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If you’re trying to find out how to buy blinds online and what’s involved in this, you’re probably a bit daunted by the variety of different blinds available and the sheer number of retailers selling them. Buying blinds online means learning about what type of blinds will suit your purpose, getting to grips with pricing averages, choosing a good manufacturer or retailer, learning how to measure up for blinds, and finally, choosing what you like and actually placing your order.
This might seem straightforward, but you wouldn’t have got here if you weren’t setting Google alight with questions like “how do I know what size blinds to buy” or “how do you measure for online blinds” in your quest for knowledge; and so this blog post will tell you how to buy blinds online (and get it right first time) in six simple steps.
1. Determine any limitations or must-haves for the room you’re shopping for
If you’re not well-versed in the intricacies of window blinds, it may be easy to miss the fact that a certain type of blind might not be suitable for a certain room or application.
The first thing you need to identify before you even start browsing for blinds online is if the room you intend to use them in comes with any challenges, limitations, or special caveats.
Like what, I hear you ask? Ok, here’s the main points:
- If you are buying kitchen or bathroom blinds, these in most cases will need to be waterproof.
- If you’re buying bedroom blinds, you may (or may not) want to choose blackout blinds.
- If the room you’re shopping for gets either very cold in winter and/or very hot in summer, you might want to consider thermally insulating blinds to take the edge off this.
- If you’re shopping for a very wide, tall, or overall large window, your options might be narrowed down by virtue of the maximum dimensions blinds of different types can realistically be made and shipped in.
- If your room is very overlooked from outside or your privacy is very important to you, you will probably want to pick blinds that can be used to filter light and control your privacy without the need to close the blinds entirely.
These are the main points you might want to consider, and if any of them apply these factors will go a long way towards dictating which types of blinds are an option, and which can be ruled out as unsuitable. This blog post makes some direct suggestions of different types of blinds that are a good fit for various challenges like those mentioned above.
2. Learn the basics of the various different types of blinds
There are essentially five to eight different types of window blinds, depending on hair-splitting blinds-geek specifics such as whether you count real wooden blinds and faux-wood blinds as siblings or cousins.
In a nutshell, the most common types of blinds in the UK are roller blinds, Roman blinds, Venetian blinds, wood and faux-wood blinds, and vertical blinds; and you can learn the basics of what each of these look like and what they do in this blog post.
There are also another couple of types of blinds that are really new to the UK and so are worthy of a specific mention on their own, and these are day and night blinds and perfect fit blinds respectively.
When you know what all of your options look like, how they function, and if they are or are not a match based on any of the bullet points in the above section applying to your room, you are ready to decide the type of blind you want to buy.
3. Decide if you want to buy made-to-measure or readymade blinds
So you know what type or style of blinds will both be ok for your room and that you like the look and functionality of. The next big decision along your path to knowing how to buy blinds online successfully is whether you want to buy made-to-measure or readymade blinds.
Readymade blinds are invariably cheaper (albeit often not by much) in terms of their initial purchase price, but they’re also likely to cost you more in the medium to long term – and there are a great many other reasons to choose made-to-measure blinds over readymade ones too, only one of which is the fact that they’re what we here at English Blinds specialise in…
4. Shop around
Or like, don’t shop around, just buy from us, because our blinds are excellent quality and reflect reasonable pricing norms for made-to-measure British blinds that are designed to stay looking good and behaving properly for the long term.
Sold? Not quite? Ok. As a general rule when buying anything, it is a good idea to shop around and do some basic comparisons.
Choose a few online blinds retailers, check out the range and selections they have, look at how their prices compare, try to identify why any that are very cheap or very spendy might be so, and scope out their shipping times and costs, returns policies, online reputation, customer service provision… And so on. You know all of this already, but I mention it for the sake of thoroughness.
If you fall in love with a particular pattern or style of blind that one retailer has and that you can’t find a similar version of elsewhere, that’s your choice more or less made
But all well-established made-to-measure blinds retailers tend to have an extensive range of colours, styles, and customisation options, and so failing to find something you love is less likely to be an issue than finding a seller whose reputation and price points gel with your preferences.
5. Ask for samples
Before you get your wallet out and look at measuring up and ordering from any online blinds seller, ask for samples of the fabric or materials that your shortlisted blinds are made from. Until you get samples of the actual blinds you’re considering buying in your hands and in your home, you can’t make a meaningful assessment of either the quality or how much you like their appearance.
Any reputable blinds retailer will provide free samples and make it easy for you to get them; we offer an unlimited number of samples free of charge (with shipping covered by us as well) and we always ensure that you get a large enough sample to be able to get a proper feel for it.
A 2” square of fabric won’t allow you to get a real feel for any pattern or design, nor to really get a good snapshot of how it would look next to the window or wall it is designed to suit either.
6. Measure up and order
How do you measure for online blinds? This can be daunting for a first-timer given that there’s a lot riding on getting your measurements right, but it really is easy when you know how! To buy blinds online from any given website, you will need to input the dimensions of your window (or the dimensions you want your blind to be) into the calculator on the product page to generate a price and from there, proceed with your order.
While using ballpark figures is totally fine when you’re just pricing things up, before you pull the trigger, you need to be sure you’ve got things right.
Generally, when you enter measurements you’ll be asked if the figures you’re using are for the window recess, or are of the actual size you want the blind to be; which also means that deciding if you want the blind to hang inside of the window recess or outside/over it is an integral part of the process too.
There’s no blanket right or wrong on this one, but learning the pros and cons of both options, which are covered in my prior blog post about whether blinds should be hung inside of or outside of the window recess, should be all you need to make your choice.
When you’ve decided that, you can follow clear, simple instructions on how to measure up for window blinds (including instructions on how to measure for potentially awkward bay window blinds) here.
In the unlikely event you do run into any problems, feel free to drop me an email and I will provide any clarity or direction you might need.
Happy hanging! (Wait, no, that doesn’t sound right… Never mind, home time.)
