This corner situation makes perfect use of rollers tailored to meet tightly as wallpaper. Motorised blinds in Ingrid Pumpkin, from €54, Hillary's Blinds

Blinds in all their crisp, beautiful, multi-talented conceptions have gained ground in the interior design world. Among their many benefits, they retract up, up and completely away to reveal outdoor views unimpeded by heavy sails of vertical fabric. They also allow wall piers and relationships between adjacent windows to shine (curtains often smother these expansive areas in depressing columns). 

Beckoning in, and tailoring available light, blinds are masters of light control that celebrate the lovely bones of your home. The precision to frame and tease available natural illumination and scenes to the millimetre, in a Roman blind, a stack of venetian blades, or a simple cassette and roller, cannot be matched.

With the high thermal performance of new windows (expressed as a low “U” values like 0.9) the insulation talents of curtains and blinds are not as important as they were with single and first-generation double-glazing. It’s far more likely, you’re largely protecting your modesty by night, and day-time daring-do in that A3 BER new build. 

Still, some of the most exquisite window dressings, combine the weight and swag of curtains and the clever slip of a blind in coordinating fabrics, while effectively shoring updrafts and heat loss.

Venetian blinds recessed to the window have a fascinating rhythm becoming part of its overall character. They look particularly handsome with modern windows with larger panes without fussy glazing bars, and of course, they can be pulled clear of the window as needed.

The bi-directional tilt of venetians can rake light, to keep direct sunshine out of your eyes while cooking for example, or excluding a neighbour’s afternoon adventures in hot-tubbing, while still letting light in (the blades set skyward). Choose a metallic finish to bounce around even more light or wide wooden slats with wide tapes, and a head-rail valance for some New Orleans magic without hefty timber shutters. PVC venetians are cheap, but cats can rip right through them — manage expectations.

Slat sizes and depths, colour (to some extent), together with the addition of any vertical fabric strips will dictate the visual weight of the venetian. Do you want the blind up against the glass inside the reveal (a recessed or fully fitted glazing blind) or outside it, lying flush to the wall — termed exact? Look for any interrupting annoyances like sockets if the blind will be left down. 

If you use your windowsills as shelves, a more slender slat venetian recessed to the frame will leave the window board available. PVC and non-rusting aluminium are ideal for wet areas like bathrooms. For something warm and sustainable, stable, kiln-dried basswood offers ultimate structural stability in a wide 50mm slat.

Roller blinds team very well with curtains and highly affordable start from as little as €25 for a 180x160cm example. Plush and comforting, nothing kills light better in a bedroom than a recessed black-out roller blind. For blackout and/or thermal blinds choose a recess blind where possible — if the opening is close to square (measured true in three places). Many online suppliers have offers on free thermal linings to designated ranges. 

Different materials will offer different levels of translucency, so if you want the blind down but allow in glowing illumination, don’t get a heavy, double-lined product, and choose trending grey, white or pale taupe for 2023.

If there is an interrupting window handle, hang the blind off the front of the housing in a recess or do an exact fit on the wall around the window. For a day/night blind explore roller blinds combining horizontal voile panels with regular blind material. These hang in two panels from a cylinder and can be passed over each other to give a transparent or opaque effect. Beautiful in white, they are ideal for bathrooms. 

Alternatively, double up. Firms including makemyblinds.ie, offer a full voile blind with a black-out to the fore in one housing. Very chic in layered Amor Soft Grey (blackout) and Haze (sheer). Prices from €24. Ensure to use the correct number and type of fixings for the wall type and the weight of the blinds and mechanism, especially with a heavier blind with say a decorative pelmet or cassette.

Pleated blinds are light, easy to install and offer thermal smarts. To regulate temperature, choose from thermal linings to a roller blind, or dedicated thermal blinds with a honeycomb cell structure which traps and holds heat. These can regulate room temperatures, holding off unwanted passive gain on a hot day in your sunroom, for instance, and lighter varieties are often dubbed as conservatory blinds. 

Light control, thermal and black-out benefits are a great choice for conservatories, French doors — anywhere where a standard blind would be problematic. Look up day/night split pleated blinds with a privacy section and expect a double thick product with aluminium linings to both in all “energy saving blinds."

Pleated blinds are an easy DIY install on PVC, but inexpensive or even free fittings are commonplace. Perfect-fit products operate inside a dedicated frame attached to the window, holding the blind right in against the glass. For lower windows, they are operated with a small handle you can hook down with your finger, and tickle from the bottom or the top. 

You can even leave the panel floating at the centre if you’re managing glare. A standard example would be Duolight Easyfit by Blinds2Go with pricing from around €33 per blind or Kala at B&Q from €61.

Roman blinds display an exquisite slice of colour and texture even when pulled up. Stacking in soft panels as they rise, they have a certain homely, Scandi feel. A €100pm fabric may exceed the €300 mark when made up by skilled hands, with bottom edges trimmed out with fringing, bobbles or winking gems, as these will be bespoke, handmade lovelies. Add interlining, and romans are excellent insulators.

If you fancy making your own there are hundreds of DIY guides online to making your first classic, corded roman blind, and with a bit of patience, even a starter armed with a steady hand, running stitch and a staple gun can manage a blind. You will need to cut and finish one piece of timber, figure out some strings and pulleys, and it would help if you knew your way around a sewing machine. 

Roman and simple corded Swedish panels make pretty pelmets for long windows and can be pulled well up and out of the way by day. Online pricing, made to measure, starts at €31 for a 40cm x 40cm blind with a tension bracket that doesn’t require any tools to install.

When it comes to roof windows and motorised blinds, happily, every Velux, Fakro, Dakstra and Rooflite roof window carries a data plate. Check your window's code number and give that when ordering your blind — that’s it. The fabric choices will be limited of course, but in general, it’s a four-screw fitting as the standard window sizings are already engineered to receive the blinds. 

Every roof light blind should carry a UV-resistant layer to the outer surface to prevent sun damage and fading. Beyond this, it’s just a matter of deciding on remote motor control or manual control, and for this, you will be directed away from a general online blind supplier back to your brand’s supplier.

Solar blinds used primarily for banks of huge windows, out-of-reach fixed glazing features and walls of glass are the Rolls Royce of architecturally inclined light control. Purring softly from app operation, they disappear in concealed stacking hidden in the top edge of the reveal or return to a slender cassette.

The best use mains control, centred on a wall switch and app. With top commercial brands like Luxaflex, you can set up a schedule of single or group control to prevent rooms from overheating in winter or just tease the blinds up or down from the comfort of a chair.

For an automatic head-rail to tidy a conventional venetian, roller or roman blind, expect to quadruple the price (from around €120 for a modest window roller) for scene setting, group control, scheduling, and a remote app to wake you with the sunrise. 

With a battery pack model, you don’t even need a power outlet to get rolling. Lotto win? Take a look at our pros and cons on fully integrated (glazed-in) blinds with the latest in concealed stacking.

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