Office Blinds and Commercial Blinds: Glare, Uniformity and Wear

Screens, sun and the colour of the fabric

Sunscreen roller blinds at 3 to 5 percent openness filter the light through the weave and keep a view out. Compare samples at the desk and further into the office so the chosen fabric suits both positions.

Capetown Blinds supplies and fits vertical blinds, roller blinds and aluminium blinds across Cape Town. Fabric and slat samples are brought to your home, so you can compare them there. Request a quote.

Colour matters as much as openness. In one maker's 3 percent sunscreen range, the light oyster colour lets 19 percent of visible light through and the oyster and charcoal colour 8 percent. Darker colours cut screen brightness most and give the clearest view out, so charcoal or black roller blinds suit a west-facing bank of desks better than white ones.

Light colours keep the floor brighter and look softer from the street, which is why many buildings pair a dark inner face with a pale outer face.

Natural lighting deep into the floor

Blockout roller blinds shut out the bright sky, but they leave the middle of the floor on artificial light all day. Sunscreen roller blinds keep natural lighting reaching the desks away from the windows, and staff near the blinds still see out.

Keep blockout blinds for a boardroom with a projector or a training space that runs presentations. For other work areas, compare open-weave sunscreen blinds by holding samples at desks near the windows and further into the floor.

The building has to look the same from outside

Most commercial leases and body corporate rules specify what the street sees, and a floor where every tenant chose their own blind reads as neglected. The usual solution is a fixed neutral backing (white or charcoal) on every street-facing blind, with the room-side colour left to each tenant. That satisfies the rule without dictating the interior.

Venetian slats for meeting rooms and private offices

Venetian blinds give a boardroom privacy on demand. The slats tilt shut while people talk and open again afterwards, and the head of the blind stays small inside the frame.

On glass partitions and internal doors, indoor blinds stop a corridor from seeing into a private office. Door blinds fixed to the door leaf move with it, so they stay clear of the handle.

The full range of Venetian blinds covers faux-wood, real wood and metal slats, so a reception area can carry a warmer finish than the open floor behind it. Venetian blinds wipe clean with a cloth, so they work in a shared kitchen or a canteen as well.

Wide glazing and floor-to-ceiling glass

A complete vertical blind on a long run of glass stacks to one side and leaves the whole opening clear. Vertical vanes hang straight on very tall windows as well, where a single roller would need a heavy tube.

For wide glazing in a lobby or a shopfront office, vertical blinds in Cape Town and two linked roller blinds on a shared bracket are the two set-ups to compare. Linked roller blinds keep the fabric flat and line up across the frames; vertical vanes rotate to set the light without drawing the whole blind.

Fabric or slats on an open floor

Sunscreen blinds give an open floor one even colour, and they are the simpler choice on a long run of windows; compare samples near the windows and further into the floor, because daylight levels vary with the room and glazing. Venetian blinds give finer control, because each bank of slats tilts to the angle of the sun, but on a large floor they ask more of the people sitting next to them.

Many offices mix the two: sunscreen blinds on the open floor, Venetian blinds in the meeting rooms and private offices, and vertical vanes on the lobby glass.

A curtain still has a place in a boardroom where sound matters, but it needs stack space beside the glass, and a curtain track on office glazing often fights the furniture layout. Custom-sized blinds sit inside each frame instead. Sunscreen blinds and Venetian blinds can share one outer colour, so the street sees one building.

Commercial wear is not domestic wear

Blinds in an office are often operated several times a day by different people. Compare mechanisms for blinds that get that use. On banks of shared windows, a wall switch can control motorised blinds as a group.

Check the controls and brackets on a busy floor at each lease renewal. Automation on a wall switch or a timer takes the chains out of daily use and moves a whole facade of roller blinds together.

Shading the west and north facades

In Cape Town, the bright facades are the west- and north-facing ones. Shading those facades with sunscreen roller blinds keeps the sun off the desks and the screens readable.

Window coverings such as sunscreen blinds work on the light and on comfort at the desk from inside the glass. A pale outer face on the fabric reflects some of the sun back through the glass, while a dark face absorbs it.

Planning blinds for a fit-out

Every blind is made to the exact size of its window. On a fit-out with odd frames, columns and corner glazing, check the proposed mounting positions of the blinds before the order goes in. Custom sizes do not change the look, because the fabric, colour and bottom rail stay the same across the floor.

In a shared office workplace, agree one fabric and one outer colour for the whole floor before anyone orders blinds, then choose roller blinds, Venetian blinds or vertical vanes window by window. Unlike a curtain, a blind sits flat against the glass and takes no floor space beside a desk.

A home office follows the same rules on a smaller scale. The guide to living room blinds covers screens and evening privacy in a lounge, and how to choose blinds by room covers the rest of the house.