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If you’re buying off-plan, you might need to order your blinds before your house is completed, and this can be a real challenge because you can’t measure up your own specific windows, nor stand in the space and visualise things effectively.
I do advise waiting until you can get into the finished house and do things personally if at all possible; but if not? How do you choose blinds for a new house that you’re buying off-plan?
The fact that you can’t go in and measure up in person is actually the least of your potential challenges, assuming that your developer has provided exact measurements for you, and if not, this should be a red flag of something being amiss rather larger than the need to order blinds blind, as it were!
This blog post will summarise the factors you need to consider and may not have thought about when it comes to buying blinds for a house you’ve bought off plan, and advise on how to make sure you get things right first time.
Measurements and window specifics
To order blinds, you need the measurements of the windows you’re buying for, and also to decide whether you want the blinds to hang inside of or over the window recess; and the correct measurements for your choice. This means getting the measurements from your plans or the developer, after first going through them with the developer to ensure they’re accurate and up to date.
Take a good look at the plans/designs for the type of windows you’re having too, for context and to ensure you are aware of any potential challenges, like protruding handles as well as style.
Before you order anything, ensure that the measurements/plans you’re working from are accurate in terms of windows and finished sizes including plaster, and ask any questions about this from the developer (and get it in writing that nothing is going to change) before you make purchases based on this.
You won’t be able to exchange or get a refund on made-to-measure blinds from the blind’s maker if something on your side went wrong like the house’s plans being misread or changed and so, the blinds you paid for becoming unsuitable or the wrong size, but if you get things in writing/signed off on by your developer, you will have that comeback on the developer side instead.
Whilst you’ll obviously want to ensure you get your blinds ready to use in time for your taking over the property and moving in, try to leave ordering them as one of the last things you do, as the more you can see of your property as it approaches completion, the easier the whole process will be.
Made-to-measure blinds will usually be turned around within a week or two for all but particularly complex sets, so don’t feel as if you need to order weeks and weeks in advance to be sure you will get them in time.
If in doubt or working to a tight deadline, call or email the company you’re considering buying from and ask them how their turnaround times are looking at the moment.
Check out the show home to get some context
Go and spend time in the show home and/or whatever finished offering is available and closest in layout to your own property, and use this to try and get a feel for things in the interim. If there’s another finished development nearby from the same builder (perhaps even following the same patterns/styles of houses as yours) it can be really handy to drive around it and take a look at what other people have done there. Without, obviously, staring in through people’s windows!
Walk around and view your own property from the outside (and inside if you can)
Walk around your property-in-progress, and check things like which way the various sides of the house face, how much light they get, if any of them are shadowed, whether or not people passing by will be able to see in with ease, and so on.
Think about the practicalities before the aesthetics
You’ll almost certainly want waterproof blinds for bathrooms and kitchens, and perhaps light and privacy-filtering blinds for rooms that will be overlooked, so put these things on your list of must-haves before you start thinking about colours and styles.
From there though, do bear in mind the way your blinds need to work with and will impact on the style and appearance of your rooms, and think about the sort of furniture you have or will be getting to go with it.
One final point to mention that might occur to you if you’re walking around outside trying to visualise blinds styles, is that most fabric blinds have a plain and usually white backing (facing the road/outside) regardless of their internal pattern or colour.
But wood, faux-wood, and Venetian blinds will appear in the same colour/finish from outside as they do to inside, which may be worth mentioning if you have say, a certain colour theme for your external doors, window frames, and even fencing and gates.
