Are Custom Blinds Worth the Investment
BWS Design • Jul 05, 2018

Everyone loves the look of custom blinds, but it’s so easy to pick up another cheap mini-blind from the nearest big box store. If yet another broken mini-blind or the transition to a new home has you thinking about custom blinds, it’s important to ask whether they’re actually worth the investment. We’ve taken a closer look at investing in custom blinds, so you can determine whether an upgrade is right for you and your family.

Lasting quality

There are many things to consider when choosing home decor, but one of the first concerns for many homeowners is lasting quality. Replacing your cheap mini-blinds every time they get stained, faded, or broken takes time, energy, and trips to the store. That adds up over time! Unlike mini-blinds, we build custom blinds to last, and the best products even come with a warranty. With great brands like Hunter Douglas, Graber, and Horizons, you’ll never waste a weekend replacing broken, dirty, or faded blinds with a custom option.

Energy savings

Running your air-conditioner isn’t cheap, and custom blinds create real savings over the hot summer. Even when standard blinds stay closed, the sun easily heats your home. Your air conditioner must work harder to keep things cool, draining your wallet every day. If your windows don’t fit the standard sizes or shapes, it’s even harder to keep it cool. Open spaces invite sunlight into your home, heating it even when you’re away at work. With custom blinds from top brands like Lafayette and O’Hair Shutters, it’s easy to find solutions that save you thousands of dollars in energy costs over time. You’ll pay a little more up front for the blinds, but you’ll see real savings on your energy bill.

Privacy

Windows with unique shapes and sizes create a privacy problem. No one wants others to see around the sides of poorly fitted blinds. Tall or wide windows create additional privacy problems for those using standard blinds, and most people with non-rectangular windows simply can’t find a standard blind that fits their space.

Instead of relying on guesswork and imperfect options, our experts conduct a free in-home consultation to assess your needs. Professionals measure each window, and we create blinds that fit your space perfectly. The shape and size of your window doesn’t matter with custom blinds. We’ll find the perfect solution for your privacy needs. Gone on a long vacation? Choose O’Hair Shutters to prevent anyone from seeing into your home, keeping your valuables safe and out of sight. With custom shades, you’ll never worry about privacy again.

Light control

If your home has exterior lighting or you live on a well-lit street, the poor light control from standard mini-blinds affects your sleep quality. Your sleep quality affects your mood, concentration, and productivity on a daily basis. With custom blinds, however, you’ll get perfect light control to help you sleep well and feel great every day.

Interior design

Add style and elegance to your home with custom blinds from Lafayette Interior Fashions or get the sleek, modern look of Horizons. Regular mini blinds degrade the look of your home, making even a well-designed house appear cheaply built. In contrast, custom blinds are a great way to give your home character and architectural details, even if your home is small. If you want to add architectural details to your home, save money by skipping the built-ins and adding beautiful blinds.

If interior design isn’t really your thing, our team of design experts will help you find blinds that fit the look of your home and your individual needs. While it may seem difficult to choose the right colors, designs, and window treatments for your home, our experts will make great recommendations that fit your lifestyle and family situation.

Based on our analysis, we believe that custom blinds are almost always worth the investment. But don’t take our word for it. Learn about your options from one of our experts today!  Contact us  for a free, in-home consultation to determine whether custom blinds are right for you.

By Autumn Hooper 07 Feb, 2024
Each year, styles in window treatments come and go. Trends that were hot last year may carry over to the new interior decor season or may be replaced by something new. In 2024, we are looking at a delightful set of trends in blinds, shades, and curtains that embrace the developing attitudes and popular colors that are already giving the year a unique stylistic personality. At Just Blinds, we are delighted to keep up with the trends, helping homeowners, designers, and property managers to create stunning spaces that align with the latest in window treatment trends. The Hot Trends of 2023 Blinds and Shades Last year in 2023, we saw a great collection of trends, many of which have evolved and strengthened with the new year. 2023 explored the innovations of cell shades and honeycomb shades for the benefits of insulation and light control. Motorization gained a prominant place in both home and office design, and decorators discovered the dynamic possibilities of shades that operate from both the bottom and the top on floor-to-ceiling tracks. Texture saw a real debut with natural colors like wood finishes, linen, dusty rose, and moss green. Though bold patterns also had their day in the sun. The Trending 2024 Window Treatments In 2024, you may recognize a few trends still going strong from the year before, which is good news for those who decorated last year because your style is likely still right on-trend. But we are also seeing new trends developing with elegant enthusiasm. Smart Home Blinds The trend for motorized shades has naturally evolved to favor smart home controls. With a simple voice command, you can take control of all the motorized shades in a room, in your entire home, or set each shade to exactly the height and opacity you desire. Warm Neutrals and Bold Natural Colors Color trends favor a more natural palette. Neutral colors are warmer, even the grays and charcoals have a honey undertone, while natural colors like mossy and forest green are growing stronger in hue paired with a jewelbox of flower petal colors. If you're following the Colors of the Year, you may have also noticed an adoration of ocean blues, and you can match those blues with slightly darker or lighter blinds for beautiful effect. Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Materials Natural materials and textures were popular in 2023, and 2024 takes this trend even further. Blinds made out of recycled materials are now on the rise alongside the growing popularity of blinds made from super-sustainable plants like bamboo, hemp, jute, and grass cloth. These offer natural colors, dynamic textures, and the delight of eco-friendly design. Gauzy Sheer Elegance Sheer curtains and semi-sheer blinds are also in fashion; a classic style that has been floating near the top of popularity for literal centuries. Sheer curtains and blinds maintain privacy while allowing sunlight into the room in a gently diffused glow. They also layer excellently with more robust window treatments. Creative Window Treatment Layering Speaking of layering, we are seeing an enthusiastic embrace of creatively layered styles. Wooden shutters, gauzy curtains, and black-out blinds are among the most popular layers, but decorators are getting creative with how they choose to to layer their window treatments, using both multiple fabrics and structures at the same time. Find the Blinds that Best Suit Your Needs How can you choose fantastic and on-trend blinds that perfectly suit your design needs? Fortunately, the diversity of this year's trends leave room for almost any personal sense of style and the individual needs of each room's windows. Start with the size of your windows and your room's existing color palette. Decide if you want to match, accent, or contrast the colors of the room. Then choose the opacity, privacy, and level of motorized control you desire. This should guide you toward a specific selection that will work well for your room. From there, it's a matter of specific features and your personal sense of style. Reach Out for Expert and On-Trend Advice If you are getting ready to decorate a room and want the perfect window treatments for 2024, we are only a phonecall or a visit away. Give us a call for expert advice in the right blinds or shades for each window in your home. Our on-trend window treatment experts will be glad to help tailor your window treatment design to your personal tastes, the latest trends, and the style of each of your rooms.
20 Jul, 2023
Is your AC bill keeping you down this summer? Is your home too hot? Window treatments can help cool your home, but you need to choose the right ones and use them correctly. Not all window coverings are made equal. Here are some of the best options to help keep your home comfortable and reduce costs this summer: Cellular or honeycomb shades. These are specifically designed to provide a high level of insulation that keeps the heat out of your home. They also don't block the view when completely drawn. As a bonus, you can get them in a wide variety of colors and patterns to match your home and in both top-down and bottom-up configurations. Drapery. Old-fashioned curtains can be surprisingly effective. Choose a medium color and have us add a white plastic backing to reflect heat out of your home. You can also use drapes to block some of the heat without excluding much light, allowing you to enjoy natural light flowing through your drapes. Fabric Roman shades. These are a distinctive option that really dresses up a room, and if you choose the kind with several layers they will definitely help keep the heat out. We have light filtering and blackout options and everything in between. Why Should You Use These Types of Shades or Blinds? The two reasons are to save money and help protect the environment. Good shades keep your home cooler and this means your air conditioning systems don't have to work as hard and use as much energy. In the northern hemisphere, it's most important to have heat-reducing treatments on your southern windows and you can allow more light in through windows that face north. Both cellular and Roman shades can also be motorized and even put on timers to close the shades when you are not there and then let light in when you return. The small amount of energy used by motorized shades is much less than that lost through naked windows. All of these shades can also add to the aesthetics of your room. Cellular shades are great to add a pop of color or a subtle pattern. Both drapery and Roman shades give a soft feel to your windows that then spreads to the rest of your room. What is the Best Choice? The best choice of the three depends on your personal aesthetics. Our designers can help you make the right choice. If you want motorized shades, cellular shades are the lightest and thus use the least energy, and can roll all the way up and down, leaving your windows completely unrestricted. Roman shades are more visible, but can be used to add fabric and color to a room. Many people still love the look of traditional window drapes. Note that you can also combine shades and drapes for the effect you want, both in terms of reducing heat loss and in terms of aesthetics. How Much Can I Actually Save? The amount you save depends on the kind of window covering you use and how much thermal gain your house typically experiences. The larger your windows, in general, the larger the benefit, especially south-facing windows. For example, medium-colored draperies with a white plastic backing can reduce heat gain by as much as 33% for that window. Most window treatments, though, reduce overall heat gain by about 10%. This can significantly reduce your bills, by $100 to $200 a month during the summer. Using the right window treatment can make your home more comfortable in the summer and save money while preserving the environment. For advise on which window treatments to choose for your home and to see our selection of blinds and shades, contact Just Blinds today.
Share by: