wood blinds or cellular shades?

[ASusan]

The price is basically the same either way. Which should I do? If we do cellular shades, they would/could be top-down/bottom-up, for privacy on the first floor and in the second floor bedrooms. With wood/faux wood, privacy is with arranging the slats.

At least 3 of the four rooms on the front of the house need privacy and/or light control - laundry room, master closet (yes, a closet with 2 windows facing the street!), office/playroom, and guest bedroom/sewing room.

Should we put cellular on the second floor (bedrooms & master closet), and wood through the rest of the house?

We have possible dust allergies - and my son is allergic to mold. Would either be better for those issues?

I just can't think this through as I don't know enough about advantages and disadvantages. I certainly don't know much about decorating. The salesperson was no help, "well, it's personal preference..."

[sunnysandiegan]

Have you seen them both in person? Were you drawn to them equally? What did you like about each? What were you iffy about with each?

I personally dislike cellular shades. The ones that look appealing to me are the ones that cannot be cleaned easily (fabric-types). Dust clings to them in other people's homes and I notice it. The ones that can be cleaned easily look unappealing to me.

I'm not much of a fan of horizontal wood blinds, either, though. However, that is more of a design issue for me. In rooms with a lot of horizontal elements (living rooms, for example, are frequently very linear around the perimeter of the room), horizontal blinds of any kind just add to the stripe effect or flat/low feel. I much prefer to mix up the shapes and textures with horizontal and vertical elements.

[Mama Mko]

We got cellular blinds a couple months ago and we love them. I don't have any experience with wood blinds.

[vm9799]

my personal opinion is wood blinds.......although i would go one step further and get plantation shutters with wide slats.

[Rebecca]

I had wood slats in my old house. You could still see inside though, unless they're backed with canvas or curtains. Ours were narrow, like strips of bamboo (not the grass shades though). I'm not a fan of cellular either. They look like they'd look beat before too long... dusty and dingy. I have canvas roman shades I got from the Christmas Tree Shop for like $5 each. They're thick enough that you can't see through them, they fold up flat and completely off the window when they're up and I can wash them easily when I'm so inclined.

[Ygle]

I have wood slats and cellular shades... the cellular shades seemed to have held up better over time (they are 11 years old and whereas the slats definitely look older the shades look new) and also are significantly better for insulation. I have the wood slats in the kitchen/dining area and they are definitely better for that for cleaning up food splatters.

[SuzyLee]

The big consideration for me would be that cellular shades are insulating. They will help with your heating/cooling costs way more than wood blinds will.

That said, I strongly prefer the appearance of wood blinds, so we have those in our house. You could get the insulating advantage by choosing insulating curtains to hang on top of the wood blinds but then your price tag goes up quite a bit.

[elsie]

I prefer the celular shades, they are easier to clean than wood (I usually just vacuum them), keep out the light better and look less heavy on the window. We had some nice in our old house and I loved them - they had an extra layer for light blocking and that worked extremely well.

[jtsmom]

I have cellular shades that came with the house and I like them. I think they are more insulating than wood would be. I haven't cleaned them yet, and haven't noticed that they look dirty. I only put them down on nights in the winter to keep the heat in. I think wood would be much easier to clean, if you are concerned about allergies, I think wood would be better.

I do like my cellular shades, though. They do have a cord , but once they are up, you barely see that they are there. (the trim is white and so are the shades)

What about roman shades? I had some in my old house that we bought at ikea and I loved them. They pulled up and down on a string and were just heavy cotton canvas material.

[nextcommercial]

I live in the desert and the cellular shade keep the heat out a little better. But, I think the wooden blinds lasted longer.

The cellular shades faded too. But, I still kinda preferred those over the wood blinds.

[4evermom]

I love our top down bottom up cellular shades. They really help with temperature control. I did not get light blocking ones because our house is dark. I appreciate having privacy AND natural light. I've had them for over a year and they have not collected visible dust. I could easily vacuum them if they looked dusty. I got mine at Blinds.com (got their brand but they sell others, too).

[leavemealone]

We have pleated blinds (similar to cellular) in a lot of rooms. We don't have the nice top down/bottom up ones, though. I like them in some rooms, but not all. With these blinds, there are only two options - open and closed. To me, that's good in rooms where I'm not going to be messing with the blinds very much like the bedroom, but not so good in rooms where I am going to be adjusting the blinds like the sunroom or living room. With the wood horizontal blinds, there are more options. They can be open, closed, the slats can be adjusted, etc. In the end, I guess it depends on your preference. I would not choose to have the pleated blinds again simply b/c I would like to be able to let in light without having my whole window exposed. I wouldn't mix the styles of blinds simply b/c of my preference to have all the same style throughout the house (not that I have the same style throughout my house now, but that's what I would prefer).

[AMarie]

Re:

Personally, I went for wood blinds in all the rooms. These types of window coverings are more elegant, fashionable and even easier to clean than fabric ones. I bought mine in made to measure sizes from this company http://www.directorypro.biz/Home/Blinds-937.html and they even offered me a discount for the purchase.

[ASusan]

Huh, interesting that this thread was bumped. I'll update in case anyone is doing research.

We installed real wood, cordless blinds 6 weeks ago. We really like them. They match the woodwork exactly, and give us privacy and the ability to get light and privacy at the same time. All the windows, save the kitchen sink, slider, and second-story arch window above the main entrance were done the same way, which is what a designer would likely do. It maintains a uniform look from the outside of the house.

If I had it to do over again, I would do wood blinds across the front of the house, and cellular in the back. We like the look of the wood blinds, and they are elegant and easy to dust. HOWEVER, they are not light blocking enough for my sleeping preferences. AND they do take up a lot of header space at the top when they are opened. For our 3 primary bedrooms, which have windows on the back, I think I would prefer true blackout blinds, perhaps top-down-bottom-up, OR cordless. The front bedroom, which is currently an office, I would do in wood, to match the rest of the front of the house.