Stop Staff Suffering by Installing Office Blinds

One way to combat solar glare, which also has many other benefits is installing office blinds. Office blinds are most commonly pleated blinds featuring a soft fabric which diffuses the light, minimising solar glare. Other types of blinds have been known to be used as office blinds, but in terms of reducing glare, while still letting light into the room pleated blinds are superior.

Glare is not the only problem caused by the sun, the sun can also cause extreme temperatures, which are only intensified by the pane of glass between the outside world and your office. Luckily blinds can also reduce this heat too. There are two ways this can be done.

Reflection and Absorption

Some blinds feature a reflective backing, usually a thin aluminium layer. This reflective the light. Whereas a fabric without a reflective backing will just absorb the heat. Both approaches do the job, but I’m sure you can guess which is better.

Note: Another advantage of reflective backing is that it keeps the heat in during the winter apparently.

Office Blinds save you money!

By reducing the heat and glare, you are not only increasing staff comfort but you could also save money at the same time! Think of it this way, when it gets too hot, what do you do? I’m guessing you turn on the air conditioning, an electrical appliance that costs you money. By reducing the heat from the beginning with blinds you will become less reliant on your air conditioning, which saves money on the bills and helps the environment!

Discount Blinds are not the same as ‘cheap blinds’.

‘Cheap Blinds’ by definition are blinds that are made to be cheap, which normally means mass production, cheap materials, cheap labour, ect.

Discount blinds on the other hand are still a high quality product, they are just discounted for one reason or another, for example during a sale or stock clearance.

What this means is if you are on a tight budget, which I understand a lot of people are during the ‘recession’ you can essentially get hold of the high quality blinds you are accustomed to at the same price as the low quality ‘cheap blinds’ you would usually avoid.

How you say? Simple, search for the discounts and sales!

It is important to understand that you are not the only one feeling the heat of the credit crunch, businesses are feeling it too and they are lowering prices and holding sales left, right and center!

This may sound cynical, but a lot of businesses are also going bust as well, and they have a lot of extra stock they quickly need to get rid of to recuperate at least some money. I’m willing to bet you can get a great discount on that stock!

I’m guessing you have a retail brand you know well, trust and buy from each time? It may be Hillarys, Web-Blinds, Blinds Supermarket or one I haven’t even heard of. But the key to finding the most discounted blinds is to not stick with one retailer but to compare the market, which is relatively easy with a simple Google search.

Another thing to look out for is promotions like ‘price beater’ or ‘price match’ where companies guarantee to beat the quote you’ve been given. This is always worth going for, you have nothing to lose after all!

One last thing to remember is that nearly all sites have discount codes, if you do a google search that looks something like “Web Blinds Discount Code” you may be surprised with what you find

Good luck finding those discounts!

All quality blinds use aluminium for the head rail and plastic for the components, but not all blinds use fabric for the window covering, some use wood or aluminium. Here are the blinds which do use fabric:

• Vertical Blinds
• Venetian Blinds
• Roman Blinds
• Roller Blinds
• Pleated Blinds
• Panel Blinds

If you would like more information on any of the above blind types, click the links.

There are many types of fabrics available on the market, they each have different properties, and of course, colours. Because there is such as wide range of fabrics choosing a fabric to match your exact requirements is not too much of a difficulty.

Fabric Types

There are a few different fabric types, each has it’s own unique style and properties.

• Polyester & Nylon – These are the fabrics used as standard on most blinds such as roman blinds and roller blinds.
• Leather & Suede – These fabrics offer a very modern stylish effect although they can be very expensive, they’re most commonly used in roman blinds.
• PVC is most popular for use in louvres, for vertical blinds. It is a relatively cheap and durable material.

Fabric Properties

• Flame Retardant is another name for fire resistant, this doesn’t mean you should try and set them on fire, but if you do accidentally expose them to a naked flame they shouldn’t set on fire. This type of fabric is extremely useful in public places where safety is key.
• Water Proof fabrics are perfect for us in kitchens and bathrooms as they will not become damaged from steam or water that is splashed onto them.
• Light Reflective fabrics are often used in conservatories where the light and heat can become unbearable due to the large amount of glass windows, light reflective blinds help reduce the heat and light coming into the room.
• Opaque and Semi Opaque fabrics are usually only available with pleated blinds, they offer the unique diffused light effect that pleated blinds are popular for.
• Blackout fabrics are not just dark fabrics, but fabrics with special properties to block out light, they are perfect for use in home cinemas, board rooms or any other situation you need darkness during the day.
• Dimout normally comes as standard, with the option to upgrade to blackout, dimout blinds do not allow people to see through the blind but they do allow more light in than a blackout blind.

Incase you haven’t heard of cellular blinds before they are basically the same as pleated blinds, their design is perfect for that simple, crisp, yet versatile product. Cellular blinds or shades as they are sometimes named are also great for filtering out light and controlling the suns energy.

Another name that is given to cellular blinds is honeycomb blinds as they form a honeycomb pattern which aids in heat and light control. Not only do they create a stylist window covering but they also help save money on your energy bills. Although all blinds save money by restricting heat loss and minimising solar glare cellular blinds are able to do this better than the rest, the great thing about this is that you can lower your dependance on your air conditioning unit which should have a positive effect on the enviroment.

A feature that is often emphasised is that cellular shades don’t block out light, instead they filter it, which gives you a nice amount of light while protecting the items in your room from direct sunlight.

Selecting a Fabric

Many people are overwhelmed by the sheer ammount of options when choosing a cellular shade, not only do you have to choose fabric colour and size, but also the level of light you want to filter and how many ‘cells’ you want. The number of cells you choose has a direct impact on the level of light filtering which ranges all the way up to blackout, and also the level of insulation the blind offers, the more cells the better the insulation, triple cell usally offers the maximum.

The prices can range massively depending on your requirements, if you are just looking for a simple blind which looks nice then you can purchase that for a reasonable price, but if you are looking for something fancier such as motorised blinds or a triple cell fabric for maximum insulation then you can expect to spend quite a lot of money.

Choosing a Cellular Shade to suit your room

If finding a blind to suit your decor is one of your fears then fear no more, the range of cellular blinds is one of the most extensive of all the blind types. Not only is the colour choice huge, the range of fabrics with different properties is also quite extensive, such as specially treated fabrics.

Here is a quick tip, If you are shopping online sometimes your monitor can mis-represent the colours so always request a fabric sample first before you place an order, they are usually free.

Fabrics

The range of pleated blinds is absolutely huge. Want an orange pleated blind? No problem. Want a pink pleated blind? No problem either. No matter what your colour preference there should be a fabric to suit.

Fabric Types

Depending on which room you are installing blinds you may have a different fabric requirement, such as a blackout fabric in a loft bedroom or a dimout dimout in a living room. Luckily all these types are available in a pleated fabric, as well as others such as opaque and semi-opaque materials.

Sizes

In terms of pleat sizes the standard options are 20mm and 25mm. 25mm is the classic approach whereas 20mm is a more modern up to date contemporary look.

In terms of height and width it all depends on the supplier but you should expect the maximum to be around 2 meters wide by 3 meters drop.

Price

Due to their simple special fabrics pleated blinds are not the cheapest of blinds, verticals and roller blinds can easily be purchased cheap, but in the right situation pleated blinds are definitely worth the extra investment.

Shapes

One of the main advantages of pleated blinds is that they can be cut into all sorts of shapes and sizes. The main two applications of this feature is the use of pleated blinds in conservatories and the use of pleated blinds to create artistic window coverings.

Pleated Blinds in the Conservatory?

Yes, pleated conservatory blinds are very popular, not only because of the versatility of pleated blinds, but also the special treatment the pleated fabric undergoes.

The treatment used on pleated blinds gives them the ability to reflect light better than the average blind fabric, this makes them great for conservatories as they suffer quite badly to the effects of solar glare. The effects of solar glare include damaging effects to items inside your conservatory and also excessive heat which renders the conservatory useless.

Pleated Blinds and Curtains Together?

If you are looking for a cheap window covering option then this is not for you, if you are looking for something stylish and unique to set you apart from the crowd then this could be it. Out of all the house I have been to I have only ever seen this done once, but it looked amazing! Basically the curtains go over the blinds to offer the ultimate in light control. If you want to diffuse the light you can use the blind, then if that is not enough you can use the curtains.

Why are Pleated Blinds so popular in conservatories?

There could be hundreds of little variables that go into why a certain person purchases pleated blinds, but the majority of people choose pleated blinds for these five reasons:

1. Cost – Pleated blinds a pretty simple product, and for that reason you can get them relatively cheap. One thing it is important to check is the quality of the material, sometimes you think you are getting a bargain until you end up with a wafer thin blind which doesn’t fulfil your needs.
   
2. Shape – Conversatories often feature odd shaped windows such as triangular shapes, because of this it is hard to get to find blinds to suit as some blind types just simply don’t work unless they are rectangular shapes. Pleated blinds on the other hand function perfectly even when cut into intricate shapes. The quality of the fabric is also important at this stage as you don’t want a flimsy blind.
3. Light Diffusion – The light coming through the glass of the conservatory can be damaging to your furniture and other things stored in your conservatory, so it is important to restrict some of the light coming into the room. Pretty much all blind types are good for this but pleated blinds are especially effective due to the fabric treatment they recieve during the manufacturing process.
4. Versatility – Not only are pleated blinds perfect for conservatories, they are also great for most other rooms in the house because of the great range of fabric types. Pleated blinds are pretty fashionable option so they wouldn’t look out of place in for example your bedroom or bathroom.
5. Fabrics – There is a wide range of pleated blind fabrics ranging from opaque fabrics to blackout fabrics. For the conservatory you would probably be best with a light reflective fabric which reflects away the light and heat but still lets some into the room. Alternatively you could use a blackout fabric but it would be useless during the daytime.

Just to recap, pleated blinds are one of, if not, the best conservatory blind available. If you have someone come out and measure up your blinds ask to see their full pleated blinds collection, I’m sure there will be something you like.