For most people, the bathroom is considered the most private place in the house. Since it is such a private area, it is imperative to find the right blinds to go in your bathroom. These blinds must be more than pretty. They have to be functional. They must protect your privacy now and in the years to come.

So which blinds can stand up to the harsh conditions of the bathroom and maintain your privacy?

Vinyl Blinds for High Humidity
Your bathroom is in a constant state of change. During most of the day, the bathroom is like the rest of your house, climate wise that is. However, hot showers and baths quickly transform your bathroom into a sauna. Steam builds up and water fills the air.

Depending on how long you shower, the steam room can last for 30 minutes or more. After all, the steam takes some time to dissipate after the shower is over. If you are like me, then the bathroom can be a steam room for over an hour during a relaxing hot bath. Therefore, you need a window treatment that can handle such harsh conditions.

Your best choice is vinyl blinds. They will not warp, bend or break due to the changes in humidity. Since you can get them in a variety of colors and styles including faux wood, they accent any bathroom.

Options for Privacy
A window in the bathroom may provide natural light, but this is not something everyone really wants. Most people would rather have privacy in the bathroom especially if that window overlooks the front yard or a neighbor’s house. In those cases, you have two basic options

First is the privacy shade. Privacy shades work well to give you total privacy. However, you need to check the material used for the shade. A faux wood privacy shade would be ok, since it does not contain fabric. While fabric shades would work, they get spots and stains easier than vinyl, meaning you may get spots from the high humidity in the bathroom.

Your other option is vinyl blinds. As already discussed, they hold up well to high humidity conditions of the bathroom. They are strong and durable. Therefore, they will not be easily bent or broken.

Other Considerations for Bathroom Blinds
While aluminum blinds can handle the humidity of the bathroom, they are not your best option. If they are not handled properly, they have a tendency to bend and even break. A bent aluminum blind no longer offers you privacy and thus needs to be replaced. Now aluminum blinds are the cheapest blinds but if you have to constantly replace them, they become expensive fast.

When it comes to large windows, such as sliding patio doors and large bay windows, vertical blinds are pretty much the standard choice. They are highly functional, affordable and look pretty good. But, you aren’t likely to win any interior design awards. What you may not have known about vertical blinds is that they come with more than just vinyl slats. Truly amazed and excited at this point? THen, this may be the article you’ve been waiting for.

The first major option for vertical blinds is the cellular option. Vertical cellular shades have the same properties as cellular shades – insulation. So, if you want to make your windows more energy efficient you should seriously consider this option. Vertical cellular shades besides offering the insulating honeycomb feature come in different textures and even lace, if that fits your design ideas. Vertical cellular blinds are on the mid-to-high end of the price spectrum for vertical blinds.

Next up in the expansive world of vertical blinds are the fabric variety. Fabric vertical blinds have soft fabric vanes with weighted bottoms. They offer a softer look and feel as well as quieter operation and more style options. Fabric verticals come in a wide variety of fabrics including weaves, solids, textured solids and patterns in a variety colors. It is my opinion that using fabric vertical blinds is a nice compliment to windows with drapes. Fabric cellular blinds are on the low-to-mid end of the price spectrum for vertical blinds.

As if that weren’t enough, vertical blinds also some with faux wood slats. These are made from the same materials as horizontal faux wood blinds and are a good choice if you have faux wood blinds in a room, for a coordinated look. Faux wood vertical blinds also come in the same color choices as horizontal faux woods. Faux wood blinds are on the low end of the price spectrum for vertical blinds, similar in price to vinyl verticals.

Lastly, vertical blinds also come with aluminum slats. Vertical aluminum blinds are the right choice for modern-style decors. If your home or apartment has lots of steel and glass, aluminum vertical blinds will compliment this décor well with their crisp edges. They coordinate well with mini blinds, especially aluminum. Aluminum verticals do not offer a wide variety of color choices probably because the consumer interested in them has very specific design plans. Aluminum cellular blinds are on the high end of the price spectrum for vertical blinds but they are very durable and long-lasting.

There are, of course, vinyl vertical blinds. It seems a little redundant to mention them as there are probably not many people who aren’t aware of them and their attributes but, for the sake of completeness, I will. Vinyl vertical blinds are made from PVC plastic and come in a variety of colors, textures and patterns. They are durable and light weight and easy to clean. Vinyl verticals are also, typically, the most affordable type of vertical blinds but, are sometimes about equal with faux wood verticals.

Do you remember the days when insulated window treatments consisted of big, bulky and even unattractive methods of keeping the cold out? I certainly do! It doesn’t seem that long ago that in order to keep the house cool in the midst of a hot Texas summer, you would see all kinds of crazy concoctions. Thankfully, those days are over. It is easy to find attractive window treatments.

The Old Days of Insulating
Down in the south where it gets hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, you do whatever it takes to keep out the heat. For many that meant turning their home into a mini dungeon. We even jokingly referred to my mother-in-law’s house as “the cave.”

She lived on a limited income. Therefore, she did whatever it took to keep the electric bill down. She did a good job at it too. First, she would cover the windows with tinfoil to reflect back the sunlight. (This practice became so common, that many apartment complexes actually made it a violation of the lease to do!)

Next, she would put up the roller shades. This was to block any light that might have made it past the tinfoil. Then, she pulled closed these thick heavy curtains, effectively blocking out all light and insulating the room.

Since, light bulbs give off heat too; those were kept to a bare minimum. It took you a few minutes to adjust to the light but her house was always nice and cool, even on the hottest days of the year.

More Current Solutions
Thankfully the days of tinfoil and blocking out all light have passed. Now people have the option of choosing attractive blinds and still insulating their homes. You even have options for how much light you want to block and how much insulations you would like.

Shades vs Blinds
Your most basic option is between choosing the shades or blinds. They both work well but of course, one works better than the other.

Blinds – If you want air to circulate, then you will want to go with blinds. Real wood blinds work great for this and they also act as good insulators as well.

Shades – If you want pure protection, then you need to go with the shade. The shade has no breaks, which allows air to pass. Single and double cell cellular shades are among the top insulators. They too come in a range of light filtering options including room darkening and black out.

Combination – Day and night Roman shades offer you the best of both worlds. When it is hot out, lower both the solar screen and the Roman shade for maximum cooling and room darkening. On cooler days, open up the Roman shade and leave down the solar screen to block out harsh UV glare.

With all the attractive options available, there is no need to add that horrible tin foil to your windows any more. Insulated window treatments are both affordable and attractive.

A look at the variety of uses for blinds that are possible with a little imagination.

Blinds from early beginnings in ancient Egypt and China have become a popular window covering in many homes and offices. Fundamentally they act to block light from windows and create privacy for those inside. That is not to say that the use of blinds should be restricted to use as window coverings, with a little imagination it is possible to utilise them in creative, innovative ways.

One of these uses is to utilise blinds as room dividers. Naturally the more robust types of blind will be more suited to this purpose but they can be an excellent way to add an extra dimension to a room. Blinds truly are an affordable and practical way to split a large room into smaller living quarters, all with privacy and a feeling of individual space, in addition, by simply pulling the blinds up the original size of the room is restored. Naturally structural integrity may be a concern for some but with the construction of a frame for the blind, this is easily accomplished.

Blinds can also be used as a practical way to shield unsightly shelves and storage areas from view. This means that costly doors do not need to be installed. Roller blinds are particularly suited to this purpose as with the vibrant and colourful designs available on the market today it is possible to create an interesting cover for storage areas that acts as a design piece in its own right.

Naturally however blinds are more widely utilised as window coverings, some may feel however that blinds fail to completely block the light of the sun. This is not always the case though, modern blackout blinds do just that, with meshed slats they completely block sunlight, enabling those trying to get children off to sleep early an easier experience and those who work nights a good day’s sleep. Once again roller and roman blinds are perfect for this, although the materials used should be thick enough for a complete blackout.

It is always a concern when installing blinds in shower rooms and kitchens that the high levels of moisture in the air will adversely affect the window covering. Thankfully aluminium and PVC blinds are the ideal materials to cope with humidity over an extended period of time. For those considering this option it is strongly advisable to avoid real wood blinds as in humid conditions the tendency to warp and fade is evident.

Blinds are the perfect accompaniment in a spare room or office. Often these rooms are not entered for days on end meaning that curtains are rarely drawn and hence they feel cold and dethatched. By installing blinds this situation is negated as the window in the room is always covered and hence more heat is kept in. With a little creativity it is possible to find the perfect blind for any room in the house.

Choosing blinds can be difficult although with the large variety on the market today the consumer is spoilt for choice. Designs range not only in terms of materials but also colours, fabrics and textures. For instance it is now possible to purchase binds that are pre-printed with a picture meaning that when the blind is closed those inside are treated to an image like an unspoilt beach or a shaded woodland. Whatever the choice, be it an interesting design piece, a minimalistic chic blind, or even the use of a blind as a room separator, as a practical and affordable solution blinds are unrivalled.

Natural Beauty

The colour variation of the grain is one of Western Red Cedar’s most distinguishing features and makes it highly sought after as a material for products such as blinds. The fusion of honey-beige to deep browns and reds within a single piece of Cedar, is what makes this wood dramatic and unique Cedar’s warm colouring is complimented by a uniform, fine-grained texture with a satin lustre and knot-free appearance.

Dimensional Stability

Western Red Cedar has excellent dimensional stability making it the ideal timber for blinds. It has low wood density and the lowest shrinkage factor of all major softwoods. A major contributor to this stability is the fact that its moisture content at the fibre saturation point is 18 to 23%, compared to 25 to 30% in most softwoods. As a result, Western Red Cedar shrinks and swells minimally, displaying only small movements with changes in humidity.

Resistance to Decay

Western Red Cedar heartwood is renowned for its high decay-resistance. This natural durability is attributed to the presence of extractives, mainly the thujaplicins, and to a lesser extent, the water-soluble phenolics which are toxic to a number of wood rotting fungi. Western Red Cedar has the highest durability class rating of all softwoods.

Finishing

The lack of pitch or resinous extractives that are soluble in paint vehicles contributes to Western Red Cedar’s good finishing properties. The wood takes a variety of finishes such as lacquer, varnish and paint exceptionally well. Even when choosing a solid colour finish, Western Red Cedar is still the timber of choice for blinds because of its unsurpassed performance characteristics.

Workability and Performance

Western Red Cedar is among the easiest timber to work with because of its straight grain and uniform texture. Its low density makes it lightweight and ideally suited for applications such as blinds. Cedar also glues well with a wide range of adhesives and gluing conditions. Ready Made Cedar Blinds create a warm and welcoming atmosphere in any home, office or commercial building. They help maintain a comfortable environment by allowing you to control the light and ventilation as well as privacy. With Cedar’s own individual pattern, grain and natural colour variation, each blade has a unique beauty and character.