Laundry Room Roman Blinds & Window Shades: Top Ideas & Tips
Typically envisioned as nothing more than utilitarian spaces – laundry rooms often miss out on the joy of being dressed with care and enthusiasm. No surprise there – laundry is not exactly anyone’s favourite pastime. But why should the laundry room bear the brunt, we wonder? Jazz it up with colour and patterns, and you might just start enjoying folding your tees there. This doesn’t mean going as far as hanging Picasso in your laundry room - when a roman blind can do nearly everything an artwork does, while fulfilling the duties of window treatments. So, if you’re prepared to add a bit of polish to your wash-and-dry routine by installing roman blinds in your laundry room, stay with us. We’ve got you practical styling tips for all the design decisions – from choice of fabric to fold style – so you can choose the perfect laundry room blind.
The Fabric Factor: Go Airy and Light
The goal with the choice of fabric for a laundry room is to keep the room airy, even when the blinds are down. The blinds must be able to breathe, dry in a flash and keep the laundry room fresh even when the laundry pile isn’t. So, look for lightweight fabrics with natural fibres like cotton and linen or their blends. Avoid pure poly blinds as they tend to trap odours. Since privacy is usually not a stringent aspect for a laundry room, you can opt for semi-sheer or sheer blinds to let in light and air throughout the day. Besides, they vent out the moisture arising from the wash-and-dry cycle, helping the blinds to resist mildew and extending the lifespan of your machines.
The Power of Visual Stunts: Have Fun with Colour and Pattern
Roman blinds come as a godsend in utilitarian spaces like laundry rooms, as unlike industrial blinds that only offer plain neutrals and hardly any patterns, the design potential of fabric roman blinds knows no bounds. From textured neutrals and tangy hues to multi-coloured candy stripes and dainty florals, roman blinds can bring a dash (or lot!) of vibrance with colour and pattern. A space otherwise invaded by cold materials like tile and metal, receives a glow-up with fabrics that bring softness, texture, and personality into the picture. So, don’t ever miss out on the creative potential of made-to-measure roman blinds in a laundry room.
Further, use colour and pattern to forward your home’s aesthetic. If your style is rustic country, for example, think of a slubbed beige linen roman blind. For a vintage effect, consider a red gingham roman shade. Or, if you lean towards a modern, minimalistic approach, think of an uber chic plain white roman blind.
Secondly, if your laundry room window is small (which is not a surprise!) and you wish to mask its petite frame, you can do so with a well-considered palette and/or pattern. Choosing blinds that closely match the colour of the wall creates a sense of continuity, masking the smallness of the window. Similarly, patterned blinds can be used with an illusionary effect. Vertical stripes or patterns draw the eye upward, making a small window seem taller. Horizontal patterns, likewise, optically widen the frame and visually stretch a narrow window.
The Art of Folding: Pick a Suitable Fold Style
The structure and folding technique of the roman blind is another key detail to attend to. Since the fold style affects both the visual appeal and the ease of operation, it is important to choose one that best relates to your aesthetic and functional requirements. At The White Window, we offer roman blinds in three popular fold styles - the front-slatted plain fold style, the back-slatted flat fold style and the European relaxed style – each offering a unique combination of form and function.
The front-slatted plain fold style features visibly raised silhouettes of the slats, lending a horizontal striped pattern that can save a monochrome, plain blind from feeling too unadorned. The back-slatted flat fold style, on the other hand, offers a clean, slat-free frontage - just the kind of empty canvas where a pattern can shine. Both these styles feature straight hemmed bottoms and crisp folds - a neat finish that can blend with almost any decor style.
The European relaxed style, on the other hand, features a scalloped bottom and gently curved folds that, when combined with the soft appeal of homely fabrics, make a pronounced statement of casual, easygoing aesthetic. While relaxed shades can go with many decor styles, they are particularly at ease with spaces that read more informal, timeworn, or feminine. And since these shades are often used almost like stationary valances, they are the perfect candidates for a laundry room where they can be left semi-open, never requiring to be folded down for privacy.
You can get a detailed description of each fold style in our Roman Blinds Style Guide. Depending on your design intent and desired operational ease, pick a fold style that ticks all the boxes for your laundry room blinds.
The ‘Mounting’ Question: Discern the Best Mounting Position
Roman blinds can be mounted in two ways - inside the window’s frame or outside it on the wall. Both positions have their own allures and trade-offs to offer. So, consider which position suits your space and window before taking the measurements. We have covered this topic in detail in our blog on Inside Mount Roman Blinds Vs Outside Mount Roman Blinds, which you can visit at your discretion for an in-depth probe later.
For now, we may point to one aspect that can impact your choice significantly: the size of the laundry room window. Inside-mounting the shade will shrink the capacity of a window to draw in light and air. So, if your window is too small, it is better to mount the shade above the frame, high enough to accommodate its stacked folds on the wall, just so you can have the entire window for your cause when you fold up the blinds. Where the window is generously sized, other factors can take precedence in the choice of the mounting position.
Shop Laundry Room Roman Blinds & Shades at The White Window
It may be a space of chores and suds, but your laundry room deserves more than a purely practical treatment. With the right roman blinds - entailing a thoughtfully chosen fabric, colour and fold style - you can strike the perfect balance between function and flair. Whether you opt for a lively geometric pattern in a crisp flat fold or a calming neutral in a relaxed scallop, this seemingly small addition can elevate your everyday and lend a touch of joy to the most mundane of tasks. So, go on, give your laundry room a little love – and in giving care to your surroundings, you might just feel more cared for yourself. So, ready to find the perfect-fit roman blinds for your laundry room? Explore our collection of light-filtering sheers and breezy cottons and tactile linens – spanning every colour, pattern and texture you can imagine – and give every spin cycle a splash of style!