But the cost of real wood, along with growing concern over worldwide hardwood forest sustainability, has caused many people to reconsider wood alternatives when selecting their window blinds.

Cheap doesn’t have to mean low quality or inferior appearance; in fact the composite materials used to create today’s ‘faux’ or ‘alternative’ wooden blinds produce cheaper window treatments that look almost as good as real hardwood products! Read on to learn why faux wood Venetian blinds are one of the best values in window coverings today.

Benefits of Faux Wood Window Blinds

The most obvious advantage of alternative wood window coverings is lower cost, but the list of benefits also includes:

1. Faux wood blinds do not warp, making them the perfect choice to cover windows in humid environments such as a bathroom or kitchen or where direct sunlight beats down on the window a majority of the time. Especially if you live in a more humid climate, faux wood blinds will outlast real wood products by far!
2. Faux wooden blinds are easier to clean than real hardwood blinds; you can dip them in soapy water to deep clean faux wood products whereas real wood blinds require manually cleaning each slat individually. This makes preventing grime, mold or mildew from building up on your window blinds simple with periodic dusting and wiping the slats with a mild cleaning solution.
3. A wide range of simulated wood grains, colours and finishes is available in both made to measure and custom window sizes, making it easier than ever to fit and install your own faux wood blinds.
4. Vinyl and other materials used to manufacture faux wood blinds do not show nicks and scratches the way painted wood blinds do since the color runs all the way through the vinyl composite materials used to make faux wood blinds.
5. Faux wood blinds are lighter weight than real wooden window shades or blinds, making them easy and safe to install.

An Affordable Alternative to Wood Blinds

Practical, easy to operate and providing superior privacy and light control in any room in your home, the faux blinds offered today by major manufacturers also add insulation to keep your room cool in the summer and warm in the winter. They increase your home or apartment’s resale value and enhance your home décor.

You can leave your blinds bare or add a decorative top treatment such as a cornice or valance for a true designer look. You can also enhance the appearance of cheap faux blinds by adding decorative curtains or drapes to complete your window treatment in high style.

Buying ‘cheap’ blinds doesn’t have to mean suffering poor quality, fit or finish! Faux wooden blinds should look as good as real wood blinds without the expense or associated ecological, maintenance and longevity concerns.

The added durability of composite materials make faux wood window blinds a great choice for households with young children or pets. Other names for these affordable window coverings include alternative wood, simulated wood, Poly Wood and vinyl window blinds or shades. But, when you talk to a retailer, designer or installer about them, everyone will know what you mean when you say ‘faux wood blinds’.

How are Inexpensive Faux Wood Blinds Manufactured?

Alternative wood products are made using either vinyl or a composite of vinyl and wood materials. The only real drawback to these high tech materials is that they feel like plastic to the touch. For people who just can’t bear to touch their window treatment and feel plastic instead of the wood grain texture of real wood its worth paying a premium for the real thing.

Personally, I don’t really care what my blinds ‘feel’ like so the discount faux wood blinds are a perfect, more economically sound choice. You’ll have to decide for yourself how important ‘touch’ is in selecting your window blinds and shades!

The important thing is that you now have more choices in window fashions today. If you choose a fine quality, painted finish for your real wood blinds, you will pay a premium price but you’ll know you have the natural beauty and warmth of real wood. However, if the difference in texture and touch is a minimal consideration, you’ll save 25% or more by selecting an alternative wood blind or shade.

Faux Wood Blind Styles

Because of the manufacturing process and lighter weight of alternative wood products, you don’t have quite as many options as you do with real wood. For example, with vinyl products, the slat widths tend to be smaller to make them easy to angle. This means the blind will require more ladders (slats) in the stack for a given drop than for a similar wood blind.

If you want slats wider than 2 inches, look at the composite vinyl/wood products. The wood content in these composite materials adds weight and rigidity to the slats, making them more similar in appearance and operation to real wood slats. This adds a little to the price but gives you a look that can be very similar to real wood while still saving you money.

The style and slat width of your blinds is completely a personal choice. The theme and décor of your room can also help you determine whether wider or narrower slats are appropriate. If you have a more contemporary, modern or transitional style of room, the narrower all-vinyl faux wood blinds in white or another colour finish look right at home.

For more traditional décor styles, the wider slats are popular, especially in naturally stained wood grains such as cherry, maple or other hard woods. Obviously the look of real wood is harder to match with natural finishes versus the look of painted wood finishes, which can be hard to tell from vinyl or vinyl/wood composite finishes since wood grain and tone are less important factors.

Faux Wood Blinds Shopping Tips

• Look for blinds made by the major manufacturers such as Bali, Hunter Douglas or Levolor; these will offer the best quality ladders and operating controls. You can often find these brands on sale in large retails stores and home improvement centres at discounted prices.
• Check the warranty. Even if you buy a major brand, the various product lines and distribution channels in the window fashions industry means that price points, quality and product guarantees vary widely. You want to buy from a discount retailer to save money, but not at the cost of inferior customer service!
• Does the warranty cover operating controls or just the materials? The quality of the opening/closing/angling mechanisms, pull cords, wands, etc. are more likely to fail than the materials used to make the slats!
• What is the returns and exchange policy? If you accidentally order the wrong size or get your faux wood blinds home and realize the colour or finish is all wrong, can you return or exchange them?
• Be sure you have complete and accurate measuring instructions before you order faux wood window blinds; every brand and style varies in terms of mounting hardware, operating controls, inside vs. outside mount, etc.
• Since most of the major brands make faux wood blinds and shades, you have a lot more options than even a few years ago. And they continue to make advances in the quality, durability and style of faux wood products. Unless you can find a REALLY good price on no name or generic blinds, stick with the better brand names and shop around for the right deal.
• Every maker has various lines, so what is high end in one brand may be middle of the road in another. Check specifications and quality of the product to compare faux wood blinds ‘apples to apples’.

But Venetian blinds (also called horizontal blinds) all have one thing in common when it comes to keeping them clean; the slats are dust magnets and are not always easy to dust or clean!

There are several methods you can use to clean your Venetian blinds, depending on whether you need to lightly clean or deep clean them, the width of the slats and, most importantly, the material and finish.

Read on to learn the techniques you can use to properly clean and care for Venetian Blinds.

Metal Venetian Blinds

If you light clean your Venetian blinds regularly, you can avoid having to take them down for deep cleaning more than once a year!

When handling painted metal venetian blinds, take care not to bang the slats against each other or woodwork to prevent scratching the paint, which exposes the metal, diminishing their appearance and shortening the blind’s useful life.

You should not bend or separate metal slats to look out the window; always use the tilt wand or cords to angle the slats. If a metal slat is bent and kinked, it can’t really be reshaped into place and you’ll have to replace it and restring your blind.

Synthetic Polymer or Faux Wood Venetian Blinds

An advantage of faux wood Venetian blinds is that you can deep clean them by washing them in a bathtub.
Light cleaning of a synthetic polymer blind can be done using a feather duster or deep cleaning can be done by taking the blind down and washing it as detailed below.

Wooden Venetian Blinds

You should take special care when cleaning real wood products, including your wooden Venetian Blinds and should not wash them in most cases!

For detailed instructions, you should read our article on How to Clean Real Wood Blinds.

Venetian Blind Cleaning Preparation

Before you begin cleaning Venetian blinds using either of the light cleaning methods we present here, start by checking your blind for problem areas, wiping off sticky spots, stains, etc. You can use window spray cleaner to do this with metal or polymer blinds. Wipe them dry with a soft cotton cloth or paper towel.

Have a step stool available since you may need it in order to reach the top of your window blinds while dusting or vacuuming.

If you have curtains or other decorative window treatments around your blind, tie them back or otherwise move them out of the way.

Venetian Blind Light Cleaning by Hand

1. Lower the blind all the way and angle the slats completely closed.
2. Use either soft white cotton gloves or cotton cloth; some people also use clothes dryer sheets since they are meant to reduce static electricity.
3. For metal or polymer blinds you can dampen the gloves or cloth slightly with a solution of warm water and a very small amount of mild dish washing liquid.
4. Run your gloved fingers or cloth lightly over the slats from the center to one edge and then again from the center to the other edge of each slat. This is better than trying to clean a slat from one edge all the way across to the other edge, which is more likely to smear additional dust.
5. Reverse the angle of the slats so they are closed in the opposite direction and repeat the process.
6. Remember to change gloves or cleaning cloths every so often or you’ll simply end up moving dust around on the slats rather than removing it!

Venetian Blind Light Cleaning with a Vacuum Cleaner

1. The easiest way to prevent dust and grime from building up in the first place is to regularly vacuum your Venetian blinds with a soft brush attachment!
2. Lower the blind all the way and angle the slats completely closed.
3. Use a soft brush attachment only to avoid chipping or scratching slats.
4. Hold the blind in place with one hand and vacuum with the other so that you don’t bang the slats together or against the window as you clean them.
5. As with the hand cleaning technique above, vacuum from the center out toward each end, making two passes rather than trying to clean from one end to the other in a single pass.
6. Reverse the angle of the slats so they are closed in the opposite direction and repeat the process.

Deep Cleaning Synthetic Polymer or Metal Venetian Blinds

1. Lower the blind all the way and angle the slats completely closed.
2. Remove the blind from its mounting bracket, taking care not to loose screws or other mounting hardware and keeping the cords from getting tangled. It is best if possible to keep your manufacturer’s instructions handy for reference when removing/replacing blinds.
3. Fill your bathtub about half full with warm water and a small amount of mild dish washing soap. Set the blind in the tub and let it soak for about thirty minutes; if dirt and grime have really built up, you can even soak the blind overnight. Gently fold the blind over where it is too long to fit into the tub so that all the slats are completely immersed.
4. Scrub the slats gently on both sides with a soft brush.
5. Empty the soapy water and refill with clean warm water to rinse off residual soap. If your tub has a hand held shower attachment, this works best for rinsing. Otherwise, use a bucket and continue pouring fresh water over the blind until it is rinsed clean.
6. Hang the blind outdoors if the weather is warm and dry or over the tub to dry. You can use a hairdryer on the cool setting to help speed drying.
7. Once the blind is completely dry, you are ready to remount it!

You’ll enjoy your window blinds and extend their life by keep them clean and shiny!

Here are some additional tips on caring for your Venetian blinds:

• Clean blinds one room at a time if the prospect of cleaning them all at one time seems too daunting.
• Use a soft feather duster or soft, damp cloth to quickly dust blinds at the same time you are dusting the rest of your home during normal house cleaning; the more often you dust your blinds, the less often you will need to take them down for deep cleaning.
• When dusting Venetian blinds, always start with the top slat and work your way down so that dust doesn’t fall on to slats you’ve already cleaned.
• An alternative to using the bathtub for deep cleaning metal or synthetic polymer Venetian blinds is to take them down and spread them out carefully on a flat surface where you can use a large bucket of warm, soapy water and a brush to clean the slats. Pour clean water over them using a bucket or garden hose to rinse them.
• Remember; unless instructed specifically otherwise by your window blind manufacturer, you should not attempt to deep clean or wash wooden Venetian blinds or you may cause the slats to warp or crack!

These time-tested and trusted blinds offer perfect hassle-free window covering solution for every room.

The ease of purchasing, installing, and maintaining Venetian blinds is unparalleled.

Moreover, if you are always on the move, Venetian blinds are just about ideal for your purposes due to ease of handling.

Easy to operate and inexpensive, classic Venetian blinds remain one of the most popular window covering choices today!

Discovered by Venetian merchants who were traveling in Far East countries, Venetian Blinds were an instant hit among the interior decorators. The aficionados of home décor quickly lapped up different styles and designs offered by the Venetian Blinds manufacturers.

The blinds simply consist of slats of horizontal and overlapping material. This flexibility, in particular, was the main reason the immediate popularity of Venetian Blinds. You can easily and quickly adjust the Blinds to receive just the amount of sunlight you want. The Venetian Blinds can block all or some of the sunlight with ease.

In earlier times, Venetian Blinds, with dangling cord and difficult to clean slatted strips of plastic, sometimes looked clumsy in a room. However, soon enough the problem was rectified by the manufacturers who introduced easy-to-clean and easy-to-manage stylishly new-look Venetian Blinds in different materials.

The most popular among different varieties of Venetian Blinds is the one with wooden strips. The natural looking Wooden Venetian Blinds offer a contemporarily modern look to your room that resonates the unique aura of your personality. Aluminum Venetian Blinds are also quite popular in homes and commercial establishments.

For the budget conscious, we have PVC Venetian Blinds that are inexpensively durable. If you really want a darker room, then perhaps, Mini Venetian Blinds with narrow slats are just about ideal for your purposes.

Available in all colors, designs, styles, and materials, Venetian Blinds are one of the inexpensive window covering solutions for your home. Due to the unique material, Venetians are quite durable and easy to maintain Blinds.

Installing Venetian Blinds is not the job of a rocket scientist. It is extremely easy to manage their installation. You just have to learn few basic steps that are non-technical in nature.

Venetian Blinds offer covering solutions for every kind of windows. With so much versatility and convenience, why wouldn’t you want to have personalized Venetian Blinds ideally suited for your room?

Available in a wide variety of materials, styles, window sizes, slat sizes and colours, Venetian Blinds can easily be matched to your windows and room decor, adding a cohesive designer look to your window treatments.

Popular materials include metal (usually aluminum), wood, vinyl or fabric, with prices determined by the materials used and the style; the better the material and the larger the slats, the higher the price.

Available in many materials, colours, styles and slat sizes, Venetian Blinds provide a stylish and affordable window covering option.

Metal Venetians offer style and light control at great low prices. They are attractive, practical and available in a variety of colors like white, red, blue, chrome, green, black and many different color shades as well. Tapes will typically come in colors to match the slats.

Typical Venetian Blind metal slat widths include 15, 25, 35 and 50 millimeters. The wider slats are more expensive, but offer a nice look to your windows. Wooden Venetians or custom fabric materials are also available if you wish to give your window treatment a more luxurious look.

Since Venetian Blinds are usually made to measure, you will have to measure properly and specify whether the blind will be inside mount or outside mount, relative to your window alcove.

If your home has fine architectural features you do not want to hide, then inside mount Venetian Shades will be perfect, since they are mounted within the window alcove, allowing your ornate window and ceiling moldings show nicely.

You can purchase Venetian blinds in a wide variety of colours. These shades have custom tapes with a lovely pattern for a decorator touch!

You can install Venetian Blinds without any additional window covering or add a pelmet top or fascia for an even more fashionable, complete window treatment.

Versatile, minimal and sleek, Venetians offer a modern, uncluttered window treatment option. Controls are simple to operate and flexible to open wide, filter out some natural light or completely shut out the window light and create total privacy in your home.