10 / Wood
Real wood blinds
2" · 2.5"
Slats milled from North American basswood, stained or painted to order. Basswood is the light one, which is the practical reason to buy it: a wide window takes a wood blind in one piece where the same window in composite would be too heavy to lift comfortably. It is also the line we keep out of bathrooms.
Johns Creek, GA · home office
What it is, in numbers.
As installed
- Slat width
- 2" · 2.5"
- Width
- 24" – 120"
- Height
- 24" – 120"
- Material
- North American basswood
- Finish
- Stained or painted to order · cloth tape optional
- Tilt
- Wand · cordless · motorized
- Mount
- Inside or outside
- Lead time
- 3 – 4 weeks from measure
- Warranty
- 5 years on the mechanism, 3 years on finish
Options we quote
Fabrics are chosen from the sample books at the estimate — we carry the full range to your house rather than asking you to pick from a screen.
How much daylight each fabric actually stops.
These are the figures we quote at the kitchen table. They shift a few points with the mount and the direction the window faces, which is why we measure before we promise.
Louver angle
18% → 95% blocked
- Slats open
- 18% blocked
- Slats tilted up
- 66% blocked
- Slats closed
- 90% blocked
- Closed, routeless
- 95% blocked
The slimmest profile of the two wood lines when it is open.
No glare at eye level, room still reads bright.
Full privacy. Light still passes at the route holes.
The slat is drilled behind rather than through.
Light: 52% blocked34°
Drag the slats. This is the range a wood shade covers on a typical window — from 18% at its most open to 95% closed. Your actual number depends on the fabric, the mount and which way the window faces.
Get the exact number for your windowWood is the slat that covers a wide window in one piece.
Basswood weighs a fraction of what the composite does at the same size.
Stain or paint
A painted wood blind matches trim and disappears into the casing. A stain is the opposite decision — it puts a warm horizontal band in the window and asks to be noticed, and it wants to be close to the floors or the furniture rather than close to the trim. We bring the stain chain to the house and hold it against your own woodwork in daylight, because a stain photographs nothing like it looks on a wall.
Where we will not put it
Bathrooms, laundries and the window directly over a kitchen sink. Wood swells with repeated wetting, and a swollen slat never sits flat again. When somebody asks for wood in those rooms we quote faux wood instead and say why — it is the same two-inch slat, it costs less, and it is the one that is still straight in five years.
Rooms we install these in most: Living room · Dining room · Study · Primary bedroom · Stairwell
The same line, in 7 Georgia houses.
8 photographs
What people ask about real wood blinds.
In a paint, almost always — we work from the sample chain and you hold the chips against the casing. In a stain, a close match on a different species is the honest goal; basswood does not take a stain the way oak or walnut does. If we cannot get it close we will tell you rather than sell you a match that is not one.
Weight. The same 2" slat in basswood is a fraction of what the composite weighs, so a single wood blind stays easy to raise out to 120" where we cap the composite at 96". On a wide opening that is the whole argument for wood.
Over years, a stain in a south or west window will lift slightly, and it lifts evenly across the slats that are exposed. It is not a defect and no finish avoids it entirely. In a room that takes full afternoon sun we steer toward a painted finish or a mid-tone stain, which move the least.
Free in-home estimate
See wood samples in your own light.
We bring the wood books to your kitchen table, measure every window, and price the job on the spot. Free, about an hour.