Nets or no nets

Verticals are 'dreaded' for me because they remind me of office/commercial premises and I also think they're very 80's. We didn't have anything on windows of last house apart from curtains as it was a country property. I've only temporarily retained the verticals at the front of this house as we have neighbours, but they're for the chop! ( The verticals that is, not the neighbours!)

Ethalbags, my plastic verticals were got just a couple of months ago, the fabric of the previous blinds getting rather tired and dingy. I think it was around £350 for our standard semi. Excluding bathroom.

Quite often I open them to the sides during the day.

Only negative, if the window is open and there is a breeze, they can be quite noisy, so sometimes we need to close the Windows.

I hate nets, am 60. My Mother loved nets, she and her friends once went through a phase of dyeinghem, so we had puke green and urine yellow nets,, until my Father came home from work, the colours are his description I heard being shouted from the Dining room as I very very quietly did my homework in another room. He hated nets, used to ask what she had to be ashamed of and did he not work hard enough to give her everything she wanted!!!!!!!

I'm going to put netsvoile back up at our bedroom window. I changed to a roller blind (inside the curtains) a couple of years ago but I'm sick of trying to keep it clean as living in the middle of farmland means there is a lot of dust!!

We're not overlooked but the bedroom is alongside the drive and the postman et al tend to park right by the window!!

I've put back the nets which I removed a few days ago from my bedroom window. Or at least I have put one of them up, so there is far less gathering. I didn't like the stark effect of a bare window. The nets give a softer light in the room.

Probably I shall replace the nets with a daylight roller blind as soon as I can arrange it. The only thing is, the nets get dirty where I leave a window open. I wash them. I am wondering whether it's possible to clean a blind.

If it wasn't for Gransnet, I'd be still putting up with the original arrangement

I think a net on the window finishes a room off nicely. Especially a bedroom. A softening effect. (and a bit of extra insulation)

I bought a beautiful piece of net, made to measure, hem stitched edges, the lot. Now the decorating is finished and I want to put it up, can I find it?!

[sigh]

Hey coolgran, I have the hard plastic verticals too, I have to have them for my cats as I said above they chew the chains of the cheaper sort(cloth blinds). I said vertical blinds are 'dreaded' because so many people have them. I watched a home make over programme some time ago and the voice over said that the house was attractive but if the vertical blinds were removed the value of the house would rise, they are apparently not a selling point. too common apparently.
When I got my blinds I was recommended by a woman with 6 squirrels in her home, she worked for a rescue centre and brought the homeless babies to live with her till they were old enough for release and she told me they ate vertical blinds so she got the hard plastic ones and I bought some too, this was 10 years ago mine are almost worn out now so will have to think about replacing soon.

I have a set of vertical blinds in the shower room but they are lace panels so they look very pretty when they're closed or partially open - probably still look like an office window from the outside though.

I tried blinds once in the living room but had them installed so that they pulled up, instead of down, so I could just cover the bottom part of the window; I hated that as well so out they came.

Good job we all have different tastes or it would all look very samey.

Vertical blinds always remind me of my office, which is why I prefer not to have them! There are still some inherited ones in the conservatory, but the price of conservatory blinds (at least the plain, pleated ones I like!) is horrendous. So that can wait a while.
I dislike nets, voiles etc, and much prefer a plain blind, semi opaque in some cases.

I've just replaced my old verticals with a set of the new rigid verticals that don't have strings/chains along the bottom. Rollers in the bathroom and kitchen.
The new hard rigid verticals are not dreaded by me. I love mine.

Why are vertical blinds 'dreaded'? I thought it was horizontal ones which were fiddly and hard to clean?

We have vertical blinds at work and they're wonderful - must get round to installing some in my own house!

Not a net in sight in my house! we have a mixture of roller and wooden slatted blinds, apart from the dreaded verticals in the sitting room which we inherited with the house when we moved in last year. They are on my 'to do' list after Christmas and will be replaced with wooden slatted blinds. We never close our curtains, just use the blinds. I hate that feeling of being shut in.

I took my bedroom nets down yesterday and cleaned the windows. What a difference, the room is so light and the outside world so vivid when looking at it from the inside.

And that's part of the problem. My bedroom is my sanctuary and I think some kind of window covering would create a calmer atmosphere.

I am investigating voile blinds at the moment but it is a wide window, over 230cm.

Meanwhile, I notice from other forums that people are using voile nets but stretching them over the window instead of having a gathered fullness so I might try that.

I do sometimes think though the windows now look staring and the house looks unlived in outside.

My mother (nets at every window) always felt that undressed windows looked, to her, like blind eyes.

Ethel, I am 67 and never had nets in my life! Just got voile in my dining room, which are pulled back everyday - the room is North facing, so need as much light as I can get.

I have nets, goodness knows why as I have a 6ft hedge around the front garden. I hate it when people put nets up in there houses though, it spoils my enjoyment of peering in when I walk past on an winter's evening.

When I stay in my sister's spare room, I am eye to eye with passengers on the upper deck of every bus that passes

My previous house was like that and I had nets up those windows. But that was back in the 1980's.

I carried on with the nets when I moved to my present home. However, I recently had all my windows replaced with new UPCV ones and decided not to put the nets back as we are not overlooked and besides getting them back up would mean my drilling holes in my lovely new plastic frames.

I found out something quite interesting by doing this - my nets had been retaining damp from condensation (when I took them down I realised they were damp and mouldy round the ends) and causing my rooms to be damp. Now the damp has gone.

I do sometimes think though the windows now look staring and the house looks unlived in outside.

When I stay in my sister's spare room, I am eye to eye with passengers on the upper deck of every bus that passes. No nets, voiles or blinds - I just have to close the curtains when I am getting dressed/undressed.

Our old house had a large picture window at the front. As we lived next to a busy school we really felt like goldfish as parents (and Grans) took and collected their kids. It seemed impossible for people not to peer in at us innocently going about our business in our own home. Generally they stopped if I waved enthusiastically at them! Got narrow venetian blinds in the end. We could angle them in such a way as to let light through but not allow nosy interested passersby to observe us.

Twenty three years ago when we bought our house it had ruched, flouncy nets at each window. They were very ancient and old fashioned even then and went in the bin on moving day. Amazed to see that a house down the road which had them then, still has them. Must be some sort of net curtain record?

Well I'm 67 and not a net curtain in sight thank goodness..

I had neither nets nor voiles nor blinds in my last house which had a front garden and, come to think of it, none of the neighbours had them either. I have never had voile panels, but bought the voile and gathered the curtains I made onto a wire. Anyway, the (neither dreaded nor dreadful) vertical blinds look tidier and cleaner than nets or voiles.

ETHEL, have to disagree, we have a Georgian house that is right on the street, have nets on the ground floor for privacy, then on the next two floors no nets .

Rubbish! I have voile panels and I'm certainly not 20

And why are vertical blinds 'dreaded'? I'd agree if you'd said horizontal ones - horrible things and so fiddly to clean.