Types of Window Blinds

Fourteen types of blind are worth considering for a UK home, and the one that suits a bay window is the wrong answer for a bifold door. This runs through each of them, what it genuinely suits, and where it falls down.

If you only remember one thing from this page: match the blind to how the window is used, not to how it looks in a showroom. A window you walk through has different needs from one you open twice a year.

The fourteen, at a glance

The three most people start with

Roller blinds are the default for a reason. One flat panel, no slats to collect dust, and the fabric range does the work: sheer where you want light, blackout where you want none, and wipeable where there is cooking or steam. Ours run past 300 fabrics, and some of them are made up as pleated and vertical blinds too, which matters if you are dressing a run of windows that are not all the same shape.

Venetian blinds do something a roller cannot. Tilting the slats cuts low sun without shutting the window down, which is why they still win in a living room that faces west. Real wood for the look, faux wood where there is moisture, and faux wood is the one to specify for a kitchen or a bathroom because the PVC slats do not mind humidity.

Vertical blinds handle width better than anything else at their price, and they are also the most commonly mis-specified blind we see. They go on wide windows happily. Put them on a door you use every day and the louvres and the bottom chain get in the way every time you walk out.

The ones that solve a specific problem

Perfect Fit is the answer to "I do not want anything drilled into my new windows". The blind sits in its own frame that clips inside the uPVC beading, in white, anthracite or brown, and because there are no cords it is the simplest child-safe option in the range. Conservatories and modern extensions are where it earns its keep.

Pleated blinds are the awkward-shape specialists. A 20mm pleat fits into the bead or a recess, and the range runs to freehang, roof blinds, half up and tabbed versions, so a conservatory roof and a porch window can be done in the same fabric.

Roman blinds are the fabric option. Blackout lining comes as standard rather than as an upgrade, which makes them a sensible bedroom choice, and the same fabrics can be made up as curtains and cushion covers.

Allusion is the blind that exists because verticals fail on doors. It hangs and draws like a vertical, but the sheer and vane fabric parts in the middle, so you walk through it rather than stacking it out of the way. Bifolds, patio doors and room dividers.

Windows that need a specialist answer

A bifold run is a blind problem, not a curtain problem. Extra-wide motorised roller fabrics cover the whole opening in one or two drops, and a screen fabric holds onto the view while blocking the glare, which is the point of having the doors in the first place.

Gable ends and apex windows are the ones people give up on. They do not have to be. Shaped shutters make an architectural feature of the angle, and shaped cellular blinds go where a rigid panel will not, either on a wand or motorised if the window is out of reach.

Roof lights and lanterns need a framed cellular blind rather than anything that hangs, because gravity is working against you. Crank handle if it is reachable, solar motor if it is not, and the honeycomb does useful work on heat in both directions.

If the real complaint is a room that cooks in summer, the honest answer is to stop the heat outside the glass. That is what external blinds are for, and no internal blind matches them on that one job.

Motorised, on most of them

Motorisation is not a blind type, it is an option across the range, running on a battery or on 240V mains with the motor hidden inside the tube or behind the headrail. Worth it on anything high, wide or behind furniture. If you are weighing it up, our guide to how often motorised blinds need recharging has the manufacturers' published figures, and how long motorised blinds last covers the warranties.

How to choose, in one paragraph

Start with the window's job. Bedroom: blackout, so Roman or a blackout roller. Kitchen or bathroom: moisture, so faux wood or a wipeable roller. West-facing living room: glare, so a Venetian you can tilt. A door you walk through: Allusion. A shape nothing standard fits: pleated or shaped cellular. A window you cannot reach: motorised, whatever the type. Then pick the fabric, because that decision is reversible and the blind type is not.

Still not sure? That is what a measure-up is for. Call 01635 866600 for West Berkshire or 01189 509449 for Reading, or see the whole range on our products page.

Fitted locally in Reading, Newbury, Thatcham and Caversham.

Last updated 25 September 2026.