We have regular curtains at the moment, but SWMBO is finding them harder to close with the pull cord.
Rather than motorising curtains, we like the idea of vertical blinds that can be (or are) motorised.
Being me, I don't need anyone to "call me for a quote". However, I am already sensing that the world is trying to decide it's roller or roman blinds.
Is there a keyword or concept my google-fu is missing ?
Jethro_uk submitted this idea :
Plenty of units, but I think you want to buy them from 'smart home' people not 'blind' people. The 'blind' people try and railroad you towards their one chosen (pricey, lockin) solution, whereas the various smart home ecosystems (Somfy, Tuya, Ikea, Xiaomi Aqara etc) are all about retrofit.
At the end of the day you just want a chain drive for the cord, rather than a motor in the roller, but there's nothing special about vertical blinds there. You simply program it with 'open' and 'closed' endpoints and it winds the cord between the two.
As Harry's link mentioned, the motors start about £30. Then depends what you want to control them with: buttons on the wall, bluetooth from your phone, Alexa, Home Assistant, etc etc.
Some (opinionated) reviews:
Cheers for both suggestions.
ISTM that fitting decent blinds with knobbly cords is a starting point. Then look for kits from there.
So remove the pull cord and just close them manually. If you can walk, you can close curtains
Roman blinds fold up, roller blindsd roll up.
Sounds good. One thing to be aware of is a lot of the Blinds Online/24-7/Direct/etc outfits are all run by the same megacorp (Hunter Douglas). So you think you're comparing competitive quotes but it's actually the same product sold by the same people. You can tell because the way the websites work is very similar, even though the fonts/colours/etc are different.
Theo
:)
SWMBO can't walk.
Next.
Are you certain you want blinds? They give a room a very different feel to curtains. Less 'warm' IMHO - and not just meaning heat.
The problem is our window recess just doesn't really allow for decent curtains. There's a wooden pelmet that was built into the frame and it limits the amount of material you can scrunch up at the ends.
Also SWMBO is struggling more with the pull cords for it - they're quite heavy.
Vertical blinds are clean, can be turned to allow privacy without blocking light and (in theory) easy to automate.
Dunno about now. but I have got two ancient sets of motorised curtains. They work on the ordinary cord.
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