Which blinds actually survive a Perth kitchen
– steam, splash, hard west light, and the window you cannot reach over the sink
A kitchen asks more of a window covering than any other room, and it asks it every single day. Steam off the kettle. A fine film from cooking that settles on anything woven. Splashes from the tap. And in Perth, hard morning sun through east glass at breakfast and a west window that turns the room into an oven at five in the afternoon.
Blinds handle most of it better than fabric does, which is why the majority of kitchen windows end up with one. The question is which blind, and that changes window by window within the same room. Here is how we work through a kitchen, from a workroom that sews Roman blinds and supplies the rest.
Four things, and they decide almost every choice that follows.
Cleaning. Whatever goes up there will need wiping or washing. A surface that sheds a film with a damp cloth will still look right in five years; a texture that holds it will not.
Moisture. Steam and splash are constant. Anything that can warp, stain or grow marks in humidity is the wrong answer near a sink or a cooktop.
Clearance. Most kitchen windows sit behind a bench, a sink or a tap. The covering has to get completely out of the way, and nothing should dangle where hands, taps and elbows are working.
Light and heat. A kitchen is used at the two worst hours of the day for glare. You want the light softened rather than shut out, because a dark kitchen is a miserable room to cook in.
Get those four right and the rest is preference.
For most Perth kitchen windows, a roller blind is simply the sensible answer. It sits flat against the glass, takes up almost no depth, rolls completely clear of taps and benches, and wipes clean in seconds. There is no fold to catch cooking film and nothing to hold moisture.
The choice within rollers is really a choice about light.
A sunscreen roller blind cuts glare and heat while keeping the view out. This is the one we specify most for a kitchen window over a sink that looks onto a garden – you keep watching the garden, you stop squinting.
A light filtering roller blind softens the light and gives privacy without full darkness, which suits a kitchen window facing a neighbour or a side path.
A blockout roller blind is rarely what a kitchen wants on its own, but it earns its place on a west-facing window where the afternoon sun is genuinely unbearable, or in an open-plan kitchen that doubles as a television room after dark.
A double roller blind puts two of those on one bracket – sunscreen by day, blockout when you want it – which is the most flexible answer for the big glass in an open-plan kitchen living space.
Where the kitchen window is away from the water and the room deserves something softer than a plain roller, a sewn Roman blind is the treatment that lifts a kitchen most. It brings real fabric, colour and texture into a room that is otherwise all hard surfaces, and unlike a curtain it raises completely clear of the bench when you need it gone.
We make these in our own workroom, which matters here because the fabric choice is the whole decision. A tightly woven fabric sheds cooking film in a way a loose or napped one does not, and a small pattern or a textured weave forgives the occasional mark that a pale plain will carry for the rest of its life. We go through the range properly on our curtain fabrics page, and in a kitchen we would ask what happens when it needs cleaning before we asked anything else.
Where a Roman does not belong is directly behind a sink or beside a cooktop. Folds and steam are not friends, and we would rather say so than sell you one.
If your kitchen has a window that makes the room unusable at four in the afternoon, this is the one worth looking at. Cellular honeycomb blinds are built from air-filled cells that sit between the glass and the room, which is why they insulate considerably better than a flat blind of any kind. On a west-facing kitchen window in a Perth summer, that difference is something you feel rather than something you read about.
They are also clean-lined and compact, which suits a modern kitchen, and they come in light filtering and blockout fabrics. We supply and fit them rather than make them.
For a kitchen window that is going to be looked at for twenty years, indoor shutters are worth considering. They wipe down completely, they cope with moisture, the louvres let you angle light away from where you are working without losing the room, and nothing about them degrades in a kitchen atmosphere.
They cost more at the outset than a roller and they take more depth in the reveal, so they suit a window with a decent recess rather than one tight behind a tap. On the right kitchen window they are the last window covering that window will ever need.
The hardest window in the room, and the one everyone asks about. It takes steam, splash and a fine film, and it usually sits behind a tap you have to reach over. A wipeable roller in sunscreen or light filtering fabric is the default, mounted so it clears the tap completely when raised. Avoid anything with folds, and finish at the sill rather than below it.
Kitchens are full of them – the pane above a bench, the narrow one beside a pantry. Keep it simple and keep it flat. A roller in a plain fabric disappears; anything more elaborate on a small window reads as fussy and collects more than it contributes.
A bay is three or four windows rather than one, and the answer is almost always separate blinds in each section rather than anything that tries to bend around the corners. Rollers or shutters both work well here. The mistake is treating it as a single opening.
A door that opens onto a patio or a courtyard needs a covering that never fouls the handle and never gets caught when the door swings or slides. Rollers and vertical or panel systems both handle this, and the deciding factor is usually which way the door moves and where the covering can stack out of its path.
Where the kitchen is one end of a living space, treat the big glass as living space and the working windows separately. That is usually softer treatments on the glass and a practical blind at the sink. Our guide to curtains or blinds walks that decision room by room, and our kitchen curtain ideas post covers where fabric belongs in a kitchen and where it does not.
Plenty of kitchen windows sit behind a run of bench, a deep sink or a cooktop, which means operating a blind involves leaning across something you would rather not lean across. Motorised roller blinds solve that completely, and they have become far more affordable than most people expect. On a window you would otherwise stop using, it is the difference between a blind that gets adjusted and one that stays where it was left in March.
Keep folds away from water. Choose for cleaning before you choose for looks. Make sure whatever you fit clears the tap completely when it is up. And treat each window in the kitchen on its own terms – the sink window and the window by the dining end are two different problems, and one product rarely answers both well.
The right answer depends on your actual kitchen: where the sink sits, which way the glass faces, and what the room does at seven in the morning and seven at night. A free in-home consultation settles it. Annie will look at each window, tell you plainly what will survive there, and bring samples you can see in your own light. We fit curtains and blinds in Perth homes from Cottesloe kitchens taking the full afternoon sun to renovated cottages in North Perth with a single window over the sink.
For most kitchen windows, a roller blind in a wipeable sunscreen or light filtering fabric – it clears the bench completely, cleans with a cloth, and cuts glare without darkening the room. Where the window is away from the sink and the kitchen deserves something softer, a sewn Roman blind in a tightly woven fabric works beautifully. Shutters and cellular honeycomb blinds both suit kitchens too, particularly on windows that take hard afternoon sun.
A roller blind, mounted so it raises completely clear of the tap. It handles steam and splashes, wipes clean, and keeps your view of the garden if you choose a sunscreen fabric. Anything with folds will hold cooking film and moisture, so we would keep Romans and pleated styles away from this particular window.
Yes, on the right window. Away from the sink and cooktop, a Roman brings fabric and warmth into a room that is otherwise all hard surfaces, and it raises fully clear of benches. The fabric choice is what makes it work – tightly woven, and something you can clean.
It depends on the type. Roller blinds and shutters wipe down with a damp cloth, which is why they suit kitchens. Fabric blinds vary considerably, and some fabrics that look ideal will not take cleaning well. In a kitchen, ask how it cleans before you choose it.
Something that deals with heat as well as light. Cellular honeycomb blinds insulate through the air pockets in the cells and make a noticeable difference on a west window in summer. A sunscreen roller cuts the glare while keeping the view, and a double roller lets you add full blockout for the worst couple of hours.
Yes, provided the covering clears the handle and never gets caught as the door moves. The right system depends on whether the door swings or slides and where the blind can sit out of its path – it is worth measuring properly rather than guessing.
