Expandable Vertical

Vertical Blinds as Room Dividers

Building walls is usually the way in which people subdivide spaces. This is a great way to make new rooms. However, when doing this, the spaces are permanently divides, and the cost for this type of work is often quite high. Furthermore, building walls often will require pulling construction permits, as well as installing electrical fixtures. In the end, would it not be easier to simply pay much less and use vertical blinds to subdivide these spaces? This is even more commonly the easier choice, when the subdivision is a temporary situation. Vertical blinds are easy to install, and they can be retracted easily.

Often churches and other organizations with large rooms will want to use a folding door, or a different type of retractable room partition to make multipurpose rooms into individual meeting rooms. These partitions are usually noisy and do not insulate much of the distracting sounds. When a simple space divider is what is desired, a vertical blind may be good for the job. Vertical blinds can be retracted, and when done as center opening, vertical blinds can have a small stack on the sides, and almost disappear completely.

In addition to the ability of vertical blinds to retract in different ways, vertical blinds can also be custom made as two unique and independently operated units thus expanding their flexibility. This added flexibility allows the user many more choices regarding the purpose of the vertical blind as it pertains to a specific function. One factor to remember is that normally the width of a vertical blind is limited to sixteen (16) feet and whenever “butted” to a second vertical blind, it can divide a thirty-two (32) foot wide room and thus able to divide most rooms regardless of setting.

Consideration should be given to the fact that vertical blinds operate independently and as a single unit and whenever vertical blinds are “butted” together, controls at the end of each vertical blind will operate each blind independently of one another. Due to the simplicity of operation, dealing with two independent controls is not a hindrance but is actually an advantage for you can retrieve only one of the vertical blinds should that be physically necessary.

As previously mentioned, the use of “butted” vertical blinds may actually be more desirable due to the ability to independently adjust the size of the desired opening and the additional savings realized whenever smaller blinds are shipped. Large items are always more expensive to ship because they require the services of a common carrier versus the relatively inexpensive method of shipping via UPS or FedEx. However, when compared to the cost of building a permanent wall, these costs are usually insignificant.

Child safety has been an increasing concern with window treatments. This issue remains a concern when using blinds as a room divider. For this reason, you must always ensure that your control cords and your rotate chains are on the ends of the tracks, and are attached to a will in a fashion to ensure that the vertical blinds are safely installed and not likely to hurt any itinerate children who may be fascinated by these elements of the vertical blinds.

Another installation issue with this application for vertical blinds. Many large spaces may have excessively high ceilings, or the ceilings may, in fact, be shaped to not accommodate a vertical blind track. For these situations, one should consider installing a hanging strip first. This is a long and straight pice of wood, or metal if preferred, and then the vertical blind track would be installed onto this track.

Although noise control is difficult to fully eliminate, the use of vertical blinds with free hanging fabric louvers can and should be considered. One of the many benefits of using fabric louvers is the quietness achieved by the elimination of the sound of PVC louvers hitting each other due to wind drafts and the use of fans which can continuously move the PVC louvers. Fabric louvers are comparatively noiseless when moved.

The aesthetics of vertical blinds as room dividers will substantially improve by two (2) using valances which will cover the vertical blind hardware on both sides of the vertical blind. Although vertical blinds are typically fabricated including a valance, a second valance should be ordered for this particular application thus creating an acceptable and clean look when viewed from both rooms.

About the Author

Judith Persit works from home in a design studio and writes about bamboo shades. Learn aboutshades at her website.