4Real Forums: Blinds or Curtains?

Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

Active Topics || Favorites || Member List || Search || About Us || Help || Register || Login

Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry ( Forum Locked)
4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry

Topic: Blinds or Curtains?

Author

Message

<< Prev Topic | Next Topic >>

Erin
Forum Moderator

Joined: Feb 23 2005
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5814

Posted: April 11 2011 at 6:00pm \| IP Logged

As I've shared previously we are slowly building a house and currently living in the unfinished house. It is autumn here now and I can feel the briskness of winter approaching (I know nothing like your winter).

Anyhow I'm beginning to think curtains or blinds. If you had no neighbours, except for the kangaroos, and large windows with gorgeous views of the bush, a husband and ds with dust allergies, would you chose curtains or blinds?

__________________
Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians

JodieLyn
Forum Moderator

Joined: Sept 06 2006
Location: Oregon
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 12234

Posted: April 11 2011 at 6:06pm \| IP Logged

curtains.. blinds are a pain in the neck imo to keep clean.. and curtains can be very good for insulating and you just get ones that you can take down and toss in the washing machine.. and then they're like 1000% easier to clean than blinds

Plus if you want the curtains down for a while.. maybe in the spring or fall when the weather is nice and not too hot or too cold (curtains can also help keep direct sun from heating up a room).. they just fold up nice and neat and store easily unlike blinds.

__________________
Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4

All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott

CatholicMommy
Forum All-Star

Joined: Feb 07 2007
Location: Indiana
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1254

Posted: April 11 2011 at 7:31pm \| IP Logged

Curtains.

If privacy is not a concern - you can get the sheers that are just lovely, lovely, lovely then have some pretty solid color pinned up on the sides.

And everything that Jodie said above

__________________
Garden of Francis
HS Elementary Montessori Training
Montessori Nuggets

CrunchyMom
Forum Moderator

Joined: Sept 03 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6385

Posted: April 11 2011 at 7:54pm \| IP Logged

I like roller or roman shades

__________________
Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony

[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR

JodieLyn
Forum Moderator

Joined: Sept 06 2006
Location: Oregon
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 12234

Posted: April 11 2011 at 8:25pm \| IP Logged

If you get the curtain rod longer than the windows.. you could pull the curtains back so that they hang over the wall and don't block the windows at all if you don't want them to.

__________________
Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4

All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott

juststartn
Forum All-Star

Joined: Jan 17 2007
Location: Oklahoma
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1321

Posted: April 11 2011 at 8:47pm \| IP Logged

Well, with dust allergies, I'd go with curtains--washable ones. Even if all you did was a valance, and hang it high so that the fabric just barely covers the top of the windows (which makes the windows appear to be 'taller'), you could add color/style, frame up the windows, and still enjoy the view.

Rachel

__________________
Married DH 4/1/95
Lily 3/11/00
Helena(Layna) 5/23/02
Sophia 4/19/04
John 5/7/07
David 5/7/07
Ava Maria, in the arms of Jesus, 9/5/08

juststartn
Forum All-Star

Joined: Jan 17 2007
Location: Oklahoma
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1321

Posted: April 11 2011 at 8:51pm \| IP Logged

Oh, and if I was making something as an insulating layer for the house, I'd put a roll up window quilt. Then you can mount it under a valance, take it down and wash it, put it back up...you can make them yourself, with the fabrics you like...you can also make these as thick and light and heat/cold blocking as you'd like...

I don't know if that's any help at all...

__________________
Married DH 4/1/95
Lily 3/11/00
Helena(Layna) 5/23/02
Sophia 4/19/04
John 5/7/07
David 5/7/07
Ava Maria, in the arms of Jesus, 9/5/08

Lisbet
Forum All-Star

Joined: Feb 07 2006
Location: Michigan
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2706

Posted: April 12 2011 at 10:23am \| IP Logged

roman shades are nice. we have some opaque roman shades in our bedroom that I just love. I just wipe them with the dust rag when I dust the bedroom.

__________________
Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
Nick, 17
Abby, 15
Gabe, 13
Isaac, 11
Mary, 10
Sam, 9
Henry, 7
Molly, 6
Mark, 5
Greta, 3
Cecilia born 10.29.10
Josephine born 6.11.12

DominaCaeli
Forum All-Star

Joined: April 24 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3711

Posted: April 12 2011 at 10:43am \| IP Logged

I like the flexibility of blinds, but now that I have little ones with dust allergies, I say curtains all the way! Roman shades can be nice too, since they don't have all those little crevices that blinds.

__________________
Blessings,
Celeste
Joyous Lessons

Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)

JaysFamily
Forum Pro

Joined: March 30 2010
Location: Alabama
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 241

Posted: April 12 2011 at 11:29am \| IP Logged

Blinds are basically hundreds of little shelves to collect dust, that are difficult to clean.

__________________
In Christ,

Jaysfamily
wife to Jay
mother to DS(5)

Chris V
Forum All-Star

Joined: Dec 03 2009
Location: Washington
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1598

Posted: April 12 2011 at 4:29pm \| IP Logged

We actually have honeycomb shades on many of the windows on our main floor. We didn't put them there, they came with the house - they're not bad at all, easy to maintain, the look clean-cut and nice, and are a pleasant color to compliment the wall paint.

Curtains (depending on how they are hung) can make a room look smaller. Roman shades, honeycomb shades, etc. are cut to fit inside the window frame so they look a little neater and clean-cut - and don't overpower a room like a large curtain can ...

Our upstairs has a combination of curtains and roman shades; both can look very attractive!

__________________
Chris
Happy Wife with my Happy Life
Mama to My Five Girls ('04~'07~'09~'11~'11)

amy soper
Forum Newbie

Joined: April 04 2011
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 32

Posted: April 13 2011 at 5:24am \| IP Logged

Erin wrote:

If you had no neighbours, except for the kangaroos, and large windows with gorgeous views of the bush, a husband and ds with dust allergies, would you chose curtains or blinds?

Sounds so wonderful!

I would go with easy washable curtains, due to the allergies. Something light for the warmer months and a heavier fabric for winter to help with the chill.

amy

fresh vintage

Erin
Forum Moderator

Joined: Feb 23 2005
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5814

Posted: April 13 2011 at 5:13pm \| IP Logged

Thus far curtains are getting the bigger thumbs up, sharing your comments with dh

__________________
Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians

3Giftsathome
Forum Pro

Joined: Feb 03 2011
Location: Washington
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 219

Posted: April 15 2011 at 5:26pm \| IP Logged

We have a combination of curtains, blinds, and roman shades in our home. I love roman shades! They are really easy to clean and my little ones rarely touch them when they are down and never when they are up. The shades are in our sunroom/dining room with view of our whole backyard.

We are always reminding the children to not play with our curtains (swing with them, see how tightly they can twist them, and especially touch them with sticky hands

). And, oh how I've had many blinds break by the kids trying to open them up by twisting them

Yours in Christ,
Mary

Sharyn
Forum Pro

Joined: June 20 2009
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 417

Posted: April 15 2011 at 7:32pm \| IP Logged

Definately curtains!

When we get our own place one of these days (please God!)we will get curtains. Venetians are a pain to clean, and seem to get dirty so quickly. Verticals break way too easy, especially with kids. They aren't made to be heavy duty at all. They look shabby quickly (thanks to kids

). If your model goes out of production, and it will, you will find it hard if not impossible to get replacement parts. When they wear out from opening and closing, if you like to have them off to one side, and I would if I had kangaroo's and birds outside, then they can become sticky on their tracks and difficult to open. Once this happens the friction in opening them will eventually bust the string. We just had this happen recently. They also can start to not fold back nicely, the strips that is, and start facing differnt directions. They are difficult to clean. I could go on. One of my kids one time used a hole punch to make holes in them

I think curtains are so much more versatile. Sure kids can ruin them too, but its much easier to replace, and well maybe it was time for a change of style or colour any way

Go curtains

__________________
Mum to dd (00), ds (03), dd (04), ds (06), one in God's care (08), dd (09), ds (11), one in God's care (13), and ds (13)

Sharyn
Forum Pro

Joined: June 20 2009
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 417

Posted: April 15 2011 at 7:42pm \| IP Logged

Erin wrote:

If you had no neighbours, except for the kangaroos, and large windows with gorgeous views of the bush, a husband and ds with dust allergies, would you chose curtains or blinds?

What about those heavy pleated plastic backed curtains with the wooden rods and rings. You can draw them back during the day to reveal your view, and at night they keep the cold out and provide that secure feeling of being protected and cosy. Protected from whom... the bogeyman of course

I don't know about the kids but at my age still I get the creeps if I feel someone can look in at night

__________________
Mum to dd (00), ds (03), dd (04), ds (06), one in God's care (08), dd (09), ds (11), one in God's care (13), and ds (13)

Erin
Forum Moderator

Joined: Feb 23 2005
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5814

Posted: June 14 2011 at 2:23am \| IP Logged

Thanks for all your advice, I've decided on curtains, although I want ones I can throw in the wash, not dry cleaning ones.

Anyhow it is freezing here, 15degree Celsius the other day (59F) Dh thinks I'm a wimp, but it does get colder at night. I can't do much about the lack of eaves, walls, doors or roof enclosure but I could sew curtains.

What�s the 'in' look at present? I don�t want to date the house. We're planning on the curtains going wall to wall so the view is not blocked.

__________________
Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians

CrunchyMom
Forum Moderator

Joined: Sept 03 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6385

Posted: June 14 2011 at 6:23am \| IP Logged

I think that, in general, the in look now is thinner rods with ring clips. The rod is hung, as you describe, wider than the window so the panels can hang without obstructing the view as well as closer to the ceiling to raise the eye up. Sometimes, the gap between the rod and window fram is filled with a roman shade hung even with the rod. Other times, the gap is just left.

__________________
Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony

[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR

Erin
Forum Moderator

Joined: Feb 23 2005
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5814

Posted: June 14 2011 at 8:26pm \| IP Logged

Lindsay

Thank you so much for that tip, I would have thought thick rods. Pondering how higher to the ceiling will look.

Another question, what is the 'in' look regards curtain colours? different for each room or the same throughout the house? We painted the walls the same throughout, a lovely warm paw paw shade, reminds me of warm sand.

__________________
Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians

Sorry, you cannot post a reply to this topic.
This forum has been locked by a forum administrator.

[Add this topic to My Favorites]

Printable version

Forum Jump

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

Hosting and Support provided by theNetSmith.com