Real vs Faux Wood Venetian Blinds

The Difference Between Real And Faux Wood Blinds

You’ve decided you want a wooden venetian blind. Good stuff, great choice! However, you’re not sure which to go for: faux wood venetian blinds or real wood venetian blinds.

It mainly comes down to taste, with a few usage pointers thrown in for good measure. I’ll explain each, provide you with a handy comparison chart and leave you to decide for yourself. Are you ready to go on a wooden venetian blind voyage of discovery? Buckle up; things are about to get lateral.

What is a wooden venetian blind made from?

Real wood venetian blinds are made from basswood. Basswood is typically from North America and looks great thanks to its evenly textured grain – it’s used all over the world for a huge number of things, such as guitars, drums, canoes and (you guessed it) blinds.

Being made from real wood affords this blind a few extra benefits that a faux wood blind doesn’t have. This includes being light-weight, adding window insulation and integral colour staining (which means the colour sits within the wood and is less likely to fade over time).

Faux wood venetian blinds are made from composite materials such as vinyl and PVC, making them very durable. The level of detail means that they look very similar to genuine wooden blinds, but at a more affordable cost – leaving you with the simple choice of choosing your slat size, instead of considering cost. Unless you get really close to it, you’d be hard-pushed to tell the difference between the two made to measure blinds.

Can I put a wooden blind in my bathroom?

Bathrooms and kitchen sink windows can have additional moisture in the air and because of this we don’t recommend you put a real wood venetian blind in your bathroom as the wood will begin to absorb the moisture and warp. Areas that have high levels of moisture or humidity would be better suited to the non-porous faux wooden blinds as they are resistant to warping.

Faux wood blinds will be a lot more forgiving when it comes to sharp changes in temperature, high levels of moisture and water marks from sink splashes. In these scenarios we see white faux wood blinds as a popular choice.

How easy is it to clean wooden blinds?

As mentioned above, keep water away from real wood blinds. Venetian blinds are easy to clean, wiping them down with a lightly-damp cloth is fine and requires no additional effort than when cleaning any other kind of venetian blind. We don’t recommend using cleaning solutions and liquids as this can damage the wood. If you regularly clean your wooden venetian blind using the ‘old sock technique’ (trust me, it’s a real thing, take a look here), you won’t need to use heavy-duty cleaning fluids.

Faux wooden venetian blinds are can be cleaned with a variety of cleaning fluids and with water as the composite material is more resilient than wood.

Are wooden blinds available in different slat sizes?

When it comes to variety, wooden venetian blinds are the leaders of the pack. Real wood blinds come in a choice of 25mm, 35mm and 50mm slats and can have privacy tape or not, depending on your taste – this gives you a wide range options. This level of choice allows you to really find the blind to suit your window and customise to match your room’s decor. Some people may want a sort of plantation shutter style venetian blind with the bigger slats, whilst others prefer smaller, more discrete sizes. Take time to browse the whole selection before making up your mind, there are plenty of options available to catch your eye!

Faux wood is available with 50mm slats only and has the option for privacy tape too. The wider slats really give you a chance to enjoy the detail and workmanship that goes into these fabulous looking blinds.

Use our blinds measuring guide to ensure your slat size is perfect for the window being installed on. As all of our blinds come with fitting instructions, your blinds will be fitted helping your room look fantastic in no time at all!

Which type of wooden venetian blind is the lightest?

Hands down, the real wood venetian blind is lighter. For small windows this is pretty much negligible, but over distance the collective weight of the slats adds up.

It can be difficult to raise or lower a faux wood venetian blind that spans a large window, and so we would recommend using two or three individual blinds to break up the weight. This also provides you with a greater level of light control, with the ability to shade off certain areas of a window but not casting the whole room into darkness.

Do wooden venetian blinds provide total blackout?

We are confident that real wood or faux wood venetian blinds, combined with tape, will sufficiently darken your room. It goes without saying that the slats are solid, so there’s no light getting through them, but it does come down to whether you want fabric tape on the blind.

What is fabric privacy tape?

The fabric privacy tape is coloured to match your blind and it covers the gaps where the venetian slat ladder runs, which involves small holes in the slats. The tape also provides extra privacy in case any very nosey individuals attempt to peak through the gaps.

Without privacy tape you’ll still have plenty of darkness but direct sunlight can creep through the small gaps, casting lines of light through the room. Either way, these blinds are absolutely perfect for all around the home.

The Colours of Faux and Real Wood Blinds

Fauxwood and real wood blinds alike come in a range of colours – not just your standard beige and browns. There are wood tone venetian blinds that celebrate the colours and textures of genuine wood, such as Oak, Sugar Maple, Natural and Walnut colours, and there are also colours that are provide a more solid block of colour, like the Ebony black, Opal browns and Apple green.

All of these colours can be combined with fabric privacy tape in either a matching or contrasting colour, allowing you to create an eye-catching blind that can transform a room so easily. The tape is 25mm wide for 50mm slats and 20mm for 35mm slats and 25mm, meaning the strip of fabric is neither dominated or overpowered by the slats.

One of the most popular choices are white faux wood venetian blinds, also available with a range of tapes, allowing you to maintain your home’s décor right through to the rooms where the light needs to be reduced, such as bedrooms. Another choice of note is the 35mm apple wood blinds, again with tapes, which can bring to life a study or living room.

Grey is an ever-popular colour for people’s interiors and the grey faux wood venetian blinds are certainly echoing this trend! From Sterling to Fossil to Limestone and Slate, there are grey faux wood and real wood blinds to suit every taste!

 

Still undecided?

If you still can’t make up your mind, order some samples from us and we’ll send them to you at no cost. The options with tape are supplied with a fabric tape sample so you can get a real feel for how each slat behaves and how it looks in your room.

You can order your free samples from the product page; simply find the blind you like the look of and click on ‘order free sample’ on the bottom right hand side of the page.



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