A History of Blinds

If you were to go for a short drive around your suburb, you would notice many people in your area have window blinds of some descriptions. Both indoor and outdoor blinds are extremely popular in Sydney and around Australia, almost to to the point of being as much as a staple of a home as solid walls. So how is it that window blinds came to dominate Sydney homes as the go-to for providing privacy but also providing the ability to control and filter light into a room?

• BC Blinds: The story of blinds goes back thousands of years to ancient civilizations. The earliest known blinds were used by nomadic tribes in African and Asian deserts. Their primitive blind was a simple sheet covering a window. As basic and crude as it was, it provided the dwellers of the home protection from the desert sun. The ancient Egyptians used the abundance of reeds from the Nile River for many purposes, including fashioning blinds for their homes that would allow a breeze to pass through but to stop the sun. The ancient Chinese used their most common resource of bamboo to make their blinds, and bamboo is still used as a material for window blinds today.

• Middle Ages and the Venetian: Persian merchants brought window blinds to Venice, as one of their many wares to trade and sell. These blinds were a simplified version of today’s: slats raised and lowered by a strong. The blinds became popular and took on the city’s name, so if you’ve ever wondered why a venetian blind is called so, there is your answer. Blinds then began to move through Europe and became popular in London during the Industrial Revolution. They were produced in mass quantities and became a common sight throughout Western Europe.

Source: http://www.luxtimber.com.au/images/stories/bnd3.gif

And so we come to today when blinds in Sydney are just as common a sight as they were in ancient Egypt thousands of years ago. As we move through a technological revolution, the blind has taken on new forms beyond the venetian. We now have roman blinds, vertical blinds, and automated roller blinds. It is no wonder they are in every home - there is a blind to suit every house.

If you are interested in window blinds for your Sydney home, Visit Davonne or call (02) 8355 4040 today.

By Jeffrey Zheng