Morning all. I’m looking to get some French blinds installed and wondered if anyone had any recommendations for decent quality companies that aren’t too ridiculously expensive? I got a quote from S-Craft via John Lewis and it was insanely spendy. The quality didn’t even seem that great.

Thanks!

Forgive my ignorance but what the heck is a French blind? Depending on roughly where you are i might be able to point you in the direction of a supplier but I’ve not seen anything marketed as a French blind.

Fwiw John Lewis are expensive, but they are picky on suppliers, quality isn’t likely to be poor if they’re supplying and fitting it.

The ignorance is almost certainly mine! I mean those wooden slatted shutter things. I thought they were called French blinds, but I may (probably) be totally wrong!

I think that’ll be a plantation shutter.

A quick Google will tell you for sure.

Ah, yep – that’s it! Any recommendations on that front? I’m near Kingston (SW London).

If it is those it’s the wrong end of the market for me – they’re usually done by awnings folks and the like, best bet is to have a look at
British blind and shutter association

John Lewis do their homework but they don’t generally have exclusive distribution deals so may also be worth dropping sc a line to ask for a recommended supplier installer, there’s a good chance you’ll end up with the same folks as through JL but without the additional markup (and warranty etc that JL offer over and above).

If you’ve no luck that way pm me and I’ll have a look on Monday at who i deal with down there that might be able to help but most of my folk are interior designers in London (pays better and no getting your hands dirty, that’s for us filthy northerners)

Heh.

Thanks for the advice. Will see how I get on.

I thought they were “louvre blinds”?

Louvre blinds? No they’re ones for art galleries.

Sorry igmc.

Louvres would normally be the hanging fabric on a vertical blind. Commonly in the uk at least if they’re rigid (esp. In venetians, shutters and the like) they’re called slats.

I looked at those for my refurb but went with venetian as they were a lot cheaper and I was running out of money !

Don’t look quite as good but I can lift the whole thing up and out of the way of the cats if they want to sit on the window ledge !

I got them from 247Blinds and they do shutters :

http://www.247blinds.co.uk/plantation-shutters#isPage=1

This thread needs bunnyhop.

We have things like that: des persiennes.

Ash – i have a rental flat in kingston coming free in july if u know anyone interested message me. Only went on mkt yesterday and it usually goes straight away.

We have various similar shutters, work very well and create a nice light open or closed. Not so good for warm in the winter of course if windows don’t seal well. Ours where bought from various places and custom made based on window size and as you say OP shopping around is vital as prices cary a lot as does quality.

I’ve made up boards that go on the inside in Winter and added wood strips so they fit better. That and uW 1.0 triple-glazed windows keeps heat loss down.

In Summer mosquito netting replaces the boards so we get insect-free ventilation at night.

Friends of ours in Esher bought some recently she is reasonably sensible with money and went with John Lewis, those shutters are a bit of a middle class cliche in south west London, next stop burgundy cords and an audi 😉

those shutters are a bit of a middle class cliche in south west London, next stop burgundy cords and an audi

I don’t even own a car and would need to sell a bike to be able to afford one, so no danger there!