What’s the difference between vertical and horizontal blinds? What are the best blinds for home decor out of the two? The difference is pretty clear, but choosing the right type will depend a bit on your home.
Horizontal blinds are the best blinds for a home with tall, narrow windows. The type of window that’s halfway up a wall and the first thing we think of looking out of is perfect for horizontal blinds. The best blinds for a home where sliding doors are involved are vertical blinds, and that marks the biggest difference between the two. Let’s find out why:
Horizontal Blinds
The strength of these blinds are that they roll up from the bottom. This is mechanically ideal. Because the most direct sunlight is midday sun, being able to cover the top of the window without covering the bottom helps block out the most intense sunlight while still letting in less intense, indirect light.
In tall and narrow windows, these blinds can remain light in weight because they’re made of lighter material. This makes them physically easy to pull up with a cord-and-pulley. Thin slats are effective and easy to maintain.
Horizontal blinds also offer finer control of the amount of light you let in. Because the types of windows they suit are often in living spaces, offices, and bedrooms, you need this finer control in order to make private spaces feel most comfortable.
Vertical Blinds
Long, vertical blinds are ideal for sliding glass doors. Because they need to extend from the floor to very near the ceiling, each slat hangs independently. They’re shaped to overlap as effective blinds. Horizontal blinds that extend this far would become too heavy to easily pull up via cord-and-pulley. There’d be more mechanical problems with the blinds operating correctly. Vertical blinds don’t have these issues. This makes them more ideal.
Vertical blinds can be tougher to clean and maintain because there’s more surface space to clean and some of the materials they’re made from can fade over time. They also don’t offer the fine control that horizontal blinds do when it comes to getting the exact right amount of light in. When opened, vertical blinds tend to let more light in than horizontal ones do. This usually isn’t as much of a concern in spaces where sliding doors are installed.
What are the best blinds for your home? It turns out the difference between vertical and horizontal blinds and the best blinds for home depends on where they’re being used. Many homes employ both in different spaces according to need, and this is always the best approach.