Venetian blinds (cut your own vs made to measure)

[AndyT77]

I'm thinking about updating my vertical blinds to the venetian type, and there seems to be a very large price gap between the made to measure and the buy too big and cut down to size yourself type.

I take it as with everything, you get what you pay for, but does anyone have any experience with the latter type? How easy are they to trim, how cheap/nasty or suprisingly good do they look etc?

I want to fit them inside the window recess as opposed to on the outside of the window recess.

Thanks

[Busamav]

If they are the aluminim style blades then you can get a very good finish using the clippers that you can buy for a fiver,gives you a shaped end replicating the original profile

It is just mind numbing and seems to take a day , but in reality an hour a blind will cover it.

[Stu R]

It is possibly the most tedious and boring job ever cropping them yourself. I hate it!

Made to measure isn't especially expensive, definitely the way to go

[AndyT77]

Thanks, but made to measure quote is approx £160 for 3 windows. I've seen cut it yourself jobbies for about £7 each, so approx £27 with a trimming tool.

[Simpo Two]

I cut my own blinds; it's a bit fiddly but not difficult if you keep thinking.

You can either use the clippers as suggested or just scissors, adding a tiny second cut at the front to take the corner off.

The hardest bit is hacksawing through the top, which is steel, and then retying the cords in the irght place so it hangs right at the new length. But well worth the price saving.

[Nobby Diesel]

Don't know if you mean the wooden or metal ones.
Advice already on the the metal ones, but I have experience with the wooden ones.
I have cut loads of these down. Tin snips, a fine toothed saw and a screw driver is all you need. a little patience and some time.
Just make sure that you have sufficient space between the adjustment mechanism and the end of the blind you wish to cut.

[FlossyThePig]

Don't forget they ar a real B to clean.

[nobodyknows]

I have cut to size & fitted about 8 wooden venetians recently, they are a chore but the cost saving is worth it in my opinion. The worst bit is cutting the header rail which is cheap flexible steel, I don't have a workbench though which didn't help.

They definitely look better fitted in the recess.

[Brother D]

Well I found the easiet way was wooden blinds from Ikea.
Bit of varnish (if you want), a reciptocating saw, and some tight straps to bind them all together. (The saw even went through the metal at the top - just get additional blades).

Took about 5 mins for each set of blinds.

[Accelebrate]

I trimmed one down with a cheap blind cutter and hacksaw the other week. I was impressed with the results, looked identical to the factory cuts. Took about an hour to measure, cut, drill and hang. Not really that bad on the scale of things.

[AndyT77]

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to give it a go this weekend, starting with 1 window first (want to do the whole flat in the long run). Will let you know how i come on.

[Simpo Two]

Remember to leave enough clearance at the ends for the brackets, if they're the 'cube' type!

[andy43]

We've used www.keeleysblinds.co.uk for our made-to-measures - good value - might be worth a quote before getting the hacksaw out..

[markquinton]

Don't know if this is too late... But we always use Interior Decor Direct. Cheap and very good quality, practically every room in the house has one of their blinds and I have had no problems with the sizings at all.

[essexrobb]

another reccomendation for keeleys blinds, used them for some 50mm blinds and they were good, 10% feb discount on at the mo

[cjs]

I just fitted a blind into the recess of a window, it was a cheap £20 PVC blind from B&Q. First thing to check is how much you can cut from the width, the window recess was 1130mm, blind was 1200mm, I only just got it to fit, I had to cut a slot out of the end caps to accommodate the string mech and wand mech. So I could only trim 70mm off the width, so check your sizes.

I also had to take a lot of the slats out to adjust the drop, again a bit fiddly but I had the blind installed in less than 2 hours. Trimming the width off the slats was easy with scissors, there again it was just white PVC.