS: With their clean, sophisticated lines, Roman blinds are one of the most stylish and convenient ways to dress up a window. They can be used as a standalone window treatment fitted outside the window or fitted inside the window recess. Roman blinds are best made from light to medium weight fabrics and are usually lined for privacy. They sit flat across the window when closed and fold up to pleats at the window top when open. 
TIMBER VENETIAN BLINDS: The natural beauty of timber brings warmth and beauty to a smaller window, superbly complementing any decor. Suppliers offer a choice of blade widths, in a wide range of attractive natural colours and finishes, and an anti-static treatment is applied to repel dust. Other non-fabric blinds may be made of PVC, sunscreen materials, aluminium or bamboo.
LONDON BLINDS: These are a cross between a Roman and an Austrian blind. They are softer than Roman blinds but more tailored than Austrian blinds with the fullness coming from inverted pleats. The blind is pulled up and down with cords threaded through Austrian blind tapes that are attached to the blind at the back of the pleats. London blinds can be used as a single window treatment or teamed with curtains, valances or pelmets to give a layered look. SWEDISH BLINDS: (or Reef Blinds) are roller-type blinds that sit flat when down, then roll up around a dowel, often revealing a contrasting fabric. You will find further detailed information, including a glossary of soft furnishing terms, on the 'Tips and Advice' page. |
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AUSTRIAN BLINDS: These are in reality a curtain, the only differences being that the blind is pulled up from the bottom to the top by means of cords attached at the back. The extra fabric in the length forms scallops, even when the blind is in the lowered position, and billows out in waves which become more accentuated as the blind is drawn up. They can be hung inside or outside the window recess. A Festoon Blind is often confused with Austrian blinds, the difference being that a Festoon blind is ruched from top to bottom (photo, right).