Components in the Australian outdoor blinds industry are quite universal. You might need to add or deduct a few pieces here and there to change the behaviour of a blind. The wire guide is a variable in our range. All you do is take the side channels off your side channel blind and make a slight adjustment to a fitting on the bottom rail, and you can turn the blind into a wire guide blind.
From a manufacturing perspective, it’s very user-friendly. You don’t need to hold many components in stock to make a change like that. In other ranges of outdoor blinds, you might have to hold a whole array of components to change from one system to the other.
Where are channel blinds best suited?
Channel blinds have been designed specifically for outdoor areas. Many Australian homes have a pergola, a built-in alfresco area or an outdoor room. It’s part of how we live in Australia. Side channel blinds are predominantly designed to provide shade from the harsh sunshine and give you a bit of respite from the heat, or conversely to shield you from a cold breeze in the winter.
A side channel blind is ideally suited to cover those gaps around a pergola or an alfresco area, and they’re becoming more popular in places where people want full light blockout on their windows. Perhaps it’s a shift worker who wants 100% blockout with no light coming in, or they’re needed to outfit a baby’s room, a nursery. Full blockout side channel blinds are quiet and can achieve full light blocking with the right fabric.
Where are wire guide blinds best suited?
The whole idea behind choosing a wire guide blind, rather than having a side channel blind, is that the very thin stainless steel wire that runs vertically from the headbox down to the fixing point is minimal. In fact, if you stand back, often you can’t even see it. Architects love wire guide blinds as they don’t interrupt the design element with a noticeable visual intrusion.
Perhaps there’s decoration or cobbling, or they simply want a minimal look on the outside of a home and the wire guide blind delivers that. In such cases, a wire guide is preferred because when it is retracted, it is almost invisible.
Mullionless corners, where two pieces of glass join in a corner, have always been a challenge in getting a well-designed external product to fit. This is a common scenario in modern architecture. A wire guide works well in those situations because clients have paid a premium for a corner window with no mullion, and a discreet stainless steel cable on those corners really meets the design brief.