You are excited about the opportunity to update your window coverings and considering blinds for your home. Real wood blinds vs. faux wood window blinds? How to know which one is a better choice?
Three features to keep in mind before making the right choice?
Whether you choose faux wood or real wood blinds, you want blinds to stay straight. You don’t want blinds to smile or frown on you.
By staying straight, I mean blind staying straight in all-weather conditions. Usually, intense heat, during summer, is the culprit. The sun’s movement and a window position severely affect the condition of the blinds.
New Blinds before the heat issues:
As you can see in the image below, the heat changes the chemical structure of blind slats causing them to lose their shape.
1. Material
Wood Blinds: natural wood blinds stand up to direct sunlight and heat better than faux wood blinds.
A quality supplier will use North American hardwood or basswood for making wood blinds. Natural wood has moisture, and it goes through a multi-step drying process. Basswood is excellent, as it can be optimally dried without getting brittle.
Wood blind is an excellent solution for most area windows except for high humidity spaces: washroom, kitchen sink, and laundry room windows. Moisture will have negative impacts on wood over the long-term.
Wood blinds create beauty and warmth and offer good privacy, light control, and energy efficiency. They are ideal for:
- Living rooms
- Dining rooms
- Bedrooms
- Family rooms
Faux Wood Blinds: Faux wood blinds simulate the look of wood at a budget price. The core material here is PVC. PVC is a thermoplastic used in many industries due to its high strength to weight ratio, fire resistance, and durability.
The disadvantage of thermoplastic is that it can soften when exposed to higher temperatures. PVC can become soft and pliable when exposed to temperatures above 55 degree Celsius.
Faux wood blinds are suitable for high humidity areas:
- Bathrooms
- Kitchen
2. String Spacing for blinds
You have strings, also known as ladders, which hold the slats of a blind in its place. Strings allow us to open and close the slats and raise and lower the blinds.
How many strings, across the window, are holding the slats is a good sign of the weight of the blinds. The distance between the strings is known as ladder-spacing. Wood blinds are lighter compared to the other two types of blinds. So, wood blinds need less support and the ladder spacing is as wide as 24”. As a result, wood blinds offer better aesthetics; too many middle strings do not obstruct the view.
Ladder-spacing is a measure of confidence from the supplier side, as to what material width can be held straight, without warping, before the supplier needs to put next string-support. The ladder-spacing for faux wood blinds is 11”.
Faux Wood Blinds are heavier, therefore more string supports.
For aesthetic reasons, be it the desire to bring a contrast look or accent with furniture, you can opt to put cloth-tapes over the strings. Be careful when you use the cloth tape over faux wood blinds. The spacing between cloth tape ladders will be 11”.
3. Blind Width and Installation
You have the main brackets that hold the blind. They go on the ends. There are windows with sizes, where you need one or more center supports brackets. Center support brackets are a must for those sizes. The sagging of headrail at the top can lead to other problems – especially, smiling at you.
A professional installer knows the number of support brackets that he or she needs to put and where to place those brackets. End brackets can sustain so much weight and lifting effort before they start to get loose. The headrail sagging at the top will soon transfer to slats, and slats will look warped.
Which type of blinds will you work for you?
Choose Real Wood Blinds if:
- You prefer the warmth of real wood. There is no match!! Many rich color choices.
- You want quality that lasts.
- You want the less likelihood of fading and warping from sun and heat.
- You want less visible strings, as wood blinds use minimal support strings.
- No concern for humidity.
Choose Faux Wood Blinds if:
- You are installing blinds in high moisture areas such as kitchen sink and bathroom.
- You want to mimic the look and feel of real wood without paying for it.
- You are dealing with a reputed quality supplier, and the supplier covers warping, fading, and yellowing under its warranty.
- You are thinking of moving to a new home or changing windows in the near future.
This blog article originally appeared on windecor.ca. Please call us for your personalized window covering consultation.