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Wooden blind tapes hold the blind’s slats up and keep them tidy, evenly spaced, and uniform, and they allow for the blind as a whole to be raised and lowered, and for the slats to be tilted to the angle of your choosing.
Wooden blind tapes are offered as a decorative feature to make the blind look better/nicer and in some people’s opinions, more “finished” than blinds without tapes, but once they’re chosen and fitted to the blind, they’re an integral part of its operation and can’t be cut off or removed later!
This blog post will tell you what tapes on blinds actually are, why wooden blinds have them (and what the alternative is) and whether blinds with tapes are better than blinds without.
What are blind ladder tapes?
What are ladder tapes on a blind? Obviously it helps to make sure you know what I’m talking about before I go any further! So, blind tapes or “ladder tapes” are the alternative to lift cords, both of these things being the method of operation used on slatted blinds like wooden blinds.
Ladder tapes or lift cords are the parts used to connect the blind’s stack of slats to each other, to keep them tidy and correctly spaced, to allow for the blind to be opened and closed, and to stabilise the slats while they’re rotated.
Whilst both ladder tapes in blinds and lift cords in blinds perform the same functions, they look quite different to each other, as per my pictures above.
The placement of lift cords requires tiny holes to be made in the blind’s slats, which the lift cords then pass through. Visually, you see these thin cords running up through the holes in the blind’s slats.
Ladder tapes (when chosen) are attached to the external surface of the blind’s slats, connected to and covering the internal lift cords. So what you see in this case is the fabric tape, not the lift cords themselves.
It is important to note that whilst ladder tapes also have/connect to lift cords, they’re not simply decorative! Whilst blinds can have lift cords alone and ladder tapes are an optional add-on, once added, ladder tapes are a functional/working part of the blind that cannot be removed to leave only the lift cords in place.
Why do wooden blinds have tapes?
At the purchasing stage, wooden blind tapes are an optional extra offered to create a certain type of finish and appearance to the blind. You can often select different colours for a wooden blind’s ladder tapes, either to match or to contrast with the wood itself.
Ladder tapes then become integral to allowing the blind to operate.
What are blinds with tapes?
When we talk about “blinds with tapes,” we’re referring to blinds made with ladder tapes as opposed to blinds with just lift cords. Blinds with tapes are always horizontal slatted blinds, also known as Venetian blinds.
However! Not all types of Venetian blinds are offered with a ladder tape option.
Why do wooden blinds have tapes when other types of blinds don’t?
Only slatted blinds can have ladder tapes, although ladder tapes aren’t always added to all types of slatted blinds.
Both real wooden blinds and faux-wood blinds can be made with ladder tapes. However, Venetian blinds (aluminium venetian blinds) are generally not made with ladder tapes; only lift cords.
Do wooden blinds have to have tapes?
No, it’s not obligatory to have wooden blinds with tapes; whether or not you want them is down to your own personal choice. You can (and many people do) simply have wooden blinds with lift cords, as pictured above. However, as I mentioned before, once you have selected a blind with tapes you can’t remove the tapes later on, as they form part of the blind’s operating mechanism.
Are blinds with tapes better?
This is a very subjective question! Ladder tapes don’t make a blind function any better or more smoothly than blinds with lift cords alone.
However, because the ladder tapes cover the little holes within the slats that are left exposed with lift cords, ladder tapes do allow you to darken your room more acutely/effectively than a slatted blind with lift cords, which may be important for some people.
Whether or not blinds with ladder tapes look better than blinds with lift cords is very much down to personal choice, but ladder tapes are considered to give a more premium or prestigious finish than lift cords, plus you can achieve a wider range of effects with ladder tapes by means of choosing contrasting or complementary colours for them.
