Faux wood blinds

What it actually is

A faux wood slat is a PVC composite — polyvinyl chloride with fillers, extruded or moulded into a slat and given a painted or printed woodgrain finish. It runs on exactly the same mechanism as a timber venetian: a headrail, ladder cords holding the slats, and a tilt that rotates them.

So this is not a different product from a venetian. It is a venetian in a different material, and everything about how it works — how it tilts, where the light gets through, how it is measured and mounted — is on the venetian blinds page. This page is about the material, because the material is the entire reason to choose it.

It is worth killing one idea straight away: faux wood is not “the cheap version”. It is usually less expensive than a good basswood blind, and that is not why we fit it. We fit it because in four or five rooms in a typical house, real timber is a material that will fail, and this one will not.

Where it wins, specifically

Bathrooms. The clearest case. A bathroom cycles between humid and dry several times a day, and timber takes up moisture unevenly across a thin slat. The slat cups — curves along its length — and once one slat has cupped it fouls the one below and the blind stops closing cleanly. It is gradual, it is not repairable, and it is why we will not sell a wood blind for a bathroom.

Over a kitchen sink. Same moisture problem plus a second one: cooking grease combines with dust into a film that dry dusting will not shift. A composite slat takes a warm damp cloth. A painted or stained timber slat does not, repeatedly, without the finish suffering.

Laundries and basements. Damp, sometimes cold, and often a window nobody looks at closely. Durability is the only requirement and this is the durable one.

Rented property. Not a comment about tenants — a comment about turnover. A material that wipes and does not mark is worth more over ten years and three tenancies than one that looks better in year one.

A house with a dog. Slat height at nose level, near a door, on a window a dog watches the street through. Timber marks; composite does not.

The weight, which is the real trade

This is the specification most often left out of a quote and the one that decides whether a wide faux wood blind is pleasant to live with.

A composite slat is around twice the mass of basswood for the same size. On a bedroom window that is invisible. On a wide living-room window it changes three things.

The lift gets heavy. A cordless mechanism has to be balanced against real weight, and a wide faux wood blind is one of the heaviest things we make. It is liftable, and it is not a blind somebody raises casually while walking past.

The headrail needs support. Past about 2.2 metres a centre bracket is required so the rail does not bow under the stacked slats. That bracket is visible from below, which on a window seen from a seating position is worth knowing in advance.

The stack gets deep. Twice the mass in the same number of slats means the same stack height, but the whole assembly is heavier at the top of the window, which is why the fixings matter more here than on a roller of the same size.

Our practical rule: over about 2.2 metres wide, either split the opening into two blinds on one bracket line, or motorise. If a quote for a three-metre faux wood blind mentions neither, it is worth asking how it is expected to lift.

Finishes, and the one that gives it away

Three families, and the difference matters more than the colour name.

Flat painted. White, off-white, grey. The most convincing at any distance, because a painted timber blind would also have no visible grain. If you want the faux to be invisible, this is how — a painted composite slat and a painted timber slat look identical.

Printed woodgrain. A grain pattern applied to the slat. Convincing at two metres, obvious up close, and the giveaway is repetition: the grain repeats along the length and across the slats, where real timber never does.

Embossed woodgrain. Texture pressed into the slat as well as printed. Better under raking light than a flat print, because the light catches the texture. Still repeats.

The honest guidance: if the room wants painted slats, faux wood is indistinguishable and you should not pay more for timber. If the room wants stained wood and the window is at close quarters, you will see the repetition — and if the room is dry, timber is the better object.

Where it is the wrong answer

A formal room with the window at close quarters. Where the blind is furniture rather than equipment, and the room is dry, real timber is the nicer thing and the extra cost is buying something you will actually notice.

Very wide windows, without planning. Covered above. It can be done and it has to be designed.

A window that has to go dark. This is a venetian and a venetian does not seal. Closed slats overlap along a curve rather than meeting flat, so a fine line of light passes at each overlap, and the side gaps are wider than on a roller because the slats must clear the reveal to tilt. In a bedroom that must be dark, no slatted blind is the answer whatever the slats are made of.

Anywhere the look of plastic would bother you daily. Some people see it and some do not. Holding a sample in the actual room, in the actual light, settles it in about four seconds, and that is what the visit is for.

The valance, and what the top of the blind looks like

A venetian has a headrail — a metal channel holding the tilt mechanism and the lift — and on a faux wood blind it is nearly always covered by a valance: a decorative strip in the same finish as the slats, clipped across the front.

Worth raising because it is usually treated as an accessory and it is doing two jobs.

It hides the mechanism. A bare headrail on a wood-look blind is the one part that reads as equipment, and it is the difference between a blind that looks fitted and one that looks bought.

It sets the height. The valance adds thirty to fifty millimetres above the opening. On an outside mount that is free. On an inside mount in a shallow reveal it can be the difference between the blind fitting and not, and it is measured at the visit rather than assumed.

There are two profiles, and the choice is not cosmetic on every window. A flat valance is a plain strip and sits closest to the wall. A shaped or “crown” valance returns at the ends, wrapping the sides of the headrail, which looks more finished on an outside mount and needs more clearance on an inside one.

On a run of several windows in one room, the valance is also what makes them read as a set — same profile, same height above the glass, even where the openings differ. That is a decision made once for the room rather than per window.

What a faux wood blind costs you in stack

The one dimension people forget when comparing a venetian to a roller.

Raised, a venetian does not disappear. The slats gather into a stack under the headrail, and that stack is real: for a typical 63mm slat on a two-metre drop it is roughly 150 to 200 millimetres of solid blind sitting across the top of the glass, and a composite slat stacks slightly taller than the same number of timber ones because the slats are thicker.

Two consequences.

On a short window — a basement opening, a small bathroom window — the stack can eat a fifth of the glass and never give it back. That is the single most common reason we suggest a roller instead in those rooms, and it has nothing to do with material.

On a tall window the stack is proportionally invisible and irrelevant.

Where a venetian is right but the stack is a problem, mounting the blind above the opening rather than inside it moves the stack onto the wall and gives the glass back. It costs you the trim, which is the same trade as everywhere else on this site.

Living with them

Cleaning. The reason you bought them. Close the slats one way, wipe with a warm damp cloth and almost no detergent, then close them the other way and repeat. Ten minutes for a whole blind, twice a year, and a kitchen blind that would otherwise be slowly ruined stays as it was.

A bent slat. Composite slats bend rather than snap, and a bent one usually straightens if you close the blind and leave it. A hard crease is permanent, and individual slats can be replaced on a good blind rather than replacing the whole thing.

Static and dust. PVC holds a slight static charge, so faux wood attracts dust a little more readily than timber. An anti-static cloth is worth using; a damp one works fine.

Lifespan. Long, and the limit is usually the ladder cords rather than the slats. The slats themselves in an ordinary room outlast the room’s decoration by some margin, which is a large part of why the product exists.

Last updated 9 August 2026.