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Window Blinds: What About Art, Function, or Zen?

Imagine waking up in the luxury of your home after an exquisite night of revelry. At first you simply lay there, in that peaceful bit of slumber somewhere between sleep and awareness. Next, you stretch slowly, allowing feeling back into your extremities. Sitting up, your eyes stilled closed, a sense of dread creeps into you from the recesses of your mind. You're late for work. With a jarring dose of reality setting in, your eyes fly open only to be immediately assaulted by the suns glowing rays streaming in from your window. You jump out of bed stepping on your shoes that were hastily disregarded just a few short hours ago. Cursing in vain you stumble to the window to shut the curtains. Your eyes starting to finally adjust to the intense burning light that your sense cannot seem to keep out, you see your 90 year old neighbor in her garden staring at you with an immensely profound look of shock and awe. And why IS your neighbor always there when you come to the window anyways. Hrmm that's for another day. Flushing with embarrassment, you practically rip the curtains off their rods in a silly attempt to shut out that pervasive stare. Instead of closing like good curtains always do, they decide to attack, and descend upon you like an alien straight out of a horror film. Sighing heavily, you think to yourself, "If only I had window blinds". Bummer.

The previous little tidbit is based on a true story. Well, at least I am fairly certain someone somewhere in the world has actually experienced this a time or three or it would not be in comedy movies so often. At any rate, the previous tale could have been avoided with elegantly simple window blinds. Window blinds come in a massive array of colors, sizes, styles, and yes even material, but before I go over some of these features, let us talk about the reasons for purchasing blinds to begin with. Obviously from the story above, window blinds can be utilized for privacy from those pesky, always gardening, elderly neighbors with the prowess of your average TV psychic to "know" when you are in there. Privacy concerns aside, there are other even more practical reasons for owning window blinds. Bills, that is to say, the dreaded "B" word. More specifically, your cooling and heating bills. Windows by themselves don't do very well at keeping the heat in or out of your home. They need additional support in that department. By adding window blinds, whether they are your normal run of the mill, or more decorative like vertical blinds, they add an extra layer of insulation to your windows. This may not seem like much at first, but when you add a heavy drape behind those, and then some nice curtains, the savings on your energy bill can be significant. This style setup can also assist with noisy neighborhoods by attenuating down some of the sounds that permeate into your home and some of the lower decibel noises can be shut out completely. Now, let’s move on to the good stuff.

When it comes to choosing window blinds, the possibilities are far from limited. All you will need is a measuring tape, a pen with paper, and a good imagination. Try to picture just how you would like to make your home look and feel and write it down. If you can't come up with anything, look at homes in home and garden type magazines or on home improvement TV shows. Once you have some ideas, get your window measurements and then it's time to do some good old fashion window (blinds) shopping. Pun fully intended.

There are many websites you can select from just to get a general idea of what's available, but they are easily found with your favorite search engine. Just type in "window blinds" or "vertical blinds", hit enter and you are good to go. Now for some variety in vertical blinds. If there is a specific color you just absolutely love, chances are you can get your window blinds in it. If you have an oddly shaped window (Like those old antique stop sign shaped windows) you can get vertical blinds and cut to fit or even have them custom built just for you! There are window blinds that can be opened with a wand that you simply push or pull from one side to the other, and there are some that you can open dramatically from the center with a simple chain. For those of you more economically oriented people, time is money, and vertical blinds almost never get dusty. Sure a wind storm can blow sand all over them, but when it's over take a light rag to them and in just a minute or so, voila, nice and shiny again. Those of you that enjoy, ahem, "celebrations" might even considered fabric blinds that can add whatever flare or atmosphere of your choice.

All in all, vertical blinds are very economical, practical, durable, and stylish. Vertical blinds, additionally, can add to your home, protect your privacy (especially from gardeners), reduce your heating and cooling costs, and just look great.

P.S. No curtains were harmed in the making of this article.

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