VELUX blinds and controls: choosing for the room

On a landing roof window, a person on the stair is a long way below the sash. In a loft conversion the frame may sit just above head height, or well above it if the slope is steep. In a kitchen extension under a pitched roof, the window might hang above the worktop where nobody can lean. Each of these pushes towards a different way of working the window and its blind.

It also matters who is doing the reaching. Where the frame is low, an adult of average height can manage a handle along the sash's upper edge from the floor. A teenager might not bother. An older relative may find the stretch tiring, and a child cannot do it at all. We ask these questions before anything is chosen, because the answer to one of them can settle the rest.

The houses around Stockport show the range. The large Victorian and Edwardian villas in Davenport and the Heatons have tall ceilings, which can leave a loft frame beyond arm's reach, so a rod or a motor is the natural start. A dark landing in a Bramhall or Cheadle Hulme semi may have a frame low enough for a hand. The same product is worked three different ways across three houses, which is why we do not start from a catalogue page.

A bedroom wants a blackout blind. A slope of glass takes in plenty of sky, and early summer mornings arrive well before the alarm. Blackout fabric is lined to shut the daylight out, so a child can sleep or a shift worker can rest in the afternoon.

A kitchen, a study or a play room usually suits something lighter. A pleated or roller blind in a light-filtering weight cuts the glare off a screen or a work surface and still lets the room keep its brightness. Where the same loft room is used for both sleeping and working, ask whether the maker sells a blind that pairs a blackout layer with a pleated one for your code and frame.

A landing or stairwell may need no blind at all, as nobody sleeps or works under it, and the light is the point. A home office under the slope is the room where a blind earns its place, since a screen and a bright slope do not mix. Think about the hour you use the room most and where the sun stands then. A slope facing east brings the sun in early, while one facing west holds it for the evening, and each calls for a different blind habit.

Bathrooms call for a damp-room blind, a fabric chosen to tolerate steam. The maker sells these cut to its window sizes, like all of its blinds.

A blackout blind is lined, and on the maker's models that have them, side channels keep it flat to the glass and hold the light back at the edges. A pleated blind folds into a slim stack and can sit part way down to shade one end of the window. A roller blind is a plain length of fabric that winds onto a tube, and can come in light-filtering or blackout weights.

In practice, the difference shows up in how you use them. A blackout is all or nothing, pulled down to sleep and raised to wake. A pleated blind stops anywhere along its travel, so it can follow the sun across the room through the afternoon. A roller sits somewhere between the two.

VELUX also sells awning blinds that sit on the outside of the glass. The maker says they cut the heat before it reaches the window, which a south-facing slope can appreciate on a bright afternoon. An inside blind works on light and glare; an outer one works before the sun gets to the pane. It is a separate item from the inside blinds, and it asks for a window and a roof that can take it.

Not every window or position suits one, so we do not offer it as a default. If the room under a south or west slope gets uncomfortable in summer, raise it when we visit, and we will tell you whether an awning blind is available for your code and how it would be worked.

The maker says both kinds of blind can be used on the same window, one inside and one out. That is worth a conversation when a loft is both a bedroom and a south-facing room.

The simplest pairing is a handle and a pull on the sash edge. When the frame is too high for that, a control rod hooks onto the handle for the window and, on some manual blinds, can work the blind too. Keep it where you can find it, clipped to the wall or the frame, so the person who closes the window in a hurry does not have to hunt for the rod first.

An electric or solar window moves the job to a handset or a wall-mounted switch, and the maker offers motorised blinds for some models that can be paired to the same handset. One handset can then work the window and the blind. Electric windows are wired in, so the supply gets planned in before the plasterwork is finished. Solar-powered models, the maker says, run without a mains cable, which can spare a finished ceiling. Which pairs are on offer depends on the model, and we confirm that at survey rather than promise it here.

The maker says certain electric and solar VELUX models also have a sensor that shuts them when rain is detected. That is a feature of those models only. A manual window never has one, so it has to be closed by hand when the shower arrives.

In a child's bedroom, think about cords and handles first. Check VELUX's blind range for models that need no loose cord, and for controls placed beyond a small child's reach. A restrictor can hold some windows at a narrow opening, and a remote stored on a high shelf keeps the motor out of play. These are choices a household makes for itself; none is a safety promise.

For an older relative, the aim is the opposite: no stretching, no stool and no awkward twist. A wall switch at a comfortable height, or a remote kept in a wall holder, takes the effort out of the daily routine. A rod that is light to handle can do the same for a manual window. Ask about its weight and length at the survey, since they differ, and what feels fine to one person is a nuisance to another. What matters is that the control suits the person in the room, not the person who bought it.

Habit settles the rest, and a little of it is worth building in: keep the handset where the blind is drawn, and keep its spare batteries or charger with it. A handset that always lives in the same place gets used; one that wanders gets lost. We suggest a home for it at handover.

Every blind is cut for a size code and made by a particular maker, so you need both before you order. According to VELUX, the code is printed on a plate along the frame's upper edge, seen with the sash open; how to read the size code shows how. On a VELUX window, the maker says, a blind clips into brackets on the frame, so it can be fitted later to a window already installed, so long as both code and make are known.

Choose it alongside a new window and the two are made to match from the start. If the window is being swapped, swapping an old VELUX window shows how blind and motor fit into that job. For the figure, the blind is one of the things that moves it; the cost of a VELUX fitting lists the rest, and our fixed written quote follows a free survey.

At handover the blind is raised and lowered in front of you, the controls are shown, and cleaning the outer pane is explained. Fitting whichever blind you choose is part of the work our 10-year workmanship guarantee covers. A photo of the window sent by WhatsApp to 07880 284133 gets the conversation going.