Venetian blinds sized to a farmhouse reveal, not a catalogue standard

Timber, for a farmhouse that was built before the blind industry existed

Wellington's older housing stock runs deep — Cape Dutch and Victorian homesteads, twenty of them declared National Monuments, with sash and gable-window reveals that were plastered in by hand long before anyone was measuring for a standard track. Wide 50mm timber slats suit that stock in a way a boxy roller cassette doesn't: they read as part of the room rather than an addition to it, and they tilt to let winter sun in low across a yellowwood floor while still cutting the direct glare of a summer afternoon.

Aluminium, for the kitchen and the cellar office

Steam, damp and the general wear of a working farmhouse kitchen or a wine-cellar office are where fabric blinds give up first. Slim 25mm aluminium venetians handle both — powder-coated, wipeable, and just as capable of tilting light up for glare-free work or down for privacy from a neighbouring werf building.

The adjustability argument, worth making plainly

A roller is open or shut by degree; a venetian steers light direction — tilt up for glare-free daylight over a desk, tilt down for privacy from a two-storey neighbour or an overlooking cellar loft, close flat for full dark. On a Wellington farmhouse where the mountain shadow already compresses the useful daylight hours, that hour-by-hour control matters more than it would on an open street with a longer, gentler light curve.

Aluminium against timber, in Rands

All of it quoted by the square metre, fitting included. Aluminium slats in 25mm or 50mm come in around R1,000 to R1,500 per square metre. Real timber is the step up at R1,600 to R2,600, for the material and because the added weight calls for a stronger headrail and better ladder tape if the blind is to keep hanging true in a deep old reveal.

Motorised tilt takes aluminium to R2,500 to R3,600 per square metre and timber to R3,000 to R4,500, the gap being how much mass the motor turns. A small window carries a minimum charge whichever material you choose. This is not a quotation. The binding number for each window is written up once the reveal has been measured and you have seen a slat against your own joinery.

• Timber slats, 50mm, for heritage sash and gable reveals
• Aluminium slats, 25mm, for kitchens, cellars and wet rooms
• Tilt-for-direction control, not just open or closed
• Wide windows split or ladder-tape supported on request
• Motorised tilt available on premium lines