Service area

Blinds in Valley smallholdings

Country-scale glass and equestrian properties with big outdoor rooms.

We measure, make and install throughout Valley smallholdings: the full product range, specified for the way homes here are actually built and lit.

Most requested here

• Zip screens & outdoor blinds — zipped side channels hold the fabric tight in real wind — mesh for glare and insects, clear pvc to make winter patios usable.
• Sunscreen & blockout rollers — view-keeping mesh for the mountain and harbour outlooks; true blockout for early-light bedrooms.
• Aluminium venetians — the moisture-and-salt survivor — powder-coated slats for kitchens, bathrooms and sea-air rooms.

Open ground changes the brief

On the valley floor there is very little between a house and the weather. No neighbouring wall breaks the gusts, no row of roofs slows them down, and the same wind that gets filtered by buildings elsewhere arrives here with its full weight and a good deal of dust behind it. Anything specified for a sheltered courtyard is out of its depth on an open smallholding, and the products that do survive are the ones held at their edges: channel-guided screens rather than free-hanging drop blinds, motors and sensors rather than crank handles somebody has to run out to.

The other consequence of open ground is dust. Fabrics and slats out here need washing more often than they would three kilometres closer to the sea, and the mechanisms deserve the occasional look. None of that is a reason to choose differently; it is a reason to choose materials that clean easily and to say so upfront.

Country-scale glass and big outdoor rooms

The glazing on these properties tends to be generous rather than tall: long runs of sliding or stacking doors onto a veranda, wide kitchen windows over a working yard, and entertainment areas that are really outdoor rooms with a roof. That scale is the defining constraint. A single fabric panel runs to roughly three metres of width before a join line becomes visible in the cloth, so a six-metre opening is two blinds sharing a bracket line or several linked to one motor, and it is far better to decide that at the measure than to be surprised by a seam later.

The outdoor rooms are usually where the real work is. A veranda that is used for eating year-round needs sun control on one side and wind control on another, and those are often different products at different heights on the same structure. Screens close the windward end and keep insects out of the food; a retractable awning covers the open flank and folds away when the winter sun is welcome again.

Room by room, and the limits worth knowing

Inside, the pattern is simple enough. Sunscreen on the big view glass so the outlook survives the afternoon, blockout in the bedrooms, aluminium slats in kitchens, sculleries, bathrooms and anywhere near a boot room or a yard door where things get splashed. Timber suits a formal room in the middle of the house and nowhere with steam in it.

The limits are the same ones the wind imposes. There is a width and a drop beyond which any screen becomes a sail, and on the most exposed positions we would rather quote two narrower screens than one heroic one. An awning here should never be left extended when nobody is home, which is precisely what a wind sensor is for. And on a property with outbuildings and stables, it is worth measuring everything in one visit — matching a fabric across a house and a separate entertainment area is easy today and considerably harder in a few years.

Book a free measure in Valley smallholdings