August 2020 - McNeill Palm

How Window Shutter Help with Home Comfort

August 24, 2020 by McNeill Palm Team

You may not think about window shutters in Destin, FL when you’re thinking about the comfort of your home, but window shutters can play an important role in keeping your home warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. One advantage that window shutters can provide, when done simultaneously with other changes in your home, is a cooler and more comfortable interior temperature.

When the Florida sun is beating down on your home during the summer, you may be dismayed to discover that some of the rooms in your homes are hot and uncomfortable. You may instinctively want to lower your thermostat to cool down these rooms.

However, before you adjust your thermostat, which can cost you a lot of extra money in energy costs, there are some simple things you can do to your home to make it cooler and more comfortable.

You can make the rooms in your home less stuffy by changing from incandescent lighting to LED lighting. You probably don’t realize that electric lighting is a major source of heat in your home. Incandescent and halogen light bulbs produce significantly more heat than LED light bulbs.

When you have a lot of incandescent and/or halogen light bulbs turned, your room temperature will be noticeably hotter. LED light bulbs offer an energy efficient alternative. LED lights use much less electricity, so they create far less heat than incandescent or halogen lights. Therefore, using LED lights will both make your home cooler and save you money in power costs.

Another way that you can have a cooler home is to have plantation window shutters installed. Plantation window shutters give you a lot of control over how much light and how much heat from the outside is allowed into rooms. When your plantation window shutters are closed, they create great insulation system for your windows that keeps cool interior air inside and keeps hot summer air outside.

With plantation window shutters, you can effectively increase the insulation around every window in your home, no matter what time of year it is or what the temperature outside is.

Not only do plantation window shutters offer great insulation that helps you maintain a comfortable temperature inside your home, but they are very durable, so they last longer than many other types of window coverings.

Plantation window shutters also have the advantage of being easily incorporated with almost any decorating style.

Another easy change to make in your home to keep it cooler during the summer is to have all the interior doors open. Having all the interior doors in your home open during the summer will maximize the cooling of your home. Cooling is accomplished when air flow is flowing freely throughout your home.

When you are cooling your home, air must be able freely flow through the home to keep all the rooms comfortable. When interior doors are closed, air flow gets disrupted. Cooler air is forced outside your home because closed interior doors create pressure points. This means some rooms will be hotter than others during the summertime.

On extremely hot days, you can get more cooling out of your HVAC system by simply putting tower fans in front of all the air vents in your home. You’ll need to set your thermostat to a few degrees cooler than the outside temperature. Then place the fans as close to the air vents as possible and they will cool the HVAC’s cool area by another four degrees.

If you’d like learn more about plantation window shutters in Destin, FL, you can talk with our knowledgeable team at McNeill Palm.

All About Vertical Window Blinds

August 17, 2020 by McNeill Palm Team

When you’re thinking about getting window blinds in Destin, FL, you may automatically think about horizontal window blinds for all the windows in your home. However, vertical window blinds can give you a unique alternative that is both stylish and practical.

The most common places to see vertical window blinds is on sliding glass doors in homes and on large windows in commercial buildings, but they are rarely installed on windows in homes. However, they can be a great addition with certain types of windows.

Vertical window blinds work well with on windows that don’t have panes in them. These include sliding windows, casement windows, and fixed windows (bow, bay, and picture windows). With vertical window blinds, you can have both a full view outside and the maximum available light outside streaming into your home.

So, why should you consider selecting vertical window blinds instead of horizontal window blinds?

Vertical window blinds have thicker slats than the slats on horizontal window blinds. When vertical window blinds slats are closed, you get much better ultraviolet (UV) ray protection than with horizontal window blinds. This makes your home safer for you and your family, for furniture, for wood floors, for carpets and for rugs.

The thicker slats of vertical window blinds also are much better at providing extra insulation for your windows than the thinner slats of horizontal window blinds. This will, in turn, make your home even more energy efficient.

Vertical window blinds are easy to open and close. While vertical window blinds have options for motorization and adding smart technology to open and close them, most vertical blinds are simple to open manually.

You do nothing more than twist a wand to open the slats and then slide the slats to the right or left (depending on which side the wand is located on) to open them. The process is reversed to close them.

Because vertical window blinds are tall, people often use them to create the effect of making a small window look much larger. On the larger windows and sliding glass doors in your home, vertical window blinds are long enough and wide enough to fully cover the entire window or door.

Vertical window blinds have a distinct advantage over horizontal window blinds if a slat gets damaged. With horizontal window blinds, damaged slats cannot be replaced. Instead, you have to replace the window blinds themselves.

With vertical windows blinds, when a slat is damage, you can simply pull that slat out and replace it with a new one (most vertical window blinds come with extra slats).This makes vertical window blinds easy and inexpensive to maintain.

Vertical window blinds, like horizontal window blinds, are available in a wide variety of materials, designs, and colors. Vertical window blinds can be used to complement existing colors or to provide an interesting contrast to the room’s colors.

Vertical window blinds are incredibly easy to clean. A good rule of thumb is to clean them at least once a year. However, if they need to be cleaned before that, then you should clean them at your earliest opportunity.

Vertical window blinds can be cleaned with having to remove the slats. By cleaning the installed slats, you have less chance of damaging them than you would if you took them in and out. Because the slats don’t have to be uninstalled and installed and you don’t have to have a large amount of space to lay the slats out flat to clean them, you save time and effort.

Vertical window blinds should be cleaned with the wand attachment on your vacuum cleaner. Vacuum both sides of the slats and then dust the slats with a dry, clean cloth. Use a mild detergent and warm water to clean any other areas not cleaned with the vacuum or cloth.

If you’d like to learn more about vertical window blinds in Destin, FL, you can speak with our experienced staff at McNeill Palm.

The Language of Window Coverings

August 10, 2020 by McNeill Palm Team

Understanding window covering terminology in Destin, FL can be very helpful as you review the different window covering choices that are available and how they can be incorporated to enhance the style and value of your home.

You are probably considering new window coverings for your home because you’veyou’re your current window coverings for quite a while. They may look tired or faded, and they may not be functioning as well as they did when they were brand new.

When you replace window coverings in your home, it can have a dramatic effect on how your home feels and looks. It may be so dramatic that you almost feel like you’re living in a brand- new home.

However, the language associated with window coverings may be unfamiliar to you because you haven’t chosen or had window coverings installed too often. So, this quick guide will help you get up to speed with to some of the window covering terms you need to know.

Blinds are window coverings that have horizontal slats. The blinds themselves can be raised or lowered using a corded or cordless option and you can adjust the slats to allow or block light.

Curtains are a window covering that is made with fabric. The fabrics can have different thicknesses. Curtains are available in a wide variety of colors and patterns. Curtains are hung on rods installed above the window frames. You can choose a motorized option with many different types of curtains.

Drapes are a window covering that is made using very heavy fabrics. Drapes typically have an insulated liner, which can make your windows more energy efficient. You can add a motorized option to most drapes.

Interior shutters come in different styles and are made out of several different types of materials, including wood. Shutters have louvers that can be tilted up or down for ventilation and light control, and the shutters themselves can be opened or closed.

Shades come in all kinds of styles, patterns, and colors. Shades can be lifted or lowered manually, or you can add a motorized option to them.

Blinds and shades styles include a lot of options that can fit almost any need you might have in your home.

Roman shades have fabric folds that are created when the shade is lifted. Cellular (also known as honeycomb) shades are multilayered shades that give you premium light control and energy efficiency.

Café curtains are a popular choice for kitchen windows. They are installed on the lower half of the window, keeping the sun out of your eyes and ensuring privacy, while the top half of the window is bare, ensuring that your kitchen is filled with light.

Blackout options are available for most types of curtains and shades. Adding this option will ensure that a room is completely dark when the curtains or shades are drawn. This option is most often added to shades and curtains that are installed in bedrooms and media rooms.

You should also have a basic understanding of the hardware associated with window coverings, so that you understand what your options are for the window coverings you choose.

Tension rods are used in bathrooms to hang shower curtains, but they can be used to install window coverings as well. Tension rods are easy to install because they use tension for support and are installed without using any hardware.

Both curtain rods and blinds use brackets. Brackets are installed on both sides of the top of the window frame to hold the curtain rod or to insert the blinds into.

Drapes are usually hung using drapery hooks. Drapes usually have premade slots in the back where the straight sides of these S-shaped hooks are inserted. The curved portion of the hook fits on the curtain rod.

If you’d like learn more about window covering in Destin, FL, you can talk with our knowledgeable team at McNeill Palm.