Vertical Blinds The Foundation For Awesome Window Treatments

Vertical blinds took the decorating scene by storm back in the late 70's and all thru the 80's. People rushed to take down their ceiling to floor, wall to wall drapes and replaced them with vertical window blinds that went inside the window frame.

The reason for this mass exodus from drapes to vertical is in no small part due to the awesome advantages of verticals. People could now open their house up and still have privacy. Before with draperies it was open up for all to see in or shut up so no one could see in or out including the sun. They liked the fact that vertical blinds, especially the smooth PVC vanes were easy to clean . When little ones in the house leave a dirty finger print on a vertical slat-no problem-a wet cloth and it's gone. With drapes this is almost an impossibility.

The one big advantage that caused such a stir was the fact that verticals don't collect dust. Because of their vertical slats dust will not settle on verticals. This was a big change from the Venetian blinds that people were used to dusting almost constantly.

Versatility of placement is an advantage of Vertical Blinds . They can be mounted either inside the window frame or outside, they can draw to the center or close to the center and they can be mounted one way to the right or to the left.

Vertical blind vanes come in two different types PVC and fabric. Textured PVC Verticals are by far the most popular because of their cleanability and durability.

In their heyday cloth vertical vanes came in just about every material and pattern possible. I remember carrying three or four sample books into a customer house filled with nothing more than fabric or soft vertical vanes.

Unfortunately the selection today for fabric verticals is sparse to say the least. Today you would carry one sample binder into a customers house and 3/4 of it would be hard or PVC vanes with the cloth vanes tucked in the corner.

Today the oo's and the ah's go to the S-Shaped Laminate Verticals by Levolor . They are so awesome to look at that they just naturally steal the show. They are definitely worth checking out.

There are some disadvantages to vertical blinds that you should take into consideration. Vertical blinds are not a good insulating blind. Due to the fact that the vanes do not close tight heat and cold goes both ways through the vanes.

Vertical window blinds are probably the least insulating of all window treatments, so if saving energy and cutting fuel bills are a high priority then you need to forget vertical and check out the insulated window blinds.

Verticals by themselves are rather plain Jane except for the S-shape verticals who have no trouble commanding a visitor's attention.

The companies that manufacture vertical have tried to come up with different styles of valances to gain attention but so far there is nothing to make the vertical stand up and shout look at me.

To look its Sunday best verticals need to be surrounded by a cornice or decorative valance and a good looking set of side panel drapes.

In high winds the vanes go flying around and are not easy to control unless you use a tie back or a piece of Velcro to secure them. They used to put chains at the bottom to try and control them but that proved to be a disaster as well as an eye sore.

On the other hand if you own a rental unit, have a high traffic door way with a very busy family or just want good looking low maintance window treatments, verticals are your window treatment of choice because they are easily maintained and have a low replacement cost.

We even have a page devoted to vertical blind parts. There you'll see just how inexpensive the maintance is.

As in every thing in life verticals have past there prime and are settling down to a very comfortable middle age. With middle age there still comes a lot of excitment but you also get a good sprinkling of wisdom.

In other words the verticals on the market today are good looking, have proved themselves for wearability and color retention, and would stand proud and do justice to your windows and doorways.

Here is an excelent source for verticals in the UK

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