Front door blinds

Sidelight blinds for a newly constructed home in Monclova, OH, a suburb in the Toledo area. The homeowner wanted window treatments throughout the home. Something simple in design yet tasteful and easy to maintain that would complement the interior of the home, rather than become the focal point of each room. The selected product: Wood Blinds.

One thing that I wanted to share is something about blinds (and shades, for that matter), which is often overlooked. In fact, most people aren't even aware of this issue, yet it's something that really adds to the look of the window. It also addresses a potential security risk as you'll soon understand. And that is the width of the blind.

When blinds are made, there are "standard widths" that used by manufacturers. When someone measures a window for a blind and those measurements are provided to the manufacturer, which then automatically takes into account a factor for "error" and also enough variance so the blind can easily fit into the opening of the window.

The problem with this method is that this usually results in a space between the slats of the blinds and the side of the window that can allow a good amount of light into a room. Also, depending upon the size of this gap, it can allow a stranger to look into the side of the window and see inside the room! This is something that isn't even noticed until the blind is installed. Most people assume "that's just the way it is!" Actually, that's the way the system is set up. What we do is a little different but I think it's worth the extra effort.

In addition to personally doing all of our measuring, I also set the specifications for the sizes of the window treatments we order. (Everything is "custom ordered" and this is one of the advantages!) The result is that the space between the slats of the blind and the side of the window is generally less than what most homeowners would otherwise have.

This results in a more "finished" look with greater light control and improved privacy control as well. This is just one of several advantages that custom window treatments provide over "standard" blinds or shades. And it's one of the smaller details that we take into account on every project we do.