Timber blinds are an interesting alternative to aluminum blinds, because they can offer similar UV protection and blackout properties, with a more elegant and natural look. The only room they are not recommended for is the bathroom, because the wooden slats will fade and bend after a while, if kept in humid environment. Timber blinds come in many types and models, the most popular being those horizontal, Venetian timber blinds, with the slats made of 100% basswood timber. Lacquered cedar is another beautiful option. These ones are usually available in three color options: light, medium and dark cedar.

The natural insulator properties of wood makes timber blinds energy-efficient enough to matter. Probably they aren’t better thermal insulators than honeycomb or cellular blinds, but they still offer some protection, so they can be suitable for low-E glass windows.

It seems like the name of “timber blinds” is more popular in Australia and New Zealand. In US and in Europe, the names of wood Venetian blinds, wooden horizontal blinds or basswood blinds are more popular. In Australia there is a company which is called Timber Blinds Express and has a kangaroo as logo, in order to signify their fast delivery service. Their wooden blinds seem high quality, as they are UV coated or PU painted, therefore customers don’t need to repaint them. The 12 month warranty against defects in material or human errors is a good value for money, as the defects would surely show up within this time frame, if any. Timber Blinds Express also takes pride in their slats thickness of 4mm, which is the best on the market, at least that’s what they claim.

Cheap faux wood blinds aren’t such a rare bird, if you know where to ask for them. Probably you won’t be able to find them at Bali or Hunter Douglas, as they pride in offering high quality window treatments that last a lifetime rather than cheap blinds for people on a shoe string budget. Cheap can also translate as economy, or value for money, and not necessarily as low quality materials. However, cheap is a relative notion, so let’s see what cheap faux wood blinds we were able to find for you:

Blinds com Brand 2” Economy Faux Wood blinds: with slats available in 8 colors, a 3” Crown valance and a flat bottom rail, they are as cheap as you can get. The 16” width x 20” height size cost only $18, while the biggest available size, 72” x 84” costs $111.

Levolor 16” x 20” 2” Visions faux wood blinds: made of flame retardant PVC, these blinds are very easy to clean and they come in 10 colors choices such as birch, cherry, maple, pecan and several hues of white. The 16” x 20” size costs $38. It’s more than double comparing to the ones mentioned above, but the material is better and the colors are more realistic. The main drawback of these cheap faux wood blinds is the valance, which is obviously made of plastic and which has plastic clips.

Lotus and Windoware 2” faux wood blinds: if all you want are some cheap, horizontal, white blinds, you can buy those, as they are quite durable and come with two year warranty. They include valances and mounting hardware and they are made of PVC foam. The smallest size available is 23” x 60”, available at the price of $28.99.

There may be more choices available, depending on your particular location. If you purchase online, you may discover pleasant surprises such as discount coupons or the facility to buy now and start paying after 90 days.

It’s probably a hard time for wood window treatments, since all these cheap faux wood blinds became widely available.

Bamboo blinds are beautiful because they are simple, and because they have a warm, natural look that makes people feel comfortable in rooms with windows covered with such treatments.

Bamboo roll up blinds are very convenient because they blend very well the rustic appearance with the comfort of automation we’ve got used to so much. But what’s the price of simplicity? Some would say that’s definitely too much. Only think of all those vintage items that are sold on eBay or on other auction sites for four-five figure amounts, while our grandparents may deposit similar items in their attic.

There are bamboo roll up blinds for all pockets. All you need is a little bit of scouring the web and you’ll find some good deals on the spot. Of course, you can’t expect the cheapest blinds to be motorized, but if you want, you can improvise an automation system with a small motor powered by batteries and operated via a switch you can place somewhere on the wall.

As cheap excludes custom, we found some nice bamboo roll up blinds in the economy class, at My Callaloo: the Fruitwood color bamboo blinds which are similar to the Vincent Walnut from Prestige or with Matchstick Light Walnut from Horizon.

Another online store where we found some good looking models of roll-up bamboo blinds was from UK and they were featuring very nice models, in a wide array of colors and finishes. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to find out the prices, as the store was a bit too complicated for us.

Next stop: Everything Furniture. The Laguna Bamboo Roll Up Blend In Natural Blinds convinced us once more that you can have quality without paying a fortune. The 36” x 72” size of blind was priced at $28.99, which is quite cheap in our view. However, as these blinds are also manually operated via a cord, we moved on with our research.

Believe it or not, I found what I was looking for at an Asian merchant on a trade site. Too bad the minimum order was 10,000 pieces. I won’t have so many windows to cover with bamboo roll up blinds in my entire life.