Wood Window Blinds

If you want to add warmth and character to a room in your home, or indeed to multiple rooms in your home, then the best decision you can make is to go with wood window blinds. There is no other material that quite matches the natural character of wood, and there’s a huge range of different styles available. Ever since humans have had windows, they have been covering them with wood, and all these many years later it is still one of them most popular materials out there. Although many will tell you about all the benefits of newer materials such as vinyl, there is something very romantic about the natural aspect of wood.

There are many places that you can get wooden window blinds. If you prefer to walk into an actual shop, then you may need to do a bit of research about what’s available in your local area, but if you are open to the prospect of shopping online, there are some great bargains to be had, and a huge range to choose from. Many people avoid buying large items like blinds online because they think that any savings to be had will be lost in the cost of having the item delivered, but this is not necessarily the case. Many online blind retailers will even offer free shipping if you spend a certain amount of money with them, so it’s well worth at least having a look before deciding.

As far as different styles available in wood, there are many. wood window blindsThe most popular are venetian blinds, which are stunningly attractive and also incredibly functional. Most venetian blinds (some people refer to them as min blinds) have moveable slats on them, which are operated either by a pull cord or a wand, and it’s this moveability that makes them a fantastic option if your top priority is controlling light in your home. A wood window blind with slats that can be rotated will allow you to have control over exactly how much, if any, light you want, as well as giving you complete privacy control as well. On the high end of the price scale, you can take this functionality even one step further by getting motorized blinds, which allow you to control the slats at a press of a button.

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Wood is not the cheapest of options when it comes to window blinds, and if money is tight it can be difficult to warrant spending that much money on something that can be had a whole lot cheaper using other materials such as vinyl. There are some places that offer discount wood window blinds at times, but you need to be careful that you are not paying for a lesser quality item. If you are sold on the look of wood but having trouble finding the money for it, you may want to consider faux wood window blinds. The technology used to create faux wood has come a long way in recent years, and in some cases can look (and function) every bit as good as the real thing, at a fraction of the price.

If you do decide to go the cheaper option of faux wood, then you are not going to have to worry too much about maintenance, as you can simply give them a wipe down with a damp cloth and they will continue to look great for years to come. If, however, you are able to get real wood, then there is, unfortunately, a little more work involved in their maintenance. For starters, you need to keep moisture away from them as much as possible. Too much moisture will cause your blinds to buckle and warp, and once they are bent out of shape, they cease to be useful as a window covering. You should be cleaning the dust off them regularly with a vacuum cleaner, but you need to make sure that you have the brush attachment on so that the wood doesn’t get scratched. You will also need to take them down and recoat them, with varnish or paint, every year or so, depending on how exposed they are to the sun.

Faux Wood Blinds – A Great Alternative To Wood

When it comes to the world of home furnishings, wood will probably always reign supreme. After all, the look and texture of wood has a certain romanticism to it that is almost mystical. It makes us feel as if we are closer to nature, and has a warm calming effect in any home. There are, however, a few problems with excessive use of wood, which is why faux wood blinds can be a great alternative for those that want to achieve the atmosphere that wood can provide.

For starters, wood is particularly expensive. Not only that, but it getting more and more so every year. Fitting your house out with wooden blinds can really do some major damage to your bank account balance, and in these troubling times, many of us just can’t afford that extra financial pressure. Secondly, our love of wood, coupled with our ever expanding population, is causing some serious damage to our environment. We are consuming lumber at a faster rate than we can grow trees, and as a result our forests are dwindling, and I don’t need to tell you that we need these trees to survive.

If either of these two issues are a problem for you (and they really should be), then the use of faux wood window blinds in your home will really be a great help. The technology that is used in creating this material has come forward in leaps and bounds in recent years, and the products available now look just as good as the real thing, and have many added benefits on top of natural wood.

faux wood blindsFaux wood is primarily made in one of two ways. One way is called “composite wood” which is basically a material that is manufactured using part hardwood and part polymer. Composite wood is the more expensive of the two types, but looks and feels a lot more like the real thing. The other option is vinyl, also known as pvc. This material is a lot cheaper to manufacture and therefore less expensive to buy. It doesn’t look quite as good as composite wood, but if it’s cheap faux wood blinds you are after, this is the material that you want to look for.

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The benefits of faux wood over the real thing are many. For example, real wood, if not treated correctly, will crack and warp over time, especially if it is in an area that is installed in damp environments. Faux wood is a much hardier option, and will also not fade from the suns harmful UV rays. A faux wood blind is much easier to clean as well. With wood, you need to be careful when using water to clean your blinds, but faux wood will not be damaged by excessive use of water.

There are a few different styles of blinds available in faux wood, and the type you choose will depend entirely on your home and your own personal tastes. In the right conditions, faux wood roller blinds can give a tremendous atmosphere to your room, providing it with a dappled light effect while still giving you the privacy you need. Another type of blind that is very popular is shutters that can be used either on the inside or the outside of your windows.

How to Clean Faux Wood Blinds

Faux Blinds – Fake It Till You Make It

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. faux blindsParticle 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.

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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.