Bamboo Blinds

Bamboo blinds are getting popular in recent times. As people become more environmentally conscious, they are starting to buy products that are good for the environment. Bamboo blinds are one such product category as they are made of natural bamboo and are easy to recycle. In this article, I will cover all the necessary information you need to buy bamboo blinds, from the different types of bamboo blinds to how should you go about buying them.

Bamboo Blinds types
There are many styles and types of bamboo window blinds. Most of them comes in vertical forms, meaning they are longish rather than board. That is why some people call them bamboo vertical blinds because of the way they are hanged.

• Bamboo roll up blinds: These bamboo blinds are your traditional blinds are and are generally fairly inexpensive. As the name implies, these rollup blinds are folded up by coming them up. Bamboo roll up blinds are fairly common and you can get one of these quite easily at Ikea and some other stores. I will talk more about how to buy bamboo blinds and where to get discounted bamboo blinds in a later section.

• Bamboo roman blinds: These styles of bamboo blinds are more recent and have become quite popular. Due to the additional work involved in making these bamboo roman blinds, you generally have to pay a bit more than the rollup blinds. The advantage of roman blinds is that they can be customized to fit your windows precisely. In additional, bamboo roman blinds comes in many different styles and options, ranging from functional to elegant. In fact, you can get really unique bamboo roman blinds if you add more accessories to it. Let me detour and talk about these bamboo blind accessories for a while.

Custom bamboo blinds

Some of you might want to buy custom bamboo blinds to make it more unique for your home. Rather than paying high fees to create your own custom bamboo blinds, one cheaper way is to accessorize them. Firstly, you can do edge binding. It is a great decorative feature where a fabric is sewn on to the edges of your shade. Look at it as trimmings for your custom bamboo blinds. What this does is that it can change the feel of your bamboo blinds to blend in with the decor of your room, and the trimmings can also act as protective clothing to cover the edges of the bamboo shade, which when exposed are subject to damage.

The other small customisable work you can do is on the cord. You can change the colours to match your house decor. For example, if your house is mainly in white, you can might to buy white bamboo blinds as well as a matching white cord. Some people even choose to do without the cords as there are now cordless bamboo blinds available in the market.

New types bamboo blinds
Before telling you how to buy bamboo blinds and where to go for discount or cheap bamboo blinds, I want to mention that I am seeing more unique models of bamboo blinds coming to the market. Manufacturers are developing these to cater to the increasing diverse demands of the consumers. For example, while we typically used bamboo blinds indoors, there are now people asking for bamboo outdoor blinds. This is not surprising as we are seeing patio furniture being highly demanded across different product types. I guess bamboo blinds is no different.

• Bamboo patio blinds: These are now starting to appear in the market. Bamboo is a natural material which means it can survive different weather conditions. This makes is ideal for the patio (In case you are not familiar with this term, patio refers to areas slightly outside the confines of the house itself). Bamboo patio blinds are typically used in gardens because their materials blended them perfectly into the surroundings. Bamboo also has a cooling effect, and are suitable as shelters in your gardens. So, if you are decorating outdoors, bamboo patio blinds or bamboo outdoor blinds can be one of your considerations.

• Horizontal bamboo blinds: Another new interesting type blind coming up is the horizontal bamboo blinds. While I have said earlier that most blinds are hanged vertically (hence the name bamboo vertical blinds), it seems that there is increasing demand for horizontal bamboo blinds as well. These type of bamboo blinds are used typically for very large windows or even across doorways. It is advisable to install horizontal bamboo blinds as 2 separate blinds because a single large blinds looks like a large mat sticking on your windows. In addition, with 2 separate pieces of the bamboo blinds, one can be kept closed with the other can be open so that part of your horizontal bamboo blinds is always visible.

• Bamboo mini blinds: Finally, another new type of blinds is the bamboo mini blinds. These are useful for very small areas. The advantage of being small is that these bamboo mini blinds can be used to quickly and easily change the aesthetics of a room.  By just adding these bamboo blinds and changing the color or style of your windows will make your room feel new and rejuvenated.  Bamboo mini blinds are very inexpensive and readily available for everyone to take advantage of.

A guide on how to buy bamboo blinds
Now that you know about what are the different types of bamboo blinds, here are some tips that show you how to buy bamboo blinds. These are not hard and fast rules but something useful to keep  your mind as you going shopping for bamboo blinds.

• Quality – Always check for the condition of your bamboo blinds. Given that you will be moving the blinds up and down a bit, make sure they move well. In addition, watch out for whether the stitching on the bamboo blinds is properly done. You don’t want to buy a blind that will be out of shape after few uses.

• Customizable – Are you going buy bamboo blinds that can be changed? For example, do you want to be able to add the edge bindings as discussed earlier or do you want to change to cordless bamboo blinds? The more customizable you want your bamboo blinds to be, the more you have to pay. The upside is of course that you can have more flexibility when it comes to how you use your blinds. In addition, if your window is not the standard size, you would need to pay more for any customised work you need to do on the bamboo blinds.

Again, I want to take  a detour and talk about the factors you need to consider when deciding whether to customise your bamboo blinds. First you need to decide whether you are mounting the bamboo blinds inside or outside. This is really determined by how your windows are configured. The rule of thumb is that you need at least an inch and a half of depth if you really want to mount it on the inside. Otherwise it is going to push outside your window. The second factor is whether you need linear to go with your bamboo blinds for the purpose of keeping out more light. Thirdly, do you want absolutely perfect fittings between your bamboo blinds and your windows? Some people needs to be perfect and hence have to pay more to get the right custom bamboo blinds. Finally, do you want a truly unique style for your bamboo blinds? If so, then you need to be prepared to pay for a custom bamboo blind.

• Prices – As you are buying bamboo blinds and comparing their prices, make sure your comparison is accurate. It is a common mistake to compare bamboo blinds that have different sizes or materials. As online shopping sites become more sophisticated and offer price comparison tools, you can make use of them when buying your bamboo blinds.

• Customer service – While bamboo blinds are not like software where you need plenty of customer support, you might still want to buy from a reputable company that offers such services. You never know when you are going to need them. For example, what if your bamboo blinds got stuck when you attempt to roll them up. Who can you turn to for help? This is where buying from a company that supports customer support will be very beneficial.

Where to buy discount or cheap bamboo blinds
A common question is how to buy cheap bamboo blinds. The economy isn’t going that great so everybody is going to save a few bucks here and there. Here, I will give you some tips on where to get discount bamboo blinds. I am not saying they will be cheap but they are definitely cheaper than what you would.

• Online shopping – My preferred route is to some Internet research first. On the Web, you can go to as many sites as you wish and see the many options they offer you. Because some of these sites have cut out the middleman, you will get discounted prices and cheap bamboo blinds. In additional, most will also offer free shipping, which again will help you to save some money. The downside is that you can’t feel the blinds that you are buying. No worries though as most of the sites will send you free samples of the bamboo blinds materials so that you can touch and feel what you may be getting. However, it is still up to you to ensure that the store you work with has excellent service people who can walk you through all the pertinent details about measuring for a blind, so that you feel comfortable with your purchase. On all the sites that I know of – when you order a custom blind, they will fix it if they made a mistake, but if you made a mistake they will not. So, while the Web offers discounted bamboo blinds, you have to put in some efforts to ensure you get the best deals.

Here, I will recommend Matchstick bamboo blinds that you might want to consider when deciding where to buy bamboo blinds online. Matchstick bamboo blinds offers a wide range of bamboo roll up blinds and their prices are quite cheap. Their return policy is also fair. You can return your  Matchstick bamboo blinds within 10 days and Matchstick will refund you within the next 5 workings days of receiving the refunded bamboo blinds.

• Work with your designer or decorator -  some of you might not be comfortable buying bamboo blinds online. Here is another way for you to get that cheap bamboo blinds. Do your research on the Web but once you have decided on what bamboo blinds are suited for your home, show that model or style to your designer. They often have good connections to vendors who can give you discounted bamboo blinds. However, not all designers have such relationships so if you have one that does, make use of it to get cheap bamboo blinds.

• Retail stores – If you frequent retail stores often, you can always keep a lookout for those mid year, or end of season sales. During such periods, you can get pretty good discounts for your bamboo blinds. One of such stores is Ikea. Ikea bamboo blinds have quite a wide variety and the prices are reasonable. So, if you are going for cheap bamboo blinds, Ikea will be a good option.

In conclusion, bamboo blinds are a great addition to any home. If you are into buying something that is environmentally friendly, looks good and provides your house with that natural touch, you can’t do any better than buying bamboo blinds.