WHAT ARE TOP DOWN BLINDS ?
Posted on 14 August 2018 by Phil Coleman
Top-down blinds have become more and more popular over the last few years.
Traditional blinds like Roller blinds, Pleated blinds and Roman blinds are installed at the top of your window and move down to cover the window.
The big issue with this way of covering your window is privacy, the only way you will get total privacy with these blinds is if you have them all of the way down, which in turn makes the room dark as seen in the picture below.
Top-down blinds do work the same way but also have the option of lowering the top of the blind, so the bottom of the window is covered for privacy, whilst light comes through the open top part.
As you can see from the picture above the top-down blinds are perfect for bedrooms, where you need the privacy for getting changed but would like natural light rather than turning on the lights.
The most popular style of top-down blinds are pleated or Duette blinds.
These blinds can be supplied as conventional blinds ie from the top down, but adding an extra operating rail at the top and being corded slightly differently gives you the option of a top-down blind.
Duette and Pleated blinds are also available as blinds that do not need drilling or screwing into place. This version is called an INTU Blind.
INTU Blinds simply push into the beading of your upvc window so there are no screws required. INTU Blinds are available as a top-down blind.
So as you can see in the picture above the INTU blinds have 2 rails for operation, 1 that operates the blind from the bottom, and another that allows you to lower the top.
These blinds are manually operated, but there are motorised versions available called Luxaflex Powerview.
These motorised blinds have 2 motors that allow you to control the blind as a traditional blind and the second motor allows the top to come down to your desired level.
The Powerview blinds can also be programmed so if you would like the top of your blind to come down part way to allow the morning sun in at a certain time then this can be preset.
We installed a top-down blind for a gentleman a few weeks ago who loved to star gaze.
The motorised blind was programmed for the top of the blind to be a third of the way down allowing him to lay in bed and look at the stars and the blind was then programmed to close itself at 2.30 am so he wasn’t woken by the morning sun.
