Choosing the right products

There are so many factors to consider when choosing the right window furnishings for your home. What kind of design would best suit your requirements? What are your technical requirements? What kind of look and feel do you want to create?

Choosing the right fabric

Reflect on your style

Everybody has a different style and tastes can vary dramatically when it comes to interior decoration. It is important that you choose a blind style and fabric that you feel improves the look of your home and complements your space and furnishings. It can be difficult to make a decision with so many styles and fabrics to choose from, which is why Luxaflex Showcase experts are trained and equipped to assist you.

Privacy
As a basic rule, the more 'sheer' the fabric, the less privacy you will have. If privacy is important to you, it is best to choose a translucent or blockout fabric.

  • Translucent fabrics diffuse natural light while maintaining privacy.
  • Blockout fabrics are opaque and blockout 100% of light while also providing complete privacy.
  • A sheer fabric will give you privacy during daytime, but not during the night.
  • You may also want to consider a Dual roller blind system. A Dual system allows two blinds (with two different fabrics) to operate independently on the one roller system, which makes it perfect for controlling privacy while providing optimum light control.
  • Would you like your blinds to operate automatically at certain times of the day? Using a timer with our motorisation system will allow you to do just that. Our timers have a seven day program that permits up to 100 automatic commands per week. For example, you could program your timer to raise your blinds at 7am during weekdays, and to raise them at 10am on weekends.

Timers can also enhance your home security by giving the impression that someone is at home while you are away.

Heat protection

We are often asked questions about heat and UV protection. The sun’s rays can be damaging and can contribute to the fading of furniture, carpets, rugs and even timber floors. Every fabric in the Lu range provides heat and UV protection.

  • A light coloured fabric will have greater heat protection capabilities than a darker fabric.
  • A blockout fabric will protect you from the heat better than a translucent or a sheer fabric, as the fabric is denser so heat does not penetrate in the room easily.
  • When a blockout fabric has a white backing, it reflects the heat better.
  • Smaller gaps between blinds allow to reduce the amount of heat entering a room.

Glare protection & light control

To avoid reflection on your TV and computer screen, or to simply control the amount of light entering your home, the product and colour needs to be chosen carefully.
Dark translucent fabrics are best to maintain natural light while reducing the glare,
Across all products, darker colours will provide better glare protection than light colours.

Motorisation can assist greatly in controlling the light. A sun sensor device can automatically open and close your blinds whenever sunlight levels exceed comfort levels. You can use a sun sensor to lower your blinds during the brightest time of the day, or you could use a sun sensor to lower your blinds when it gets dark, thereby giving you privacy at night.

Insulation & Energy Savings

Energy savings are an important consideration for many consumers. Because huge amounts of energy are lost through glass windows, blinds help prevent heat loss during winter and reduce the heat that comes in during summer.

A well designed and well installed window covering product will assist you in reducing energy consumption. By nature, blinds are likely to reduce air conditioning and heating costs.

Pelmets also help to conserve energy, stopping the warm air that rises to the top of the window and pushing it back into the room. By reducing the convection process, a pelmet can prevent heat loss from a room.

Raising and lowering your blinds at the right times is critical to maximising energy efficiency and reducing your heating and cooling costs. Unfortunately the hassle of having to manually adjust every blind in your home means that we often don’t bother to use our blinds to their full effect. That's where motorisation makes the whole process much easier. It’s so simple that you could for example raise or lower every single blind in your home just by pressing one button.

Using a timer with our motorisation system is a great way of improving the energy efficiency of your home. By programming the timer to suit environmental conditions, you can save on heating and cooling costs.

A sun sensor is a device that automatically opens and closes your blinds whenever sunlight levels exceed comfort levels. You can use a sun sensor to lower your blinds during the brightest time of the day, or you could use a sun sensor to lower your blinds when it gets dark, thereby giving you night-time privacy.

In terms of thermal insulation, Duette shades are the most efficient of our products.