 Quite often, customers will purchase faux or wood blinds for throughout their entire home. However, there is always a pause when it comes to how to handle the doors. For a sliding door, a different type of window covering is generally advisable. Honestly, people do try and sometimes place a wood blind over a sliding glass door, but it is such a poor application, fraught with difficulty, that we just will not sell the application.
However, french doors are quite another matter. A faux or wood blind is quite appropriate for use on a french door and accomplishes the goal of price control and continuity of look. So what is there to know about your french door wood blind? Well, if you have a lever type handle, the blind will close down behind the handle but will create a need to work the blind around the handle when open. Also, it may be necessary to help the slats around the handle when tilting the blind and/or raising and lower the blind. Finally, it is recommended that the bottom portion of the blind be held down with special hardware - called hold-down brackets. These brackets hold the bottom rail in place as the door is opened and closed. While the center of the blind may slightly sway and/or knock against the window trim - the secured bottom will prevent the wood or faux wood blind from swinging wildly. Of course, if you want to raise the blind, you will first have to unclip the bottom rail from the hold-down brackets. We would love to help you with you wood or faux wood blind project. Contact us today for a friendly and professional free consultation! Thanks for your interest in Latreia Blinds and Shutters!
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 Did you know that semi-sheer and translucent fabrics can be coordinated with blackout fabrics making fabric selections easier throughout projects requiring both types of fabrics? We have used this feature on several projects utilizing the translucent fabrics on windows in living areas and offices while using the coordinated black-out color in the bedrooms. Additionally, these fabrics work great on a single window for dual shade applications.
Just so you know, translucent fabrics filter light, and depending on the color and thickness, create lighting effects that can make a room feel light and airy or dramatic and intense. Bringing organic texture to a room, shadows play on the fabric, although there is no direct visibility through it. Light colors will diffuse light so that a room seems to glow, and darker more saturated colors create a color cast that can make a room look like a different place. Please also know, blackout fabrics are the obvious choice for rooms where media viewing or daytime sleeping happen. When intense morning sun prevents daytime sleep, blackout fabrics provide a beautiful answer. These specialized fabrics allow room darkening because they do not allow light to pass through the fabric at all, resulting in no glow or shadow play, and the highest privacy level. Of course, we would love to help you coordinate your translucent and blackout fabrics for your roller shade project. Contact us today for a complimentary consultation and thanks for your interest in Latreia Blinds and Shutters!  Certain applications and decor requires the functionality of a bi-fold track system for sliding door openings and/or room openings. When two or more panels are hinged together to fold up adjacent to each other, they are called bifold panels. A single track system is used for a bi-fold track system. Panels must be hinged together in multiples of two. The top fascia is 2 ½”, the same as Medium Z-frame. The header and side legs are made of 1” rail material. A standard 1” floor clearance is also provided and cannot be modified. Corner fascias are included on O.M. and net width orders only. All fascia over 8’ (or 96”) are provided in two pieces with 45 degree miter joint for both faux wood and real wood shutters. These diagrams should help you visualize how these type of shutters work with some of the specifications.  Of course, we would love to help you with your shutter project. Contact us today for a friendly, complimentary consultation in your home or office. Thanks for your interest in Latreia Blinds and Shutters!
 Not sure what project to tackle around the house this summer? Do you have a limited budget and time but just need to freshen the place up for now? Consider, a quick summer faux wood project. Just replacing old dusty blinds or getting rid of the outdated vertical blinds will make a real difference!
So, here is the thought. Get a free consultation for some bright white faux wood blinds - plan on having them for just a couple years - just to clean the place up - while you save the big money to remodel the kitchen, bathrooms and floors. Then, later when doing the major remodel, budget for the type of designer window treatments that work with your style and taste. In the meantime, having clean bright windows may inspire you to expedite your remodeling dreams. We would love to help you with your quick clean-up - summer faux wood project. Contact us today for a complimentary consultation and thanks for your interest in Latreia Blinds and Shutters!  Digitally Printed Roller Shades Enhance Commercial Signage
Roller Shades with high quality digital printing have a relatively low cost, long life, and 24-hour-a-day work ethic. A well-designed, well-placed printed roller shade can generate thousands of impressions every day for years or the time of a specific promotion. Printed Window Shades Solve Glare problems While Maximizing Advertising Value The shades can pay for themselves with marketing results and solve Sun problems in the process. Most retail applications need glare control to see cash registers and computers. Add printing to solar roller shades and black-out shades provide more value with cost effective marketing messages. Note that images printed on the outside of solar roller shade are visible to inside. If this is undesirable, then consider printing on blackout or SilverScreen solar shades. Use Printed Window Shade Signage for:
Of course, we would love to help you with your printed roller shade project for your commercial space roller shade project. Contact us today for a friendly, complimentary consultation and thanks for your interest in Latreia Blinds and Shutters!  One option for your plantation shutter project is called a split rod. This refers to a divided tilt rod. Instead of one continuous tilt rod, the rod is split so that sections of louvers can operate independently of each other. This achieves the same purpose of a divider rail, without the insertion of the divider rail. A split tilt option is also available with the hidden tilt feature. The picture above is an example of a shutter with the split "hidden" tilt option.
For us, this split rod feature is available for no additional charge, so it really just becomes a design choice. Ask yourself, do you want to open up the top portion of your shutters for light and view while the bottom portion is closed for privacy? Are you okay with seeing the top portion louvers at a different angle than the bottom portion without a solid rail between them as a separator? Would you be okay with a tilt rod down the center of your panel that has a break at some point and as such the rods lean in a slightly different directions? These are the sorts of design preference questions that are worth considering as you think about whether a split rod feature makes sense on your plantation shutter project. Of course, we would love to help you with your shutter project. Contact us today for a complimentary consultation. Thanks for your interest in Latreia Blinds and Shutters!  Are you in the market for new faux wood blinds? Have you ever wondered what they are made of? In short, they are vinyl. So, what is vinyl?
Vinyl is a synthetic man-made material. It is a type of plastic that is made from a derivative of oil and the chlorine from salt. Upon processing you get Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) resin, or as is commonly referred to - Vinyl. According to WhatIsVinyl.com, "Vinyl was first invented in 1920 by scientists who wanted to develop a material that would help to manufacture everyday products that were easier to make, more durable, and cheaper than what was available. Today, Vinyl has become the second largest manufactured and sold plastic resin in the entire world. The most common use of vinyl is that in construction, especially as vinyl flooring and vinyl siding. In fact, these uses of vinyl are often thought of as its only uses. In addition to these, vinyl has many other uses because of its ability to combine with various additives and modifiers, thus making vinyl highly suitable to be used in the manufacture of many different products. Common Properties Of Vinyl Vinyl is resistant to moisture and humidity. It is a very strong and durable plastic material. Vinyl can be manufactured in a variety of colors, both transparent and solid. Vinyl is a very low cost material to produce. Vinyl is a plastic material, which unlike other plastics, can easily be recycled. Because of the durability of vinyl, products made from this material have a long life span. Add to this the fact that the vinyl can then be recycled, translates into an even longer life of the vinyl plastic resin. Vinyl is a very environment friendly material, not only because it can be recycled, but also for many other reasons. Vinyl helps in the preservation of environmental resources as 57% of vinyl is made from common salt, which is a renewable natural substance. Non-replenish able resources such as crude oil only account for 43% of vinyl resin, thus making it nature friendly. In comparison to various other materials used by the packing industry, vinyl requires lesser amounts of natural resources to make, utilizes much lesser energy for manufacture, and also releases lower emissions into the environment. Thus vinyl, a synthetic manmade material, has truly revolutionized the entire plastic resin industry." We would love to help you with your faux wood, AKA vinyl blind, AKA PVC horizontal, project. Contact us today for a complimentary consultation and thanks for your interest in Latreia Blinds and Shutters!  Roller shades are a great option for schools and universities. The broad range of activities and tasks happening in schools and universities make the durability and function of roller shades a great option for enhancing the learning space.
For instance, solar roller shades, black-out roller shades, printed roller shades or some combination therein can enhance:
Additionally, the ability to motorized or use state of the art cord hold-downs provides for convenient and safe usage of roller shades - for superior to the traditional mini blind. Of course, we would love to help your school or university with its roller shade project. Contact us today for a complimentary consultation and thanks for your interest in Latreia Blinds and Shutters!  Here is something to consider when ordering plantation shutters - does it have an astragal stile? So, what is an astragal stile? It is an extra feature which covers the gap made as two panels meet. Some shutters come with a rabbited stile which is a slight overlap of the panels - sort of looks like the panels are notched. Other shutters come with neither - meaning a slight gap exists between the panels. In our opinion the astragal stile provides the cleanest finished look, as any slight imperfection in the window or wood is impossible to detect. The astragal stile accomplishes this by doing the best job of all the options of hiding any light gap. Your eye will likely notice a light gap that is uneven - even if it is very slight and within industry manufacturing standards. Because of this, unless you have a very specific reason, you should seek a shutter with an astragal stile where the shutters meet in the middle. Keep in mind, this astragal is really only needed where opposite side panels meet. You do not need an astragal where same side hinged panels meet. See diagrams below.  In the top view image above, that little lip you see in the middle is the astragal. In the image below, the 2 left 2 right configuration has an astragal in the middle and a rabbit stile where the panels bi-fold.  Of course, we would love to help you with your shutter project. Contact us today for a complimentary consultation and thanks for your interest in Latreia Blinds and Shutters!
 Here in Arizona, we have winter visitors that leave for 6-9 months per year. Additionally, full-time residents do all they can to spend some time away from the desert during the hot months - really June through September - some years, you can add May and October to that list.
So, for those folks who have wood or faux wood blinds in their windows, which are lots of folks, what should they know about their blinds? Here is our tip. Take a close look at your wood and faux wood blinds. Notice that they close tighter at the top and less tight at the bottom. This is simply the nature of the mechanics of the blind. If you try and crank down on the tilt function to tighten the gaps at the bottom, there is a good chance that you will break the tilt mechanism. So here's what you should do. Tilt the blind in the up position when you are gone from the house. This is especially true for extended leaves, but also true for daily management. Why? Because, tilting the blinds in the up position prevents direct sunlight from hitting your floor and furnishings. Go ahead and play with the blind while direct sunlight is on the window. If you tilt in the blind in the down position, you will notice light leaks which allow direct light to strike your stuff. Tilt the blind up and the light leaks. while still there, do not allow direct light onto your furnishings and finishes. Why does this matter? Because the UV light of the direct sun - over a period of time - will fade, crack and otherwise negatively affect your floors and furnishings. By paying attention to this simple detail, you can help to preserve your home's original finishes for years to come. We would love to help you with your wood or faux wood blind project! Contact us today for a complimentary consultation and thanks for your interest in Latreia Blinds and Shutters! |
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