Blinds

Hi, you may not need to go for full black out, "dimming" might work for you, and might be more economical. Dimming colours usually involve grey somewhere in the blind but could be within 2 other layers so unseen.

If your window is big and draughty or just cold, you might want to consider " thermal".

You could ask someone to bring some samples and hold them up for you so you can see for yourself in the room.

enjoy choosing, its nice getting new things.

That is another question.
Blackout, or not?
I do get full sun in my huge living room window for most of the day - its unbearable.

I prefer blinds to curtains any day and particularly like plantation shutters (am saving up for some). Vertical blinds remind me of dentists and offices. I have wooden painted pale green horizontal.
I’m sure curtains are far dustier, you just can’t see it ?

I have vertical blinds n various colours. I just went online and ordered them. I have some lovely red ones, some blackout silver grey ones, some faux suede purple ones and some bright pink ones which don't have those annoying cords along the bottom but have the weights sewn in.

I wouldn't have horizontal ones because of the dust. The other thing with vertical blinds is you can change the colour of the slats with ease if you change your mind. I rather like that as I could make a feature of them later if I wanted to.

Sometimes it is worth thinking about which quality is the most important to you: thermal, blackout, waterproof, etc. That will often limit the colours you can choose.

Oh no that doesnt upset me.
The thing with horizontal, is that I'm worried about dust.

This flat is really, really dusty, so I don't want to make myself an extra dusting job.

Hillarys do a faux wood option on slatted (horizontal blinds) which are easy to wipe clean, and come in lots of colours... Got some for the kitchen - other brands would probably have come in cheaper, even with the discount I got (I realised too late!)

They look great in white - I prefer them to vertical as (sorry if this upsets anyone) they remind me of offices or prison bars!