Don't like waking up to the sun's rays?Need protection for an unusually shaped window or attic? Want to save your interior from fading and save useful centimeters? Explore the latest sun protection systems suitable for home spaces We all love a beautiful view from the window, but are hardly ready to satisfy the curiosity of random passers-by looking inside. Almost everyone likes the sunlight filling the house, but most of us hide from direct scorching rays. Traditional curtains cannot protect from unwanted influences as much as we would like. Then blinds and sun protection systems come to the rescue.
Anna Samokhina, Hunter Douglas:— There are many sun protection systems that will suit both classic and modern interiors: from fabric roller blinds to various blinds. It all depends on what tasks you need to solve in an apartment or house. There are blinds that help maintain an optimal temperature in summer and winter, saving on electricity costs, improving sound insulation in the room. There are special curtains with a retractable cord - for families with small children. There are systems suitable for non-standard shaped windows and for attics. hunterdouglasdesign.ru
But blinds in a modern home are not onlyfunctional, but also an aesthetic story. A most interesting decorating tool. With the help of color, shape or texture, they can play their own role: become a bright accent or an unusual background, emphasize advantages or hide disadvantages, add air and lightness to the interior and save a few useful centimeters.
Roller blinds
Roller blinds are a reasonable compromise foradherents of traditions. A new look at the classic curtain, with all its advantages, but without the inherent disadvantages. They are great for bay windows and children's rooms and are absolutely indispensable in the kitchen due to the minimal space for fastening. Such a curtain cuts off direct sunlight without darkening the room, and successfully diffuses the light. It can be fixed in any position by height and is easy to remove, even if the curtain itself is made of heavy and dense material. And the choice of fabrics, colors and textures is no less rich than for a traditional curtain.
Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone Color Institute:— We, colorists, believe that the most fashionable “home” color of 2015 is Marsala, the color of the Italian dessert wine named after the famous Sicilian city. It is the color of warmth and comfort, which radiates exquisite naturalness. But even if your choice falls on something else, remember that the main trend of the season is soft and restrained variations of bright colors. A person today must be constantly “in touch”, we are afraid of missing something important and get tired of it. In response, a movement was born to create “quiet zones” where you can turn off all gadgets and relax, give yourself a break and calm down. In choosing colors, stick to the same restrained theme en plein air (“in the open air”), where you need to follow the signs of nature. pantone.com
Wooden blinds
Horizontal wooden blinds have long becomeclassics. And this is not surprising, because it all started with them. According to legend, they were invented by a Venetian merchant who wanted to hide his young, beautiful wife from the eyes of admirers and gondoliers. In a dark house, closed with thick shutters, the girl began to get sick and fade. And then the jealous man came up with the idea of hanging thin wooden slats on the windows. The light returned to the rooms, but uninvited curiosity did not. Hence the name of the design - blinds, translated from Italian and French - jealousy. Horizontal blinds are still often called Venetian.
But real fame came to them in NewEngland. In the 60s of the 18th century, the most famous Philadelphia designer of that time, John Webster, began to produce blinds on a mass scale to save his clients from the summer heat. True, his massive heavy structures were little reminiscent of modern ones - elegant, laconic and light. Supplemented with curtains, wooden blinds decorate classic interiors, country and Provence. And they look very harmonious in eco-style.
Our opinion:— In a style that involves wooden and painted furniture, bright upholstery and expensive textiles, blinds perform an important protective function. All these items lose their color and shine under the influence of ultraviolet radiation. Wood copes with this task perfectly, does not require complex care and is very convenient to use: even the largest blinds are controlled without any effort. In addition, horizontal blinds allow the most effective control of lighting in offices and libraries, avoiding glare on monitor screens.
New products and modern technologies
Improving and changing, blindsbecome a practical version of traditional curtains for city dwellers who are always in a hurry: they take up less space, easily let air through due to their construction of strip elements (lamellas) and do not collect dust. For people with a tendency to allergies, this is very valuable.
Besides wood, blinds are now made fromplastic, aluminum, various fabrics and combine several materials at once - such blinds are called multi-textured. There are also their own know-how. Anna Samokhina, Hunter Douglas: - The appearance of Duette® blinds at the time was a real event. Due to their honeycomb structure, a comfortable temperature is maintained in the room and the appearance is improved: all control mechanisms are hidden inside. They can be fixed in various positions, moved from the bottom up and from top to bottom, supplemented with a tension device for inclined windows. There are designs with a "day-night" system, allowing you to combine two fabrics at once, using translucent during the day and dense at night. hunterdouglasdesign.ru
Fresh design trend -Metallic blinds in living spaces. Until recently, they were mainly used in offices and technical areas - kitchens and bathrooms. But with the return of Art Deco, decorators have appreciated bronze, brass and aged silver finishes: the sun rays penetrating through the gaps in such blinds create an unusual play of light and shadow in the interior, emphasizing the theatrical nature of this style.
A more universal option is the so-called"pleated curtains" consisting of fabric gathered into folds. Thanks to a huge selection of colors and textures, they fit into any interior, look more modern and laconic than traditional curtains, but also more cozy and elegant than ordinary blinds.
Anna Samokhina, Hunter Douglas:— Blinds have additional advantages due to the use of high-tech materials. In damp rooms, it is optimal to use fabrics with an antibacterial coating, in bedrooms — dense soundproofing materials, on the sunny side — fabrics with a metallized backing to reflect excess rays. Blinds can be controlled in various ways: using a remote control, a switch or a traditional control cord, which can be modified if necessary. A safe system with a retractable cord, for example, will be appreciated by families with children. Blinds are also indispensable for non-standard window openings, allowing you to protect a window of almost any shape: semicircular, round, trapezoidal or triangular. hunterdouglasdesign.ru
