How to have privacy without losing your natural light

Privacy is rarely as straightforward as simply having the blinds open or closed.

Perhaps your living room looks directly onto the pavement. The kitchen is overlooked from a neighbouring house. Or you love the daylight coming through a bedroom window but don't particularly want everybody outside looking in.

Closing a conventional blind solves one problem — but creates another. The room becomes darker.

There is another approach.

Cover the part of the window that actually needs covering https://www.patternmatch.co.uk/page-4/

Top-down bottom-up blinds can be positioned much more freely than a conventional blind.

Instead of only raising a blind from the bottom, you can lower it from the top too.

That means the lower section of the window can remain covered for privacy while daylight continues to enter above it. Luxaflex specifically highlights this combination of privacy and natural light as one of the main advantages of top-down bottom-up blinds.

It's a simple idea, but in the right room it works exceptionally well.

Particularly useful for street-facing rooms

Ampthill and the surrounding Bedfordshire villages contain an enormous variety of homes, from period properties close to the road to modern developments where neighbouring houses can be relatively close together.

The privacy problem can therefore differ from one window to another.

A front living room might need screening at eye level during the day, while an upstairs room may only need protection from one particular angle.

Being able to position the blind accordingly is much more flexible than treating the entire window in exactly the same way.

Privacy doesn't have to mean heavy window dressing

There's also the design side.

If you've spent time choosing paint, wallpaper, furniture and fabrics, permanently closing a heavy window treatment can change the whole character of the room.

Filtering and diffusing the daylight can often be far more attractive.

Depending on the window and the effect you're trying to create, options can include Duette® blinds, Pleated blinds and other translucent window treatments.

Think about where people can actually see from

Before choosing any privacy blind, stand in the room at different times of day.

Look at:

pavement level outside neighbouring upstairs windows driveways and gardens whether privacy is needed when seated or standing where the sun enters the room whether you still want to retain a view

It's much easier to select the right treatment once you've identified the actual problem.

At Patternmatch Interiors in Ampthill, we can help you combine the practical requirements of privacy and light control with the colours, textures and wider design of your room.

Particularly useful on tilt-and-turn windows

DuoMotion also works particularly well with suitable tilt-and-turn window installations. https://www.patternmatch.co.uk/Luxaflex/

Luxaflex's tilt-and-turn systems fit closely to the glazing and are held in place so the blind moves with the opening window rather than hanging loose in front of it.

For modern windows, that's a much neater solution.

Technology shouldn't dominate the room

At Patternmatch, we're interested in how window treatments look as much as how they operate.

Blinds are part of an interior scheme.

The fabric, texture and colour still matter enormously, which is why being able to see samples alongside paint, wallpaper and the rest of the room is so useful.

DuoMotion simply adds another choice about how the finished blind works.

For smart and made-to-measure Luxaflex blinds in Ampthill and the surrounding Bedfordshire area, visit Patternmatch Interiors and we can show you the different options.