What blinds are best for the nursery?

The best nursery blinds are those that are hardwearing enough to withstand the odd paint-throwing or projectile nappy-emptying incident, and that allow you to control or block the light in the way you want to. Child-safe blinds for the nursery are of course vital, but the good news on this last point is that child safety is built in, to both the blind and its fitting instructions when it comes to blinds sold (legally) in the UK.

I’m assuming at this point of course that when you ask me what blinds are best for the nursery, you’re using your nursery to grow children, not plants… If we are indeed on the same page here, read on to find out what blinds work for babies and young children’s bedrooms and nurseries.

What blinds are best for the nursery in terms of child safety?

First up, window blinds and child safety, an obvious concern for parents. All blinds sold in/to the UK market must meet or exceed the relevant safety standards and the current benchmark for child safety; EN13120, if you’re interested.

So, shopping around for child-safe blinds isn’t something you really need to worry about as long as you buy your children’s nursery blinds from a reputable retailer like us or a mainstream online or high street store. Ours are better though…

It is, however, really important to note that 50% of making any window blind child safe comes down to you, as said child’s parent or carer; by means of fitting the blind exactly in accordance with the directions provided with it, including the various safety devices or features that come with it, and that can vary from blind to blind.

It might not always be obvious either that a tiny auxiliary fitting that looks more or less cosmetic may actually be integral to keeping your child (or lemming-like significant other) safe, but it could be; for instance, the cleat that may come with a blind that has a cord or control chain, and that is used to secure the cord/chain’s loose length against the wall.

This cleat isn’t just us icing the cake when it comes to providing the finishing touch to make your blind look nice on your window; it is also a vital safety feature designed to ensure that your child gets the chance to ice and make a mess with many more cakes in years to come.

Similarly, an alternative or sometimes, accompanying safety feature that may come on blind cords or chains is a breakaway fitting, which comes apart if your child pulls it hard or forms a loop (or noose, without meaning to sound macabre) around their head or another body part.

If you get heartily fed up of said child keeping doing this and causing you to need to keep fixing the blind/reattaching the safety breakaway… Sorry but them’s the breaks.

Should the break fail to break in future because you’ve decided to tie a knot in it instead after the shouting didn’t work, well, Bad Things and Internet Judgement will happen. At best.

At worse, well, you know. Let’s not go there.

So TL;DR – what blinds are best for the nursery in terms of child safety? Any blinds legally approved for sale in the UK and fitted in accordance with the manufacturer’s directions. Cannot overstate this last part.

What blinds are best for the nursery in practical terms?

For my money (or rather, your money) the best blinds for the nursery need to be able to take both a beating and a soaking now and then and live to tell the tale. They should also be easy to clean, and economical in terms of their initial outlay versus realistic lifespan/survival in the jungle that is your child’s nursery.

Blinds of a few different types are up there as secondary/borderline options for children’s nurseries depending on your child and so on, and these might well be fine and probably live longer than the hamster.

However, the two types of blinds that I advocate for most strongly for children’s nurseries are waterproof roller blinds (those made of either PVC or vinyl) and faux-wood blinds respectively.

Both of these types of blinds are waterproof and so, difficult to terminally stain and easy to efficiently clean. Assuming that the culprit of said stain is itself washable, so permanent marker is pretty much going to turn into a permanent design feature, but that aside.

Now, faux-wood blinds are pretty much the Vin Diesel of the blinds world; they’re made of strong, rigid PVC, which is very hard to damage either functionally or cosmetically with any of the sorts of tools or toys that children should have access to, and many of those that they shouldn’t.

That said, faux-wood blinds are a step more costly than roller blinds, so if your child really is destined for a future career in demolition, their efforts may leave a noticeable dent in your blind and so, wallet.

Waterproof roller blinds are again eminently cleanable and for a fabric, sturdy and hardwearing; but as a fabric, they’re not in the same league as faux-wood blinds, and so a pair of scissors more or less any grade above paper scissors or play scissors will chip into them, and they can be pierced with sufficient force too.

Waterproof roller blinds are, however, inexpensive to buy, and unless they’re really put through their paces by your kids, will also last for a decade or more or probably, well beyond the point at which both you and your child both are bored of them and want a new style or pattern.

What blinds are best for the nursery to control the light?

Back to faux-wood blinds here, as they tick all of the boxes to allow you to filter, as well as block, external light. Faux-wood blinds are not technically blackout blinds, albeit they are not far off when hung with blackout in mind and closed flush.

Many children (and their parents) find that a little light through the window is helpful to establish and maintain a baby or child’s sleep pattern, and so blackout blinds for a nursery might not always be desirable anyway.

However, if you are looking for blackout nursery blinds, perhaps to help a new baby to settle or to try to reset or establish normal sleeping times for a child or baby of any age, blackout waterproof roller blinds would be the way to go.

Roller blinds can’t be used to filter the light like faux-wood blinds can, but often, this isn’t an issue in a nursery unless it is also faced with glaring sun for large parts of the day and doubles as a playroom too.

What blinds are best for the nursery if you want to incorporate a theme or design?

This would have to be nursery roller blinds! Fun and funky blinds for children come in all sorts of designs and patterns, and we expand our range all the time as and when the fabric samples man brings me stuff that “sparks joy.”

I have already covered the relative merits of considering dinosaur blinds for children, and compared the pros and cons of mermaid versus unicorn blinds in this blog post too, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg…