What value do commercial blinds and glazing have to your enterprise or organisation? If you haven’t thought seriously about your office fit-out, or if you’re unsure about solutions for altering your working environment, we can help.
We’re a Manchester based commercial blinds manufacturer and a specialist designer of glazing, window film and office glass partitions.
We provide bespoke design and fitting of commercial blinds and customised glazing solutions to many different businesses, institutions and organisations in Manchester, the North West and beyond.
Welcome to Commercial Blinds & Glazing.
Commercial blinds and specialist glazing perform an essential function in a working space such as an office, but they also make a significant contribution to the overall look and feel of a working environment. That’s why choosing the right commercial blinds and office glazing is about function AND form.
For a great many businesses and organisations, it’s not enough simply to install something basic. Blinds and other glazing features add a certain quality to interiors, helping to set the tone of the workplace, while benefiting the people in it.
What do commercial blinds, curtains, window films and other glazing features contribute to an office or other work environment? They are primarily about controlling light and providing privacy, but they also serve a secondary, decorative purpose. They are essential aspects of the modern workplace, and they can contribute to a positive experience of the workplace for the staff who work there, and the visitors to it.
As a specialist designer, manufacturer and supplier of commercial blinds and office glazing, we have developed an extensive product selection to serve a broad range of industries. Because the sectors we serve are diverse, with different requirements, we know how important it is to be able to offer a bespoke service, where we can provide customised commercial blind solutions. Our extensive range of products reflects this dedication to find the right solutions for our customers.Commercial Blinds & Glazing products include:
These products are perfectly suited to a wide range of industries and sectors from Education, Hospitality, Corporate Business, Hospitals and Care Homes, Retail, and pretty much any commercial space. As an experienced distributor of commercial blinds and specialist glazing solutions across these industries and sectors, we have developed an in-depth understanding of diverse working environments. We know the impact they can have on the wellbeing and productivity of employees.
Consequently, we think of our products as being crucial elements in creating supportive working conditions, and essential components in the brand building initiatives of our commercial and industrial customers. We’ll take you through what we do, and what we can offer you, in more detail.
Modern workplace environments keep evolving. Increasingly, employers and their facilities managers are making decisions based on how workplace design impacts on employee health, wellbeing and productivity. There are key issues here, such as access to daylight during the working day, and having the right degree of privacy to aid concentration.
Our products are designed with these issues in mind, offering adaptable, versatile and bespoke commercial blind and glazing concepts that help to optimise different working environments.
Vertical blinds are such a familiar part of business accommodation that people can overlook their value and the benefits they bring to a workplace. In this sense, their familiarity is a testament to their success This is because, one of the key benefits of office vertical blinds is their simplicity.
Not all places of employment want fixtures and fittings that cry out for attention. In many circumstances, what these workplace cultures require is a kind of functional minimalism.
Vertical blinds will add the right touch of decoration, where you need it, and they add value to workspaces in another, crucial way. Controlling the effects of the sun is important in creating a comfortable working environment where people feel properly motivated. The sun’s rays will quickly heat up an office, and, combined with the heat generated by other things such as equipment, quickly make it unbearable. Vertical blinds can keep the sun’s rays to a minimum, reducing, diverting or blocking them. They therefore help create a better working environment, where employees suffer fewer headaches or less eye strain resulting from over-exposure to powerful sunlight.
The way we put together our vertical blinds means that they are easy to control and to adjust for precisely the amount of light you want to let in. A hand-held wand controls the gears which makes an axle that runs the complete length of the blind’s head rail to turn. Each of the blind’s slats is also connected to the head rail via its own gear, which the spinning axle controls. Office vertical blinds are aesthetically understated, but highly effective in controlling light and providing the right level of privacy.
Venetian blinds are a well-established type of blind that has had an enduring popularity in office environments. Contemporary versions of the Venetian blind are hard-wearing, sleek and elegant.
Their design is so enduring that they continue to look advanced and utterly modern in the 21st century. Venetian blinds offer great value, while being highly functional and visually appealing.
They provide excellent control for deciding how much, or how little light you want to let in, and how much privacy you want to have. This design of blind is easy to maintain and clean, where you can simply brush or vacuum along the horizontal slats.
They are highly versatile, made from resilient aluminium and available in a wide selection of colours and finishes, from solid neutral colours to wood effect. Our Venetian blinds are also available with perforated slats, to allow more light in.
Venetian blinds have a unique look, with their slim, flat horizontal slats suspended by ladder cords. They are a longstanding blind design, which nevertheless retains its suitability for even the most modern of office settings. They are simple to operate, and come in varying sizes, which we can customise to your specific workspace. They aren’t really Venetian though, because the ancient Egyptian and Chinese civilizations had them, long before trade missions took the idea back to Italy and made it popular there.
With changes and advances in manufacturing methods, the Venetian blind really took off in popularity in the early 20th century. This was their industrial heyday, before they became a universally desired aspect of interior home and commercial design. Their simple but effective operation mean easy but precise light control, and they can help to keep office interiors cool and comfortable in the hotter months. When made from aluminium, Venetian blinds are lightweight and compact, so when fully raised they don’t take up too much space. Our range includes 15mm, 25mm, 35mm and 50mm slats, solid or perforated.
Whatever your commercial environment – an office, retail space, restaurant – a motorised blind will add that extra something that raises the whole look and feel of the space around you. Aesthetically, blinds work across a wide range of commercial settings because they combine a pleasing, minimalist form with streamlined functions.
The motorised office blind takes this further, by providing fully automated control of the blind. You can easily control light through otherwise difficult to reach windows, ensuring that your space maximises the potential of natural light, wherever its windows are located. Motorised office blinds can help you be more energy efficient, allowing you to optimise their performance and reduce glare in your building and to retain heat during colder periods.
With no need for chains or cords to control their movement, motorised office blinds are an extremely safe option for workplaces and for other public spaces and institutions. They are less likely to suffer damage through constant handling, or even misuse. Options for motorised blinds include automatic settings, so they will open and close even when the workplace is unoccupied.
This supports energy efficiency but is also a valuable security measure. They support better climate control in a building, helping to improve ventilation to keep spaces cool. Motorised office blinds operate with minimal noise, therefore minimising the amount of distraction they might cause. They support inclusivity, because they are easily accessible for operating, regardless of disability.
Motorised blinds modernise a working environment and create a subtle but dynamic impression. Modern boardrooms appear that much more impressive with the automated light and privacy control that motorised blinds provide. The hospitality sector can especially benefit from motorised blinds, with leading edge restaurants and bars such as Manchester’s 20 Stories benefitting from an advanced automated, shading solution.
Options for motorised blinds include Somfy, Yewdale and Louvolite mechanisms, as well as lithium battery-powered systems.
In a classroom setting, blinds are a multi-functional form of interior design and educational support. Blinds for classrooms are not exclusively decorative, but nor are they just functional either. Whether for a school, college or university, classroom blinds help engineer concentration, minimise distractions and support the physical comfort of pupils and teachers.
Blackout blinds prove essential where there are smartboards in use, or where there will be presentations. Anti-glare blinds support classrooms where computers are used, ensuring that pupils and students will also be able to see screens easily.
Blinds can control the temperature in the classroom, and prevent sunlight flooding in and dazzling pupils. At the same time, pupils, like other workers, thrive on daylight, and blinds enable the control of natural light in the classroom. Blinds support classroom energy efficiency, providing precision control of light, and conserving heat during colder months.
Motorised blinds provide a child-safe alternative, with no cords or chains to operate them, and streamlined automation with no distracting noise in the classroom. Digitally printed blinds can function as educational too, as schools can arrange to print maps, charts and other information on them.
Window films add that something extra to office glazing, and they perform useful functions in the workplace too. Office window film is a thin laminate film, which we can apply to glass surfaces. It is an enormously effective way of retrofitting designs and features in a workspace, without replacing the existing glass that is there.
It can be purely decorative, perform a specific function, or do both at the same time. Window films can decrease the impact of the sun’s rays, including heat and glare, and reduce fading on interior materials from UV light. They make existing glass in workspaces easily adaptable for privacy purposes.
Office window films enable companies to brand their glazing with logos. They provide a flexible but effective means of strengthening glass for safety and security against accidental damage or vandalism. Window films can make glass areas more visible to meet health and safety requirements.
Privacy Window Film
Privacy is a key requirement in various office and work settings and this opaque, frosted-effect film ensures specified areas are kept private, while still letting light in where you need it. Many modern workspaces attempt to balance a sense of openness with the provision of a degree of privacy. Privacy window film enables them to achieve this.
Reflective Solar Control Films
Solar glare can cause problems in the workplace, including eye-strain and headaches. Glare also affects concentration when it raises the temperature of the working environment. Reflective solar control film applied to office windows can reduce heat from the sun’s rays by as much as 80%. It can also reduce visible glare by 94% and reduce the effect of UV rays on fading by 99%.
Glass Safety Film
This type of window film protects glass from vandalism, accidents and other forms of damage. Installed on the inner surface of glazing, it creates a powerful barrier to protect the integrity of the glass beneath. If the glass gets broken, the glass safety film will hold it in place. This prevents there being any flying shards of glass, reducing the potential for injuries and damage. Glass safety film is tested to recognised safety standards, including BS 6206 impact performance and European classification for flat glass BS EN 12600. It is a highly effective way of strengthening and protecting your existing office or other workplace glazing without having to it outright.
Office Glass Manifestation
This is window film that is coloured, frosted or patterned. It can involve simple pattern formats, such as rows of squares or dots, but you can also customise it with company logos or bespoke patterns. Its visual impact is similar to silkscreen printing, but at a much reduced cost. In certain locations and circumstances, glass manifestation performs an important safety function and ensures compliance with health and safety regulations.
Commercial blinds and glazing have multiple applications across a broad spectrum of industries and sectors.
Some of these applications are highly practical, some decorative and many serve several functions at once. As a specialist manufacturer and supplier of commercial blinds, curtains and glazing, we provide bespoke products, designed to meet the needs of specific commercial, industrial, educational and healthcare locations.
Blinds are the perfect answer for schools, colleges and universities where they want to create a good learning environment. Designing blinds for educational establishments means ensuring that they are safe, flame-retardant and effective against the solar rays. Daylight is critical to the learning process, and it can have a serious impact on a pupil’s or student’s capacity to learn. Light influences mood: a darker room is less likely to support a positive learning outcome. However, while daylight is desirable, it needs controlling. Heat and glare are the enemies of concentration. Therefore, blinds can help maintain the balance between light and learning in educational establishments.
These establishments include:
The type of blind depends on the specific needs of the establishment. Another key factor is child safety. Ensuring blinds are easy to operate but will not be any kind of danger to pupils is essential. This is a major reason why many educational establishments favour motorised blinds. These have no cords or chains which could pose a safety risk to children.
All our blinds meet BS EN 13121 child safety requirements. Alongside safety considerations, educational establishments also should consider how hardwearing they want their blinds to be. We manufacture bespoke roller blinds in tough, waterproof material, using certified flame-retardant fabrics. Educational establishments can also benefit from applying reflective solar control films on windows, in areas where blinds are not a practical solution.
Glass safety film can also be vital in exposed glazing facades and other areas, especially where vandalism is a potential issue. Certain parts of schools, colleges and universities may require commercial and contract curtains, especially where there will be presentations and performances requiring excellent acoustics. Curtains can also help create to a specific kind of ambience in selected rooms, such as lecture halls and theatres, adding a touch of formality, while softening harsher lines and edges.
The hospitality industry is diverse, and hotels and restaurants vary wildly in style and décor. But the one thing they all have in common is a clear focus on the needs of the customer. Blinds have clear function here: in providing the right amount of light, protection from the sun, and in offering varying degrees of privacy. Restaurants that are rooftop based, or that have large glass facades can benefit from roller blinds, to ensure the comfort of their diners. Many hotels are multi-functional, housing a wide selection of rooms, suites, meeting rooms and lobby areas.
These will require different styles of window coverage, which can involve vertical blinds or commercial curtains. With a huge selection of functional and decorative fabrics, these window solutions are highly adaptable for these different kinds of spaces. Some modern, boutique-style hotels now favour motorised blinds over more traditional curtains and drapes. These give hotel guests more control over natural light entering the room, and with blackout blind options, they can also be sure of a better night’s sleep, even in the bustling, well-lit hearts of cities and towns.
Along with blinds and curtains, many hotels have large expanses of glass, or glass partitions, which they can enhance with window film. Glass partitions are also useful for adapting hotel and restaurant areas for different functions, for example, where they want to create a private dining space or a VIP reception zone. Coloured window film adds variation to lobby areas. Another option is to make use of glass manifestation as a way of branding glazing with the hotel logo. Digitally printing designs and logos onto blinds is another way of branding fittings.
Hotels and restaurants can also benefit from glass safety film, and from reflective solar control film. Window coverings in the hospitality industry are highly functional, but there is also a requirement for them to be decorative, and to enhance the experience of the individual diner or guest.
The corporate office sector includes large spaces covering wide areas. Some will have multi-occupancies, other will be the main headquarters of a single company, but with numerous divisions and teams. In both cases, the challenge is to make the space habitable and adaptable, and to ensure that it is fit for purpose when it comes to people using its facilities and working in it.
One aspect of this is how to maximise space but allow for different functions to operate, often side by side, without disruption. Glass partitioning is the perfect solution.
It enables large corporate offices to reconfigure workspaces without major refits involving removing interior walls. It also retains as much natural light in a space as possible. Glass partitions can be frameless, or framed single or double-glazing.
Applying office window film to glazing in offices opens up more possibilities for aesthetic variations, and for branding windows with company logos. Privacy window film creates private spaces without sacrificing light. As well as glass manifestation, large corporate spaces may also want to install reflective solar control film.
One of the major challenges of workspaces where there is lots of glass is minimising the impact of the sun’s rays. For further light and climate control, different types of blind are suitable. Many offices still favour Venetian blinds, because they have a timeless, minimalist and streamlined look. They are suitable for a broad range of office environments, and easy to maintain and clean. They come in a wide selection of finishes, to fit in with different corporate interior design schemes. Alternatively, the vertical blind is another long-standing choice for offices.
Vertical blinds have a proven track record for practical, unobtrusively attractive office furnishing. Meeting rooms can benefits from blackout roller blinds to ensure complete privacy, and to create the perfect conditions for presentations. Companies may wish to extend their branding by installing customised printed office blinds. For impact and convenience in the boardroom, the motorised blind applies a degree of subtly impressive automation to its practical functions. In certain rooms and contexts, commercial curtains may be used instead of blinds. They can soften a room, or add a greater degree of timeless formality to an otherwise modern, corporate working environment. There may also be a requirement for glass safety film for security purposes in large corporate offices.
The healthcare sector has specific and specialist requirements when it comes to commercial blinds, curtains and glazing.
This sector includes:
A major consideration here is hygiene. Any materials used in blinds and curtains in hospitals, clinics, health centres and care homes must be washable at temperatures that will kill bacteria. Consequently roller blinds, vertical blinds and curtains must be hardwearing. We manufacture blinds for the health sector in specialist material that has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial qualities.
To reduce the risk of accidents, we recommend blinds with a cordless system, or better still, motorised blinds. Our blinds are BS EN 13120 child safety compliant. Adult care homes have large lounge areas for residents, usually where there will be plenty of daylight. However, it is also important to control this light for residents’ comfort.
Our range of roller blinds and vertical blinds provides excellent light control, while helping care homes keep energy efficient by retaining more warmth in winter. Healthcare establishments can also make good use of window film, including reflective solar control film, glass safety film and privacy window film.
The retail sector is hugely varied but windows and glass are fundamental aspects of most stores. Windows are essential to the retail experience for shoppers. On one basic level, because they are a means of displaying goods. However, the possibilities for shop windows and the use of glass go a lot further than this. Window film can add a whole new dimension to shop glass. It enables stores to include graphic elements as part of their glazing, including frosted, sandblasted or coloured glass manifestation.
This also enables branding of windows, and it can enhance the whole look and feel of a shop’s exterior, in line with its brand. Blinds are also crucial to shops, for out of business hours. But they don’t need to simply be a means of covering the windows. Printed blinds offer shops versatility and customisation when it comes to applying a brand identity to otherwise practical items.
Retail environments require blinds for privacy and security, but this doesn’t mean they have to sacrifice their overall look. Obviously, though, functionality is the first priority when choosing roller blinds for a shop and the best and most convenient option is to ensure these are motorised.
Fabrics are durable and available in a host of different colours to suit any retail space. Some spaces will benefit from using plain but sophisticated colour palette of paler shades, whereas others may be able to maximise bolder hues. The important thing is that our choice of designs, fabrics and colours is huge, and we offer various bespoke options to customise the blinds in your store. It is also worth noting that blinds are beneficial to the staff working in the store.
They can provide them with protection from heat when the sun is shining through the windows, and they allow for a controllable degree of privacy in administrative spaces. Commercial blinds are a functional aspect of the retail fit-out, but that should not prevent them from enhancing the store itself and supporting its brand.
Commercial blinds, curtains and glazing are all practical elements in our places of work. Bespoke designs and innovative applications can transform these essential elements, supporting inspiring workspaces that feel comfortable to be in. Modern offices and commercial spaces need to be environments where the people in them feel motivated and have a sense of belonging. Ensuring a good amount of light, while being able to control it, and control the climate of the workplace, is essential in making people feel better connected to where they work.
Likewise, shops, hotels, restaurants and healthcare centres all need to ensure that their visitors feel at ease and welcome in their spaces. In many instances, business success depends on it. We have plenty of options when it comes to fitting out your workspace, from glass partitions and stylish window films to different styles of blind. These styles utilise advanced fabrics to create durable and effective window coverings, allowing you to control your light, your climate and your privacy.
Our product range is cutting edge but also draws on established and proven designs. It’s competitively-priced, and we want you to know you’re getting something that’s unique to your requirements. Commercial blinds and glazing could help transform your place of work, contact us to discover how.
Please call us on 0161 620 3952, email sales@commercialblinds.co.uk or complete our online contact form.
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