What are the most practical blinds?

Roller blinds are the overall winner for me as the most practical all-rounders, for reasons that I’ll detail shortly; but roller blinds are just one of several suitable options if you’re looking for very durable, practical, or hardwearing blinds that are suitable for a number of different rooms and situations.

In this blog post I will tell you why roller blinds are the most practical blinds overall, and share some tips on the most practical or suitable blinds for various different applications.

What are the most practical blinds overall, and why?

Roller blinds come in as the lucky winner for me as the most practical type of blinds overall, because you can buy roller blinds with a range of different traits/features, which when combined, makes them a good fit for virtually any application.

Specifically, the most practical type of blind would be a waterproof thermally insulating blackout roller blind, because…

• Roller blinds are the most economical type of blind to buy overall, making them practical in terms of their expense.
• Waterproof roller blinds can be used in any room of the home, including kitchens and bathrooms.
• Waterproof roller blinds can just be wiped clean and won’t stain, which makes them practical blinds for children’s rooms/windows within reach of children too.
• Blackout roller blinds with a thermally insulating lining help to insulate the room they’re used in, potentially allowing you to reduce your heating spend. They can also help you to sleep!
• Roller blinds are the simplest type of blinds in terms of their construction and number of working parts, making them the easiest type of blinds to hang and with the least number of things that can potentially wear out or go wrong over the longer term.
• Roller blinds come in the widest range of colour/pattern combinations, ensuring that there’s a set to suit literally any room or style.
• Aside from the very largest or tallest of windows, roller blinds can be made to fit windows of most sizes as they’re lightweight, whilst other types of blinds can be too heavy to work properly on large windows.

What are the most practical blinds for very tall or large windows?

Vertical blinds are the only type of blinds that can be made to fit a window of virtually any size; roller blinds can be made for most windows, but even they eventually top out in terms of maximum sizes.

If you need practical blinds for a very large or tall window specifically, you can consider abutting two (or more) roller blinds together, but generally, a lone vertical blind will look better.

The most practical vertical blind, and one that shares most of the same traits as the most practical roller blind I talked about above, would be a waterproof thermally insulating blackout vertical blind.

Why?

• Vertical blinds can be made to fit even the largest of windows.
• Vertical blinds tend to cost a shade more than roller blinds, but often not by much; for very large windows, they may even be a little cheaper.
• A waterproof vertical blind can be used in any room (including damp/steamy rooms) and they can also just be wiped clean of cooking residue or any child-related mess.
• Blackout thermally insulating vertical blinds both offer blackout functionality and help to insulate the room.
• Vertical blinds can be used to filter and diffuse light as well as blocking it entirely, which is something that roller blinds can’t do.
  Where roller blinds still have the edge, however, is that while vertical blinds can be made in a huge range of colours, they’re not really blinds that carry designs well and aren’t available in such a wide range of colours as roller blinds.
  Also, they’re rather more time consuming to hang, as you have to attach each louvre individually.

What are the most durable type of blinds for a child’s bedroom or playroom?

I’d say this is a toss-up between waterproof roller blinds, and faux-wood blinds respectively.

These are two very different types of blinds, which work differently and have different traits, and depending on what your kids are like and what you’re looking for, either one might be right for you.

I’ve covered the bullet points for roller blinds as durable, practical blinds for children earlier on, so I’ll just give faux-wood blinds a quick intro, before weighing them up side by side with roller blinds:

• Faux-wood blinds are waterproof (aside from their ladder tapes, if chosen; these are optional, and so can be avoided). This means that they can be wiped clean of any child-related debris.
• One area where faux-wood blinds have an edge over roller blinds as being practical and durable for children is that they’re made of thick, rigid PVC. Whilst someone’s kid will no doubt prove me wrong in short order if I claim that this is virtually indestructible, even an older child that was deliberately bent on causing damage would have a hard time making any inroads into damaging a faux-wood blind. They can take a reasonable beating and remain in good cosmetic and working order.
• Faux-wood blinds are a type of slatted blind, which means that they can be used to filter light, either to prevent glare or to allow a little ambient light into your child’s bedroom at night to keep the bogeyman at bay and to help your child to wake up naturally.

So, how do faux-wood blinds compare to roller blinds (again, waterproof thermally insulating blackout roller blinds) in the practicality and durability stakes as blinds for a kid’s bedroom? Here is a side-by-side.

• Faux-wood blinds are a step up in price from roller blinds. For many parents this will definitely be worth the investment to get blinds that will stay in good working order for the long term whatever the kids throw at them (or hit them with), but some parents understandably won’t want to spend more than is absolutely necessary.
• Faux-wood blinds are particularly likely to pay for themselves/outlive roller blinds if your kids are indeed the hitty or cut-y type. Even though roller blinds are hardwearing and waterproof, they can be cut with scissors and/or torn, holed, and generally damaged with enough concerted effort or pulling around. If your kids are more about paint smearing and food throwing, this probably won’t matter though, and roller blinds will still be fine.
• Both thermally insulating blackout roller blinds and faux-wood blinds are excellent insulators, to help to keep heat inside of the room (all bets are off if your kids perpetually leave the doors open, however). But thermally insulating roller blinds have a slight edge due to the small gaps in the joins between the slats of faux-wood blinds that can allow draughts to enter.
• Faux-wood blinds come in a range of shades and colours, but far fewer than is available for roller blinds.
• Faux-wood blinds are the heaviest type of blinds we sell, which means that they top out at a smaller viable size than roller blinds will, and so may not be available for very large windows.
• Faux-wood blinds can filter the light, which may have advantages over roller blinds as mentioned, but also, they can’t achieve a full blackout due to their slats, which may be a disadvantage in its turn.

What are the most practical blinds for a child’s bedroom overall? I honestly can’t answer this, but it is between waterproof thermally insulating blackout roller blinds, and faux-wood blinds.

What are the most practical blinds for a kitchen or bathroom?

Waterproof blinds; this means either waterproof roller blinds (made of PVC or vinyl) or waterproof vertical blinds, again made of either PVC or vinyl. Faux-wood blinds can be considered too, although as mentioned, the ladder tapes you can choose as an optional add-on for faux-wood blinds aren’t themselves waterproof.

These are your best/most practical choices, with faux-wood and vertical blinds having the upsides of being able to filter light whereas roller blinds cannot; plus vertical blinds being good for very large windows.

However, if these couple of factors aren’t an issue/relevant for your needs, roller blinds still come out on top for me overall, for all of the reasons that make them my top choice of the most practical blinds full stop; price, range of colours/styles, simplicity, and so on.

Plus, there’s one other advantage that waterproof roller blinds have for kitchens and bathrooms too; they’re made of just one solid sheet of fabric (not slats/louvres as per the other candidates) and so are far easier to wipe off when they’re wet, or wipe clean if they get splattered with cooking residue in kitchens.

What are the most practical blinds ranked in order?

This does depend in some ways on what you want your blinds to do; if the only blind that will work on your window due to its size is a vertical, ignore me when I say that the most practical blind overall is a roller; similarly, if you need to filter light rather than just letting it in or keeping it out, a roller won’t work.

That said, if put on the spot and I had to answer, what are the most practical blinds ranked in order?
My top six are:

1. Waterproof thermally insulating blackout roller blinds.
2. Faux-wood blinds.
3. Waterproof thermally insulating vertical blinds.
4. Regular waterproof but not thermally insulating roller blinds.
5. Regular waterproof but not thermally insulating vertical blinds.
6. Regular non-waterproof roller blinds.

Basically, I’m a huge fan of roller blinds, and not just because I don’t like spending too much money…