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This comes down to a matter of personal taste, so it’s not strictly a yes or no question that I as Queen of Blinds can provide an answer to that you, my loyal subjects, can take to the bank.
If you came here for insights as opposed to ego-flexing; first up, sorry, and best you manage your expectations through the rest of this post lest you find yourself gravely disappointed. Secondly, for a more useful answer drawing on the principles of aesthetics and received wisdom, yes, you can mix vertical and horizontal blinds (both within a room and on the same window) quite nicely, within reason.
Read on, and I’ll specify exactly what constitutes “within reason” for most people’s tastes, and talk about what works and what you might want to try when it comes to having different blinds in the same room.
Can you mix vertical and horizontal blinds in the same room?
Yes you can, and if you have a combination of windows of vastly differing sizes, this might be your best option or even almost unavoidable.
For instance, for a really large window or a set of patio doors, vertical blinds are usually the only option for a one-piece solo blind, and whilst you can have a couple of horizontal blinds side by side instead, this doesn’t always look great.
In this same room you might have a very small or narrow window, upon which a vertical blind would look disproportionate, and which may occlude a lot of the glass with the open stack of louvres when the blind is open.
Unless you’re aiming for a kind of boho, mix and match or “shabby chic” kind of look (I’m not dissing here – think Monica and Rachel’s apartment in Friends rather than the backroom of the local charity shop – I’d avoid using more than two different types of blinds in the same room.
But using one type of horizontal blind with one type of vertical blind (in multiples of either if required) is fine, as long as the finish/colour and so on of the respective different blinds all get on and are congruous with the rest of your décor.
Can you mix vertical and horizontal blinds on the same window?
Yes, and having a set of vertical blinds hung inside of the window recess with a horizontal blind over the recess is actually common. I get a hard “huh?” to this question from a lot of people who didn’t know that having two blinds on the same window was even a thing; but trust me, this can and usually, does look perfectly good and not like say, socks with sandals, or someone wearing two watches.
The most common reason for using two blinds on one window (with a vertical blind on the inside of the recess and a horizontal one outside of it) is to enable a full blackout in the room when the blinds are closed, which isn’t always possible with just one blind (even a blackout blind) due to the potential for light leakage around the blind’s sides.
Can you mix vertical and horizontal blinds of different colours?
Yes, and this is often the best approach to avoid a clash, and because even two ostensibly identical colours might not appear so in practice on two blinds made of two different materials or finishes.
If you’re talking about say, white blinds, you might be able to get both blinds in an identical white; but when you consider the different textures and fabrics of different types of blinds, different paint finishes and effects for hard blinds, and different sheens and so on in play, even this can be challenging!
If you’re using two blinds on the same window, I find that using either two distinct but complementary colours, two colours a few shades removed but from within the same colour family, or even two contrasting colour blinds all work out well if you choose wisely.
When it comes to different types of blinds on different windows, graduating the colours by choosing shades a step or two removed from each other can be a little harder to pull off. I find that either complementing or contrasting the colours works out better – as long as you tie both of these into the wider colour theme of the room, and use the same sort of hues and depths of colours.
For instance, a bold primary colour with a pastel might look a bit off, even if they’re both similar hues of the same parent colour family.
Can you mix vertical and horizontal blinds with different patterns?
In my opinion, no; unless, as mentioned, you’re channelling Monica and Rachel (in which case, yes).
It is possible to have a pattern on one blind and a plain, complementary colour for the other; and because vertical blinds can come in textures but not really patterns, this would tend to mean that the horizontal blind is automatically going to be the patterned option.
Patterned blinds are always made of fabric, which means your choices are either Roman blinds or roller blinds; and in my opinion, Roman blinds and vertical blinds are not singing from the same hymn-sheet style-wise, and so, don’t work well together on the same window or in the same room.
No, not even if you and your housemate are Monica and Rachel.
However, a patterned roller blind paired with a plain vertical blind can look awesome, if the pattern and general colour theme on the two blinds aren’t at war with each other. Matching the fabric of the two respective blinds helps too; vertical and roller blinds respectively can both be made from either Polyester, PVC, or vinyl (these latter two options being waterproof) and having the same exact fabric for your two blinds can go a long way towards ensuring that they look cohesive, even if they’re two totally different blind styles.
Try before you buy…
If you want to make sure the two colours and/or materials of any two different blinds you’re considering pairing up are going to work together before you buy and potentially find out that they don’t, add fabric samples from all of your shortlist of options to your shopping basket and order those from us first.
Fabric samples are available for every single blind we sell, and are totally free, including shipping; and for patterned fabrics, we’ll make sure that you get a sample showing the full extent of the pattern and all of the colours within it too.
