The Next Fix

It used to be that vertical blinds were thought of as an ugly yet essential part of a home interior.  They performed well at keeping out the bright sunlight and protected electronic equipment, helped keep the interior temperature low, and prevented fading of upholstery and carpeting.  The unfortunate side effect was the appearance was gaudy and unwanted.  Fortunately, the world of vertical blinds today is a great deal different.  There is a wide variety of vertical blinds to choose from that actually add to the overall decoration of a room while maintaining their functionality.

Vertical blinds come in a wide variety.  There are vertical blinds with wide slats or narrow slats.  There is even a choice of materials both real and faux that lend themselves to the je ne sais quoi of your home.  Here are some different materials that are used today in manufacturing vertical blinds.

Wood is a common material used in making vertical blinds.  Almost any variety of wood can be used, be aware that rare woods will cost a great deal more and will probably require you to pre order your blinds due to the custom nature.  The nice things about custom blinds, is that they will fit perfectly in your home. You will get exactly what you want and they will fit exactly where you want them to fit.

Fabric blinds are probably the most typical material used.  The ease of manufacture means a reduced cost to the consumer.  Fabric takes dies and stains well, so the color you need is very easy to find.  If you decide upon fabric blinds make sure they are thick enough to really keep the sunlight out.  There are varying degrees of thickness and the price for thicker blinds is a bit higher.

Blackout vertical blinds are a type of blind that has a special coating on the underside to make sure that sunlight doesn’t penetrate the material.  This type of blind is ideal for those needing to completely block out exterior light.  Typically these types of blinds are used in nurseries or media rooms.

Paper has long been a material used to manufacture vertical blinds.  They perform very well at keeping unwanted sunlight out and also tend to be less bulky than other materials.  Paper blinds are a wonderful choice of material when you want to hide the blind in the window reveal.  Often they are pleated and able to be pulled back so the blinds are almost invisible when not in use.  This is an especially attractive feature for large picture windows that reveal breathtaking landscapes and outdoor scenery.

Vertical louver blinds can be made from almost any material, but are most commonly made from synthetic materials.  As such they come in almost any color or pattern you may desire.  The louver type of vertical blind has its place in allowing a choice as to how much light, if any, come through.  The angle they are turned to dictates the amount of light shed into the room.  This is great addition to a room where allowing small amounts of light into a room may be required.

You can find vertical blinds in other materials as well.  Cane is a popular material that has a specific feel and decor value for particular decorating needs.  Find a good home decor retailer and ask to see displays and catalogs containing all the different types of vertical blinds available.  You may be surprised to find that you can really have almost anything you want.  Gone are the days when creative decorating was required to hide vertical blinds in order to keep a room looking charming.  Now blinds are part of the decorating theme and can be used creatively to enhance the look and feel of a room while also being a functional part of your home.

If you plan to add classic look to your windows there is nothing better than Roman blinds. They are made of a single piece of material that is rolled into pleats. You can adjust the amount of light entering the room by controlling these pleats, through the attached cord. Roman blinds are perfect for bedrooms, living room, study room, bathrooms, or in short, for the entire house. They are very easy to clean and maintain, making them the best option to decorate your house.

The myth is these blinds were were invented in Rome and hence the name but others believe these were invented somewhere in the Mediterranean but popularized by the Romans. Whatever be the history the Roman blinds serve as one of the best ways to decorate your room giving it a neo-classical look. Apart from adding classic look to your rooms, Roman blinds also save electricity spent on heating and cooling your home during extreme weather conditions.

Roman blinds can be made with all kinds of fabric be it finely spun silk or the more durable linen or cotton or even paper. Roman blinds made of bamboo are also becoming popular these days. Roman blinds are available in all shapes, sizes and colors. You can customize the look of your room regularly by using different sets of Roman blinds during different seasons of the year to moderate the room temperature. Roman blinds come in all fixtures and mechanisms to fit in all kinds of windows.

If you want to add your personal touch to the blinds you can always make them at home from scratch. Many self help guides are available to help you design your own blinds. Or you have various options available in the market to choose from and add class to your home.

Color schemes, styles and decorative techniques can be inspired from all sorts of things in your everyday surroundings. Jars of sweets in a confectioners shop, a day by the beach, the back garden or the countryside all provide their own sources of color and sometimes line. Another source may be a particular theme or period in architectural history that will suggest a color and style. In every case time spent leafing through books and magazines and keeping a small scrapbook of your favorites will pay dividends in terms of how much you enjoy the finished result.

Take a pile of colored pencils, pick your favorites and see which ones you like together.

Visit a shop that sells ready-made stencil patterns and see which of them excite you. Or you may love a particular picture postcard: a Greek island, for instance, that reminds you of blue-green seas and white buildings, or the coast of Brittany and its azure skies and glorious balconies of red geraniums. Play with ideas in your scrapbook and hone down the choices until you are left with your favorites. Go to a fabric shop and ask for swatches, or leaf through magazines and catalogues and cut out the things that attract you. You will gradually start to see a style emerging, and be able to choose the best decorative styles to experiment with.

Taking your favourite colors or the themes you have chosen, play with the different paint colors and effects and practise them on lining paper, pinned to the surface you intend to decorate. It takes a certain amount of confidence to choose and create your own decorative effects – the actual doing of them is more about patience and practice. Finding your starting point is the key – and enjoy filling your scrapbook!

A good foundation will make your special paint effect or papering much easier to do. Indeed, a poor foundation can destroy the whole effect -watching paper fall off inadequately prepared walls or patches of glaze go dull where the base was not covered, can be soul-destroying.

Different surfaces require different preparatory treatments, which depend to some extent on what you intend to do later. Some paint effects work on emulsion, while others need oil-bound bases. Wallpaper requires a different preparation from paint, and so does lining paper – this is often hung as a backing to wallpaper or to give a sound surface for the paint effect. Below are some of the types of surface you may encounter and details of how to prepare them for painting, papering and special paint effects.

Walls and Ceilings:

Old or painted walls should be washed down with sugar soap solution, then rinsed oil and allowed to dry. Rout out any cracks with a screwdriver or blunt chisel and dampen the edges of cracks and pits before filling them with proprietary filler. Over-fill slightly so that you can sand back after the filler has dried. Remake chipped external corners and repair internal corners using your finger or a flexible filler knife.

When sanding the dried walls, make sure they are as flat as possible – take care to flatten patches of filler. Use sandpaper on a block for this stage. Feel with your hand to check that the surface is smooth, and brush oil or vacuum up the sanding dust afterwards. Hiring a power sander is a great time-saver for large expanses of wall.

New walls, or new plaster, need four to six weeks, according to the temperature and conditions, to dry out fully. They may still lend to crack a little, so, although they can be painted in the meantime, they should not be papered. Any new plaster needs to be sealed. Because of its propensity for absorption you must apply a ‘mist coat’ of paint before emulsioning a new wall. This is a very thin coat of emulsion paint, diluted 50:50 with water. Cover the wall completely in this mist coat and let it dry. If the mist coat is not applied, the water in the emulsion paint will be absorbed rapidly into the plaster wall and the paint will soon start to peel off.

Papered walls, and the question of whether or not to strip them, depends on what you intend to do afterwards. You can paint directly on to many matt-surfaced wallpapers. In this case check that the surface is even, that the paper is stuck down anywhere it ma)’ be lilting, such as at the seams, and that any tears or missing pieces are repaired.

If the paper is vinyl, or if you intend to paper or paint directly on to the wall surface, then the wall needs to be stripped. It is claimed that some vinyl wall coverings can be stripped off in two layers, so that you can remove the top layer and leave the backing paper underneath as a lining if you wish. In practice this is rarely advisable, as you are wholly dependent on how well the paper was hung and on the even adhesion of the original paste. What can happen is that the new paper will be fine when it first goes up and sticks to the backing paper. But some time later, wherever the underneath paper comes unstuck the extra weight will bring old and new paper off together. You are usually better off taking the time to strip it.

Soak the wall with hot water containing a liberal amount of washing-up liquid and strip the wallpaper off with a rigid metal scraper. Alternatively hire a steamer for the purpose. Remove all the paper and then treat the wall as for painted surfaces, sanding it smooth and wiping away the sanding dust.

Plasterboard walls must be dry stripped, as plasterboard will not tolerate extensive wetting. Otherwise treat as above, sanding the surface smooth when you have finished.

Woodwork: This will be either new or painted. You do not generally have to strip painted wood if you intend to paint it again, but it must be thoroughly cleaned to remove any grease and then sanded to key the surface. If there is a heavy build-up of old, chipped paint which it is necessary to strip, use paint stripper and a metal scraper or else a hot air gun. In either case, follow the manufacturers instructions carefully and take all necessary precautions.

New wood must be knotted and primed before sanding. Paint the knots with knotting solution and paint the woodwork with primer first. Fill cracks in new or old woodwork with fine surface filler. Allow to dry, then sand away any nibs until the surface is completely smooth. Where knots show through woodwork that has already been painted, treat them with knotting compound before repainting – just as if it was new wood. In this case there would be no need to prime the wood. You can repaint it after sanding.

The decorative art of painting on metal is known as tole. The word ‘tole’ is French for sheet iron, and it was from sheet iron that the earliest examples of decorated metalware were made. This dates back to seventeenth-century Europe, when trade with the Far East was flourishing and for the first time Europeans came into contact with imported Japanese and Chinese objects, beautifully decorated with ornamental lacquer work. They were an imme­diate success, and demand soon outweighed supply. As the pieces were extremely expensive, European craftsmen began to copy the techniques and style of oriental lacquer work onto metal household objects, using a process whereby paint could be applied to tin.

The metal is molded into attractive shapes, sometimes with pierced or scalloped edges, giving toleware a delicate appearance. It comes in a won­derful variety of colors, from dark greens, red and blues to creams and pastels, beautifully decorated and with a rich, effective use of gold paint either in the applied design or as a contrast round the rim.

This painted tinware became fashionable for items such as tea, coffee and chocolate tins. In the late seventeenth century, most coffee houses stored their beverages in painted tinware boxes which were hygienic, cheap, practical and, above all, attractive to look at. They would brighten up an interior in a way that earthenware pots could not do.

Like many fashions, tole eventually lost its popu­larity and there is now very little around. Antique tole items are highly collectable and can be worth almost as much as the lacquer works they originally copied. Not surprisingly, tole has now become fash­ionable again and it is possible that modern pieces of hand-painted reproduction tole, made using tradi­tional methods and designs, could be the valuable antiques of the future. However, for the present, just one or two of these attractive reproductions, such as a wastepaper basket or wall sconce, can make all the difference to the look of a room. One of the most popular uses of tole is for cache-pots, the French name for plant holders.