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For the 15+ years in my last house, I always wanted wood blinds. I'm now in a different house and ready to get new window treatments. But when I looked at wood and faux-wood blinds (various brands and stores) it seems to me they are very light-weight and flimsy.
If you have installed wood or faux-wood blinds in recent years (2013-2015), what has been your experience? Do they hold up? Do the slats stay put within the string ladders? I plan to tilt the slats open and closed daily. Probably won't be raising and lowering the whole blind much.
If there is a particular brand that you know doesn't hold up well, that info would be helpful too.
We had Hunter Douglas faux-wood blinds installed at our house. They came out and measured and they custom made each one to fit each window. Was about $600 per window. Not cheap, but better quality than what I think Lowes or Home Depot might sell. The slats were thick, like maybe 3/8" each. No strings, but they were attached to a vertical rod that opened all of them. These were shutter style. You could have them closed, just the slats open, or you could swing open the entire shutter on each side. Quality was great and they held up for the 5 years until we sold our house.
Wow, if that is the current pricing, they have really gone up! [EDIT: I see, that price if for plantation shutter style blinds. That is not a bad price then.]
We got 14 real wood Hunter Douglas blinds installed for about $2K in our house many years ago. They are the basic blinds and are not too thick. I thought they might warp being so thin, but so far we've only had a couple of the slats slightly warp. And I just swapped out those slats for ones from the bottom that you don't see. Of course it was on the windows that are 6' wide and those blinds do not have a warranty due to the size. We wanted one solid blind and HD would only warrant it if we split each window opening into two blinds. They are warrantied for life if you follow their instructions on installation and sizing and the failure is not a result of normal wear and tear. They sent me a new tilt mechanism for one of ours and it was easy for me to replace.
We bought a few more from Home Depot and Lowes for the rest of our house and those have held up very well also. They were the Hunter Douglas brand too. We did get the faux wood blinds for our bathrooms just to be safe, and those are the generic Home Depot brand.
There are lots of places that sell blinds online and they seem pretty reputable. Blindster, blinds.com, budget blinds I would get a few quotes and go from there.
I've purchased wood or faux wood blinds from Ikea, Target, JC Penney, and a local department store. The Ikea wood blinds are a mixed bag -- the blinds that were raised and lowered a lot are in bad shape. The Target faux wood blinds are pretty sturdy and substantial. The department store faux wood blinds are in fantastic shape and they're 10 years old. The JC Penney wood blinds are thin, but ok.
If you have installed wood or faux-wood blinds in recent years (2013-2015), what has been your experience? Do they hold up? Do the slats stay put within the string ladders? I plan to tilt the slats open and closed daily. Probably won't be raising and lowering the whole blind much.
I got the extra cost tape ladders instead of the string.
I raise some of them often and open and close all of them very often.
After 8 years they are as good as new. I am actually a little amazed and I couldn't be happier. I thought that at least the wood finish would have deteriorated somewhat and the tape ladder would have faded. But no.
It's easy to order online although I read somewhere that they now supply Home Depot - Home Depot bought into the company so they would have a reliable source.
I purchased faux wood blinds from Home Depot about 6 or 7 years ago. They held up well even with cats trying to get to the window. I looked at Lowe's but they seemed much thinner.
My daughter put in the wood blinds from Home Depot in her rental. The problem is the strings that work them, and the mechanisms that break and need replacing, which usually means having to just replace that window with a new blind.
That said, they're cheap. But, they look fantastic. So, if it was me, I'd go with the cheaper Lowe's wooden blinds, and when they break just replace them with new cheap Lowe's blinds. Because they really do look fantastic, and from what I've heard, the really expensive ones are just as bad as far as the strings and mechanisms.
Home Depot will also do custom orders if you need some that aren't the standard size. I think they're a good deal and they look great. And they're cheap enough to just replace when needed.
My house came with 2 inch faux wood blinds purchased by the previous owner and after 10+ yrs of use are still in very good shape. Problem was they are dirty and need hours to clean. I attempted to replace them with HD ones ordered online but when they arrived, I found thev slates too flimsy and thin to shade out light. Returned them back to the store and accepted that what I inherited just need a good cleaning. Don't know where mine came from but it is high quality and looks very nice. Avoid the flimsy ones if you don't want to replace them every year
Thank you all for sharing your experiences. The blinds I see in the stores today seem to all have very thin slats and when you tilt them closed, the slats don't meet -- they leave a space where light and cold can come in. I only saw one that closed all the way at JC Penny - it was a 2.5" slat which I think is too wide for the depth of my recessed windows. I am still pondering my decision.
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