What Window Treatments Would Santa and Mrs. Clause Choose?

Ho, ho, ho, if you traveled up to Santa’s North Pole workshop and home, what window blinds do you think you would see? Every room at the Claus homestead has a need for light control, privacy and a splash of color or warm wood tones to keep that good cheer going year round.

Mrs. C knows beauty and function and keeps Santa happy with blinds that can take the heat and cold like the faux wood blinds she had installed in Santa’s Workshop. Plus, the faux wood blinds keep the Top Secret work that goes on there safe from prying eyes. To solve the problem of 20 hours of sunlight a day during the summer, the clever Mrs. Claus has decorated their bedroom windows with pleated blackout shades. Santa needs his sleep all year long to keep the toy factory going. Adding blackout shades in the elves’ rooms helped keep them focused on their work too.

In Santa’s Study, you will find his trophy sailfish (from his beach house in Acapulco of course), a mini fridge, and his favorite recliner with ottoman. For this manly retreat, Mrs. Claus selected wood blinds to bring a warm, natural look to the room. Wood blinds also provide excellent cold weather energy efficiency and remind him of Christmas trees all year long.

And what could be sweeter for The Doll Room than cellular blinds? With their unique structure, Mrs. Claus knows the pleats in these delicate-looking but sturdy cellular shades provide year-around energy efficiency, and come in a rainbow of decorator colors. For safety’s sake and ease of operation, she upgraded to the free cordless lift for windows near the baby doll cribs.

She selected roman blinds, of course, for the toy soldiers at The Guardhouse. The reindeer almost opted for roman blinds, too, but Mrs. Claus talked them into roller shades because they are easier to use for those without opposable thumbs and easy enough, well, for even Donner and Blitzen to use (there’s a reason they are last in the sleigh lineup).

However, the Most Famous Reindeer of All wanted something a bit different. So Rudolph chose sheer honeycomb blinds– to let his famous glow shine through, why else? And, being Numero Uno, he pulled rank to get a skylight installed for viewing the Northern Lights. So for his stall, Mrs. Claus ordered specially designed honeycomb blinds, which operate on sloped or totally horizontal windows like skylights.

It is not always all business at the Pole. The Clauses do manage to leave the ice and snow behind after the busy season, sneaking away on vacation to some place warm, usually their condo in Acapulco. It is rumored that Santa likes to catch a few rays without his suit, so privacy is a must. This is why Mrs. Claus thoughtfully chose top/bottom roman blinds for seclusion, while letting the sun shine in through the tops of the windows. For their large picture windows, the Claus’s chose solar shades to keep the sun glare out and their ocean view in.

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Wood Blinds vs. Faux Wood Blinds: To Faux or not to Faux?

Graber Wood Blinds

Not all rooms are created equal especially when it comes to window treatments. Throughout recent years, wood blinds have been very popular because of their elegance. Wood blinds have a higher investment level, so manufacturers started making faux wood blinds to get the same look for less. With both of these blinds available in the market today, consumers might find it hard to choose between the two. Today we’ll help you make the decision somewhat easier by pointing out different things to factor in when choosing between wood, faux wood and composite faux wood blinds.

Price
When it comes to price, faux wood blinds take the plum. Wood blinds are more expensive because wood is more expensive than PVC (vinyl), which is what faux wood blinds are made of. There is also a product in between wood and PVC – composite faux wood – which is made of both wood and PVC. Composite offers superior slat stability and looks more like wood than standard PVC. It is priced right in the middle between wood and PVC.

Weight
Weight is another factor you should look into when picking between wood blinds and faux wood blinds. PVC faux wood blinds are heaviest, followed by composite, and then wood. If you will be covering a very wide window, wide slats made from composite faux wood or real wood will not be prone to bowing.

Styles
Faux wood blinds are designed to look like real wood, but the wood grain patterns are not as natural looking as the real thing. Painted colors such as whites and off whites offer a closer look to real wood blinds, and composite faux woods look and feel even more like wood.  With wood blinds, the natural stain of the wood and the pattern will be more unique. If you prefer the look of wood, think about real wood blinds in living and dining rooms and save money with faux wood blinds in other areas of your home.

Durability
Consider the use and style of the room you are decorating when selecting  between wood and faux wood. If the room for example is decorated with authentic natural wood furnishings, it only makes sense that you use real wood blinds. Faux wood blinds are a natural for bathrooms, laundry rooms and kitchens. They are moisture-resistant, won’t scratch, chip, or fade and are perfect for high moisture areas.

Wood blinds and its faux counterparts offer great variety in color and application for any room in your home.

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Using the Natural Beauty of Bamboo in your Window Coverings

Levolor Natural Shades

There are so many different types of window coverings out there today; trying to decide what direction to go can be difficult. There are a host of types, styles, materials and different brands to choose from. If you are just in the beginning stages of looking for new window blinds, feel free to visit our website www.blindsaver.com to get an idea of what is available.

Have you ever thought about going with a “green” approach in your window coverings? One of the most popular selections today is blinds made with eco-friendly bamboo because they look great and are made from sustainable materials. Sustainable materials include products made from renewable resources like bamboo and wood harvested through “sustainable yield forest management”.

There are three types of blinds made with bamboo.

1. Horizontal wood blinds made with bamboo wood slats are inexpensive, stylish and available in several stain colors. They present a highly efficient way to direct light in a room while providing warmth with wood tones. One of the nice things about wood blinds is the amount of light they actually allow in a room while still giving you privacy. The bamboo provides a modern approach to wood blinds.
2. Woven wood shades made from bamboo are one of the most popular shades with designers today because they look fantastic in both casual and semi-formal settings. Woven wood shades fold up like a roman shade and are light filtering. Add a liner if you need privacy or to block out the light. Woven wood bamboo shades are available in a myriad of woven styles and color combinations.
3. Panel track blinds are available in the same material as bamboo woven wood shades, so you can coordinate your entire room when covering a patio door. Panel track blinds, also referred to as sliding panels; offer a new and innovative way to cover extra large windows and sliding glass doors. Hanging panels span your window or stack neatly over each other when opened.

Bamboo wood blinds, bamboo woven wood shades and bamboo panel track blinds are one of the most popular eco-friendly window covering solutions on the market today.

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A Breakdown of Window Coverings

Window coverings are a very affordable design staple that can have dramatic effects for interior decorators and budding Do-It-Yourself-ers. All visual appeal is based on light, and your windows and window coverings are what control the access of light in your room. They can therefore be very powerful in interior design, but some shoppers feel overwhelmed with the wide range of wood blinds, roller shades, sheer vertical blinds and other window coverings that are available.

Wood blinds are a classic and universally appealing window covering. Made from hardwoods, wood blinds are light and their louvers can be adjusted to let any amount of light in. These are the kind of blinds commonly seen in offices, studies and living rooms. Most people opt for a stained or natural finish in their wood blinds to show off the quality of natural wood. However these blinds can be matched to almost any interior because of their wide range of painted colors and stains.

Wood Blinds

Along with traditional hardwood blinds, you can also order faux wood blinds, which are less expensive and more weather resistant. Bamboo roman shades are another wood blind variant that use earth-friendly bamboo to give a soft filtered light when rolled down. Bamboo is a much more renewable resource than hardwoods, and can give a more natural, relaxed look to a room.

For those who want more light control out of their blinds, roller shades are a great choice. When rolled down, they present a solid face that effectively blocks sunlight. When you really need to block all light for work, sleep, or privacy reasons, honeycomb cellular shades are a great choice. Cellular shades are made of pleated fabric that forms pockets of air to insulate your windows. This double sided technology also makes the shades great at stopping light. In their original use, cellular shades drastically decrease heat transfer across the window. This leads to a more comfortable interior and reduced energy bills.

Less utilitarian, but more stylish are sheer blinds and shutters. Sheer blinds create a soft, romantic atmosphere in a room because all light is filtered through a silky cloth barrier. Shutters, on the other hand, are the oldest window covering. Some people still use storm shutters to protect from dangerous weather, but recently the plantation shutter has come into vogue. These classy shutters bring an air of old-time elegance to a home.

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