I am a simple guy, and I like simple things. So, with that in mind, when it comes to deciding how I want to decorate the house, I tend to work on the rule that simple is best! When it comes to the house, people like to dress simple up with all sorts of fancy words like elegant, tasteful, classic, refined, minimalistic and smart. Really, they all mean simple, and simple is what I like!
This time we are talking windows, and I have a few to sort. The front bedroom and the living room both need curtains. I love that sumptuous feeling in winter of pulling thick, muffling drapes over the windows, pushing out the night and making the home all warm and snuggly. Curtains can be a bit of a pain, but they are worth it for the way they insulate the front room from the sound of passing traffic and the way they stop the drafts from round the old wooden frames. Sure, they need washing from time to time, and you need an industrial sized ironing board to iron them before you re-hang them, but they are worth it.
The back bedroom (recently re-christened as the home office), the bathroom and the kitchen are all very different though. In the home office, curtains are going to take too much off the room, and if I get it too warm and cosy in there, I will end up snoring in my roller chair. The same in the bathroom, space and the amount of residual moisture in the air means that curtains are a total no-no.
So, the answer? Roller blinds! Roller blinds are by far the simplest but most practical window shade I can go for. Roller blinds are great because whether you go for side winding or spring-loaded roller blinds, the mechanisms are simple and hassle free. When I’m working at my computer in the home office, roller blinds will let me keep the sun off my screen without blocking the whole window.
Roller blinds are also easy to clean, and as you may have twigged, my home office is going to be a bit of a lad’s den so I need something that will not collect dust easily and that can be quickly hoovered or wiped clean. For this same reason, roller blinds are definitely my go to in the kitchen and the bathroom. All the extra humidity can cause traditional drapes to go mouldy or mildewed, and because roller blinds have no extra folds of material or fiddly corners, they aren’t at risk of harbouring nasty gunk so your kitchen will be easy to keep sanitised.
When I went on a hunt through the internet for roller blinds, I found Bubbles Blinds and Shutters, a specialist based in Eastbourne, East Sussex. They are going to be perfect for roller blinds of different sizes for the three rooms. Their website and gallery are well worth a look, and I can’t wait to get some roller blinds ordered!
