How To Fit Conservatory Blinds

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You can obviously add a touch of personality to your extension by investing in indoor plants and attractive reclining furniture chairs for your conservatory. However, a more involved way of adding more to your conservatory would be by installing your best conservatory blinds. It provides you with a way to control the amount of privacy you have and how much light can enter the space. Along with conservatory wall heaters they can also help to regulate the heat.

Jump to a section below:

  • Determine if you are allowed to drill holes in your window frames

  • Measuring Windows in Your Conservatory to fit Blinds

  • How To Install Vertical Blinds in a Conservatory – The Actual Fitting

  • How To Fit Conservatory Blinds To a Non-uPVC Solid Surface

  • How To Fit Vertical Blinds to uPVC

Further to that though, blinds give the room a more finished look. It may be that you’ve often thought about installing blinds into conservatories before but have been put off thinking it was more difficult than it is.

If you are looking to learn how to fit vertical blinds in a conservatory, you’ve come to the right place.

We’ve have put together a step by step guide that showing how to fit conservatory blinds is neither something you should be put off trying yourself or something that should give you a lot of stress and worry. The good thing is that even if you are more interested in finding out how to fit Venetian blinds in a conservatory, the process is almost identical for both types.

Before fitting conservatory blinds, you need to consider the following:

Determine if You Are Allowed to Drill Holes in Your Window Frames

Obviously, you will see that as part of the how to fit blinds in a conservatory guide, you will need to drill holes in the window frames. That raises the question of whether you can do that or not. Many companies who manufacture and install windows and conservatories provide a guarantee on their products once they have been successfully fitted.

The answer, though, of whether you are allowed to drill or it will contravene the guarantee, is very dependent on the company who made the conservatory, the terms you and the company agreed to in your contract and if they are a registered member of FENSA.

At any rate, the best course of action would be to contact the company and any insurance companies involved and determine if you can or can’t. If they clarify that you can, make sure they send our written documentation of this.

Measuring Windows in Your Conservatory to fit Blinds

The next step in our guide regarding how to fit vertical blinds in a conservatory is accurately measuring the windows. Why is this so important? Well, if you are going down the route of blinds that are made to measure, which will always look better, especially if you have a conservatory with unusual dimensions, it’s imperative that you supply the right information.

If you made errors in passing measurements on to the manufacturer, mistakes in the production of the blinds, whether they are too long, too wide, or too short, will be completely your own fault. As such, it’s vital you find out what the supplier needs to know to produce accurately fitting blinds.

You need to measure the necessary amount of the door or windowpane you are looking to cover with a blind. The measurements you normally need to take, though, are the interior recess and exterior recess.

The interior recess includes the bead edge across the height/drop and width. For the exterior, it’s normally the measurement of a wall or the PVC shell unit containing 3 to 4 panes.

So, if you’re looking for your blind to cover the glass or the windowpane, you need to just measure the interior recess at 3 different positions for the width (right, middle and left) and height/drop (bottom, middle top).

These are the measurements for bead to bead, or wall to wall if you’re dealing with more than just a single pane. Make a note of these measurements and use the smallest numbers for both.

If, though, you’re looking to cover the whole window with the blind, then you need to take measurements of the exterior recess.

You’ll notice that this is approximately the same measurements as the interior recess plus 12 to 14cms for each dimension to give you the necessary 6 to 7cm at each side of your blinds. Measure in the same 3 positions for both the height and width.

It really depends on the way your conservatory was built. Modern conservatories are built with each section butted against each other with no wall in between them. However, some do have brick and block and that’s where you’ll have a more traditional recess.

If it’s just the uPVC sections, the area that qualifies as the recess area is the shell that surrounds the exterior of the glass and the interior is the measurement from bead to bead.

Now you know how to measure for fittings, let’s discuss how to fit vertical blinds in a conservatory.

How to Install Vertical Blinds in a Conservatory – The Actual Fitting

It should be pointed out that the right method for how to fit conservatory blinds will differ from one blind manufacturer to another and based on other aspects such as the kind of blinds you’ve opted for, the brackets supplied with the kit and how your conservatory was built. However, the principles behind the task are almost completely identical for all variations.

The most crucial aspect is to make sure your conservatory blinds are fixed straight, so the blind’s drop is level.

Before you start, another decision you need to make is whether you’re going to top fix (that is, fix them to the lintel) or face fix (to the window frame) the brackets for the blind. As this could be determined by the manufacturer or kind of blinds, always read the instructions manual that came with the kit as they will normally outline how to assemble the blind and how to fix it the best way.

How to Fit Conservatory Blinds to a Non-uPVC Solid Surface

Drilling into the lintel may be necessary if you are fixing to the exterior recess or interior recess near to the opening’s edge. As these can be tough to make holes in, you need to make sure you have a good quality drill and reasonably sharp, new drill bits.

How to Fit Vertical Blinds to uPVC

It may sound like madness to drill holes and fix things to the uPVC frames of your conservatory, however with care and you should have no trouble at all. You need to obviously avoid the glass. Though, the glass is held in place by the beading, so it’s only extends a little beyond the outer edge.

    1. Once you’ve figured out where the first bracket is going, place it on the window frame and use a pen or pencil to mark where on the frame that top fixing hole will be. Not use a 3mm bit with your drill to drill against the mark. Avoid pushing it though, leave the drill to do all the work. This will avoid cracking the frame. After you’ve done that, you can then work through the other steps of the task as follows:

 

    1. Place the bracket again over the hole, push the screw into the hole and use a screwdriver to screw it into place. Before screwing it all the way though, use your spirit level to make sure it is dead straight and then make a mark for the fixing hole at the bottom.

 

    1. Take the bracket away and then drill the bottom hole. Replace the bracket and insert a second screw. You can now screw them all the way in.

 

  1. Use your spirit level again, this time placing it on top of the secured bracket, then place the second bracket below this position at the opposite side. Move it around gently until it’s level and then mark and follow the same process as for the first bracket.

Finally, you are ready to clip the blind into place. Finish by checking it to make sure it works properly. If you’re installing more than one, just follow the steps again for the next one and the next.