Top down bottom up shades are one of the fanciest innovations when it comes to home improvement. Their beauty resides in the fact that they can be either lifted from bottom to the top, like common window blinds we all know from ages, or they can be lowered from top to bottom, creating a look similar to those cafe curtains for country style kitchens. This is a very useful option, because it gives you the possibility to benefit from privacy and still enjoy the morning sky while still in bed. Almost any type of window treatments can be transformed into top down bottom up: shades of all kinds, from Roman to pleated shades, or Venetian blinds.

Brands of top down bottom up shades and blinds

As this type of shades is very appreciated by a lot of customers, almost all big names in window treatments have them in their portfolio.

Hunter Douglas has the Duette 3/4″ and 3/8″ Single Cell Opaque or Semi-Opaque, the Applause cellular shades and the Brilliance Pleated Shades, in either Venetian Crinkle or Haberdasher versions. One interesting model from Hunter Douglas is the Provenance Woven Woods – basic bamboo blinds with of top down bottom up, or a few more expensive versions from the same product range.

Bali blinds come with the Bali Diamond Cell 3/8” Double Cell Semi-Opaque (Northern Lights and Storm), or the Single Cell Light Filtering (Solitaire), the beautiful Bali Natural Shades Basic with top down bottom up option, or the Bali Standard Pleat Crepe or Spectrum.

If you want to go as cheap as possible and yet enjoy modern, beautiful windows and home decor, you can save a few dollars per window by going for generic top down bottom up shades, available from many retailers and online stores.

Hillary’s Venetian blinds are made of high quality aluminum, specially treated to prevent UV degradation, meaning that their color doesn’t fade or change with time. This is an important edge especially if your windows are exposed to sunlight for more than a few hours a day. For example, if your windows are facing South, it’s most probable that they benefit a lot from the daylight, as they are almost never in the shadow. On the contrary, rooms with windows facing North will be the darkest in a home, so you may not need special, expensive window treatments, because sun and UV rays won’t cause too much damage.

One of the qualities Hillary’s take pride in when it comes to their Venetians is versatility. Besides the possibility of choosing between four widths of slats, 15 mm, 25 mm, 35 mm and 50 mm, you can easily match them with your furnishings, thanks to the wide array of fabric colors and shades available. For instance, one of the best choices for a bedroom are the Blue Venetian Hillary’s blinds, because of the tranquility they suggest and because of their good level of privacy, yet letting enough light into the room. Another aspect of the versatility of these horizontal blinds is the possibility to fit them to skylight and roof windows.

Pricing can be determined only after discussing with a Hillary’s blinds consultant, because all their window treatments, awnings and shutters are made to measure and they come with a large choice of control options, trims, poles or other accessories. This is why a price given before knowing more details wouldn’t be too exact. There’s an example on Hilarys blinds official website: a lady who paid as little as 144 pounds, which is probably less than $300 for Venetian blinds for her dining room, kitchen and bathroom. There are no details on how big her windows were, but yet you can make yourself an idea of what would it mean to buy Hillary’s Venetian blinds for your windows.

Conservatory roof blinds are an absolute necessity. A conservatory offers an excellent recreation space, but when the sun is hot, you may discover it’s impossible to live inside because of the heat that goes through the glass roof directly on your head. This is why conservatory roof blinds are so sought after, and that’s also why window treatments manufacturers have a very diversified offer when it comes to covering conservatory roofs.

In order to be efficient, conservatory roof blinds need to have a thermal insulation superior to common blinds and shades. That’s because the roof is more exposed to direct sun rays, and for all over the day, not only a few hours like in case of regular windows. This thermal protection can be easily achieved by lining the blinds fabric with a solar reflective aluminum backing. There are other helpful accessories that one can install on the roof windows, such as solar inserts, special window films that are transparent but stop the UV radiation from penetrating the window surface. Solar inserts are a relatively new invention and they work great in conjunction with polycarbonate conservatory roofs.

Most Used Types Of Conservatory Roof Blinds

Because conservatory roofs are usually high, cordless automated blinds are preferred for covering these windows. There are many types of blinds that can be adapted for conservatory roofs, from pleated blinds to roller shades or to pinoleum blinds, most of them being fit for any type of conservatory shape, be it Lean To, Victorian, Edwardian or Bespoke.

If you need conservatory roof blinds, you’ll see that there’s a wide offer available, many of the biggest manufacturers offering stunning models made of highly energy-efficient fabrics and motorized with the latest generation tubular motors, which are extremely silent and smooth in operation. Hillarys is one of the companies that have multiple choices to offer, and featuring a great experience in window treatments, they can advise you how to make your conservatory a great space to live in all year round. The photo on the left illustrates a conservatory with Citrus Pleated blinds from Hillary’s. This is only one example of the many solutions you can choose from when it comes to protecting your conservatory from harmful UV rays.

One last tip: retractable awnings may be as efficient as conservatory roof blinds.