Cordless can be both easier and safer. Are their children in the house? I have not yet seen these in life, but I am very curious about them as they resolve the door problem Blinds on door

We have an adult child who is developmentally delayed, with multiple handicaps. Not a choking hazard, but probably could be some issues for my child.

Not sure that the absence of cords would necessarily make me feel like blinds would be okay on the door. as my objection to blinds on the door are that they would rattle and make noise every time someone opened or closed the door.

Only as this is your first experience with blinds, I'll just share with you how much I dislike them. We had them in our first house and it was a pleasure to remove them.

I've always found them a pain to clean and maintain. While they do offer better light control in terms of amount and direction vs other kinds of window treatments, they typically don't go full dark esp if they are the thicker wooden slat kind. They also block a lot of light coming in vs. a window treatment that leaves the whole window clear. They do nothing to stop air infiltration, so offer no insulation from the outside vs. other kinds of solid window treatments. And given they are hard surfaced, they do little for sound attenuation.

I think they work great if you are in a hotter climate where you have no a/c and want to be able to allow outside air in while controlling how much direct sunlight and heat comes in.

I'm sure others will disagree with me and are happy with their blinds, but I did want to share my take with you on them, just to be sure you've considered everything before you made your choice.

I have faux wood (white) blinds 2" wide on all my doors, they even have the wood graining effect and I love them, they open and close with a wand.

Well you have gotten two links to the same enclosed blinds....if you go with traditional blinds and never raise and lower them- you only tilt them open and closed- then you can attach them at the bottom of the blind that way they won't move every time you open and close the door.

Oh, Practigal, I feel foolish - I didn't click on your link before posting, and your text didn't indicate that you were talking about enclosed blinds.

Since you have a lot of windows, especially a wall of windows, I'd avoid blinds for all the reasons Annie mentioned. Plus, they're heavy to raise and lower on larger windows. Having said that, I have some blinds in my house but only in areas where light control and air flow is needed thru the day and I love them.......but I hate the amount of dust they catch.

Since you want clean lines and have a large area to cover check out Hunter Douglas Luminettes. If you want to see other options, including panels, check out these photos.

I would also suggest finding a local business that deals in window coverings, especially mobile ones, and get suggestions from them on what will work best in your area.

As practigal said, blinds that are installed on doors can be secured on the bottom with brackets. I have mini-blinds that are secured at the bottom on my shop/garage doors and they never rattle as we go in an out. HD makes Silouettes (horizontal) that would match the Luminettes.

Our door blinds were secured on the bottom with brackets. I finally got rid of all horizonal blinds in the house.....just too hard to clean. Grommet drapes or curtains on rings. are so easy to draw and washable. I have verticals in my sunny family room and those are easy to clean also...though I know they are not in style anymore but really like them....so easy to open and close.

We have faux wood and wood in our house and lake condo. I love the way they look, but hate how dusty they get. I would gladly swap them out for blinds. Even though we don't have what you would consider wide windows, they are very heavy to raise and lower. Next house - no wood blinds!

Practigal, Sorry I did not see your link at first. Probably trying to read too fast. I took a look at your link and Graywing's link, and the idea of enclosed blinds is quite intriguing. I would have to see how they look in person and how well they would coordinate with my other blinds, not to mention finding out the cost. However, it probably won't work in my case, as the site only lists their product availability for full length or 1/2 length windows. We have ordered 3/4 lite windows, so one would be too long and the other too short. Thanks to both of you, though, for providing the links.

Annztoo, I'd never heard of Luminettes. Not sure I totally understand them. Are they panels? I wonder how completely you could open up a window wall if they are? They are attractive, but I suspect they also will be quite spendy. I'm looking for not too expensive alternatives, as we are building our future retirement home and watching our budget very carefully. This is a modest (but I think very nice) build, and we haven't hesitated to choose less expensive finishes to keep costs down.

Erinsean, I like the grommet top drapes, too, and didn't realize they're not in style anymore. Not that it would matter to me if I like them, which I do. We have some good sized windows facing the front, and I thought the blinds would provide a more cohesive and cleaner line from the outside than drapes. Also, I would like the drapes to be lined so that on the outside they would all be the same. That will add to the cost, as well. I have considered adding some grommet top drapes later to the blinds, but I need to be careful adding much fabric, as I have severe allergies/asthma.

2pups4me, What kind of blinds would you switch out your wood and faux wood blinds for? Wouldn't they present the same challenge to clean?

Here are some more photos of the luminettes. Picture quality fabric verticals with sheer fabric connecting each vane. It gives a soft look. They are a little pricey so you may want to consider just the fabric verticals for now.

Like erinsean, I also have verticals (fabric) in my family room and on the slider. They are close to the wall color and my window frames are deep which allows the verticals to sit within the frame, giving a clean look. I know others here hate the verticals but IMO fabric verticals can work very well with lots of decor styles.

If you decide to do drapes, have you considered cellular shades or these for light control?

I might go with woven shades instead. At least you could use the dusting attachment on your vacuum cleaner instead of wiping down every slat - so time consuming.

You don't have to wipe down every slat, you tilt the blinds down all the way and use the dusting brush (I use the vacuum attachment). Very easy, and for me easier to keep dust free than fabric.

In our current house we have the Duette honeycomb shades and I like them very much. At first, I intended to put them in our new house. I changed my mind for two reasons. The primary reason is that, unlike the layout of our current home, an office and one bedroom have windows facing the front (street). With the shades, you either have the window closed or open. If open, it leaves the rooms and the occupants of those rooms exposed to the street. With blinds, we can choose to open them completely, if comfortable doing so, or maintain some privacy by just adjusting the blinds to let in light but not totally open. The secondary reason is that, when I decided to switch my window coverings to blinds, I found that they are less expensive than the honeycomb shades---a nice bonus. I think the luminettes are out of the picture due to expense. Also, when I first looked at the picture I thought they were simply vertical blinds, and I'm not a fan of those. Looking closer, they are better looking than regular vertical blinds, but I just don't think I'd be happy with them. We do have a central vac, so I'm thinking it would be easy to just run the vacuum over the blinds frequently to clean.

Sailaway, Would top down and bottom up option on the Duettes not have worked in this scenario? I have a mix of blinds and honeycombs and cannot wait to get rid of the blinds. Some blinds now come with top down and bottom up feature too. This allows light to come in but people can't easily see into the room. There are also options with two blinds on a window where the topdown feature adds a sheer on top of the blind.

Double Shade on a top down bottom up Shade

Did consider the top down bottom up shades, but still think the blinds would fit my needs better. Again, the Duette shades are more $$, so that's a factor. Also, the window of one bedroom that I would like to keep people from looiking in is right next to the front porch where people will be walking by. So when trying to get a little light but no view from outside, people walking by would still see in the room. However, with the blinds I can adjust so I can get light but people can't really see in (without putting their nose to the window).

I may be back here in a few months lamenting my choice, but I won't know until I try them. Also, forgot to mention that DH has expressed a very strong preference for blinds on the windows. Since so many decisions are left to me, it seems only right to listen when he expresses a strong preference.

Can anyone who has used the cordless blinds tell me how well they hold up and how easy they are to operate?

Blinds are definitely more cost-efficient. On the street side of my house I put in top down bottom up light blocking shades. I like them very much. The one unexpected advantage is when somebody parks their car or truck in front of your house and the light bounces off all of their chrome you can lower the top enough that you don't see their car or get all the glare from the light reflecting off of that but I still get a lot of light into the room.