Hi guys,
Needing new blinds for the entire house and wondering if anyone has recently got their house blinded (what is the verb for blinds lol)
What are your thoughts?
Did you go with manual/motorised/smart blinds
Does anyone have any recomendations?
P.S - Also, looking at bifold doors if anyone wants to offer some advice?
thats what i am thinking too. it would be nice to tell google to put the blinds up or to even press a button on a remote, but realistically how often are we going to be putting them up and down.
what brand did you go with? mind sending a link? I have no idea which ones to choose.
We looked at luxaflex and they sent out a representative. Turns out 50% of the price was the brand name lol. We ended up going with a local company here in Melbourne who also manufactures the blinds locally.
WallTWall was the company but they are local to Melbourne so it much help I don’t think in your case.
Just ordered a couple of blinds two days ago. It'll double the price at minimum and that's just to have a remote control. If you want to be able to control via voice it'll cost even more. Then if you choose wired rather than battery you'll also need to cover the sparkys charges so you're likley looking at 5x the cost of a manual blind.
which company did you go with?
general consensus seems to be to go just manual blinds and use the savings to fix up other things around the house
@bigballerbrand: I just went with DIY Blinds as they're just for the laundry and bathroom so didn't need anything fancy. That said I did get fabric samples from several places and compared prices and IMO they had the fabric I liked the most and competitive price wise. If I like them I may do other rooms. I've also used Accent blinds before for 4 large blinds in an enclosed awning out the back and weren't completely happy with them. They still work fine but the fabric faded badly and quickly.
@apsilon: our house is painted white, with whitish tiles, would you go with white blinds or a charcoal colour? I am so lost
@bigballerbrand: Impossible for me to say as it's a personal choice. I'd look at what's going to go with the furnishings and decorations. White will blend with the walls and "disappear" but might be too much white. Charcoal will obviously contrast. In addition to colour there's also texture which will change a colours appearance. Also remember that colours are unlikely to match what you see on screen. IMO order a large amount of fabric samples and see what you like. I think I ordered about 50 samples.
The Local Contractor has signage on the back of their van:
"A Blind man is driving this vehicle"
Had blinds installed in my unit last year. Auto blinds are literally double the price.
I used No Bulls Blinds. I'm also based in Sydney and have used them twice now.
If you got standard size windows day / night blinds aren't that expensive at Spotlight. If you need it cut it is $25 (for 1 cut, if you need vertical & horizontal cut it means $50) which is reasonable.
There are retrofit smart auto blind gears available these days as well.
They work with most manual blinds that have a beaded chain.
You will need one for each blind though.
My mum got blinds recently done for her bow window.
The only place she could get what she wanted was at Spotlight. (Sydney)
Getting a day booked in with them went pretty bad - she took a day off specifically for the guy to come but he didn't turn up. The customer service on the phone wasn't great to her either.
When she did eventually get them fitted, they came off the wall not even a month later. To date, she's been waiting for someone to come fix it for her back before Christmas.
Maybe other people have had better experiences, but based on ours - I would give Spotlight a miss while Blind/Curtain hunting..
manual roller blinds, Bunnings. Saved a ton of cash.
anyone got any stories about bifold doors?
Once upon a time, there were bifold doors. It lived happily ever after.
The end.
"Finding Out My Doors Also Go Both Ways" by Chuck Tingle was okay
The the door that swings by Jamie Knockalot is an all time favourite too.
I can tell you that when we first bought our house it came with a couple of internal bifold doors from Doors Plus. They were terrible. The handles kept breaking and they didn't open or close very well. When we went to the shop to get replacement handles they just gave them to us for free without any questions - which makes me suspect that it is a common problem.
Bought Stegbar 5 panel bifold for updated deck in 2014.
The deck upgrade was the best thing I did to my house. The doors were OK, but had to get their service guy to come in a couple of times. Once to fix the tracking in the running grooves. Then again when the rubber seals in the glass started becoming loose.
They’ve been great ever since, but Stegbar quality is just OK, not high end.
I got motorised blinds last year. The motors did double the price of the manual blinds. I got Somfy motors - they're supposedly the best ones. Also need to buy the remotes and the internet gateway.
Each morning, my room one goes up with my alarm for the sun to shine in and wake me up. Then late at night when the sunsets, they go down for privacy. The living room ones go down in the morning when I start work so the sun isn't shining on my screen and face and then half an hour before the sun fully sets, they go up so that i can enjoy the night view. It did cost a bit (average of $1,000 per blind but I've got huge windows and I picked the thicker material that was one colour inside and another colour outside), but I'm loving them.
Highly recommend blindsonline if you’re happy to measure up & fit yourself
I’ve bought plantation shutters for a couple of rooms and have been very happy with the results
We went manual as auto blinds literally doubled the price.