The word “faux” orginally comes from France, and means “fake” or “false”. This term is used in the English language quite extensively, for example the phrase “faux fur” refers to womens fashion, and is used to describe clothing that is made to look like animal fur, but is in fact not. There are two reasons why faux fur is so popular; firstly, it is much cheaper than real animal fur, and secondly, the thought of wearing dead animal skin, for many people, is too much to contemplate. It is these same two reasons that faux wood has become so popular in recent times. Wood is a very expensive material, especially when you are looking at fitting out an entire house with wooden blinds. The use of wood is also becoming more and more an environmental problem, as forests are being chopped down to try and keep up with our voracious appetite for the stuff. We can’t grow the trees quickly enough to keep up with the demand.

The technology used to create faux wood is getting better and better with each passing year. Many of the products now on the market are indisitinguishable from real wood, unless you physcially go up and feel them. There are a few different materials that are used in the construction of faux wood. Particleboard is a popular material, which is made up of wood particles that are moulded together into a solid board using resin. The boards are then coated with a veneer that gives it the appearance of real wood. Particle board, while making for extremely cheap faux wood blinds, is not the most hardy of materials to use, espcially if you will be installing the blinds in areas that are prone to moisture. After prolonged exposure to damp, particle board will start to crumble and split.

Browse Our Selection Of Faux Blinds

The next step up from particle board is a material called hardboard, Hardboard is created in much the same fashion as particle board, but is compressed at high temperatures, making it a lot more sturdy and capable of withstanding damp environments. Usually the fibers are condensed at such a high density that no further bonding is needed, however some manufactruers will still use a resin in their hardboard products, making them even stronger. Hardboard is not only used to make faux wood blinds, but is also a popular material in the creation of furniture.

Finally, we have veneer, which is basically lots of very thin strips of wood compressed together and bound using resins or adhesives. This material is generally considered to be much stronger and straighter than normal ljmber, and this makes it a perfect material to be used in faux blinds.

Which material you decide on will depend mostly on the budget that is available to you, but I would definitely recommend going a step above particle board if you are able to, you’ll thank me in the long term. Faux blinds are hugely popular, and manufacturers have mimicked wood blinds of every style. Anything that you can get in wood can be purchased at a much cheaper cost as a faux wood blind.