There is nothing more exciting than building the home of your dreams or renovating a house to match your tastes. The joy of picking your favourite tile, or the endless times you have looked over your architectural drawings to make sure nothing has been missed and that every detail is perfect.
But once you have decided on your wall switch placement, whether to have underfloor heating or not and your entire kitchen cabinet design, your window covering choice gets left as the “last thing on the list”, bunched in with the furniture and reupholstering fabric swatches. Although having your blinds or shutters installed last is a good thing so that they do not get damaged during the building process, you may want to consider them during the early stages of building and renovating.
Having that unique triangle window in the bathroom was architectural genius, but once installed and adding to all the splendour of your new bathroom, you may need some privacy or light control. Now, if you are unable to locate a blind that lends itself to this beautiful bathroom feature, you may have considered not doing this shaped window at all. However, if you had sourced a custom made blind in the beginning stages, you could have ensured that it is the right look to enhance the room and that the window is the correct dimension so that the blind fits perfectly and operates smoothly.
We have put together a few examples where pre planning your window coverings may come in handy:
- Shutters stack and can take up quite a bit of space in the room. Designing dry wall cavities where the shutters can bypass one another on a track system into the hidden cavity, allows you to save space and clear the area of shutters completely when you want them open.
- Dropped ceilings. A great feature to have when opting for roller blinds. When they are completely rolled up, they are hidden in the dropped ceiling, giving you the feeling that there are no window coverings at all. When dropped down, the roller blind tube is completely covered.
- Meeting of the Mullions. This area seems to be overlooked but is very important to the design of any window covering. With shutters or multiple blinds, it is ideal to match up the panels or each blind section with the window mullions. This avoids too many vertical lines being seen and helps the decision of how many shutter panels or blinds are needed for the opening.
- Electrical Point position for motorised blinds. This is helpful with the installation of the blinds and avoids having too many cables or blinds running off one electrical point.
- If you are wanting to install external shutters and a bottom track is being recessed, the groove will need to be waterproofed to prevent water going into the house.
- Reveal depth is very important when wanting your blinds or shutters installed flush in the window opening. With such a variety of different sized blinds and shutters, it is a good idea to have quite a bit of reveal to play with, especially if there are door or window handles that protrude.
- Doors or windows opening inwards may limit your options for window coverings.
- Structures such as beams and lintels to attach the blinds or shutters to. Shutters are top hung and require a strong fixing point that can carry the weight.
- Shaped windows are a great addition and can add another design element to a homes architecture. There are blinds and shutters that can be made for these types of windows. It is always better to plan these kinds of windows with the shutter and blind dimensions so that it results in the perfect fit.
- Windows that are hard to reach might need a motorised blinds or an extension wand to operate the blind with.
Although blinds and shutters are custom made to fit, planning can accommodate the various designs and types better.