Vertical blinds often get a bad rap. Probably because there were so many cheap versions made, and they quickly became a mess. Pam says that aesthetically, these are not her favorite, but for uses such as with double-wide (or wider) sliding patio doors that needed a window treatment, they would likely be her #1 choice in term of delivering the required functionality. And now, check this out: If you have a 1970s or 1980s house and want to use period-authentic vertical blinds, how about these Beauti-Vue “macrame” verticals — New Old Stock from the back of their website from back in the day.
Beauti-Vue can use these materials to fabricate a set of vertical blinds to your exact specifications. Available in five distinct styles, these macramé vertical blinds would instantly add a textural element to any space — hey, how about for a tiki lounge?
Note: We know these designs are not truly macrame. Perhaps a more accurate name would be chunky yarny woven cloth vertical blinds. But that’s a mouthful. So we’ll just go with the Beauti-Vue flow and agree to call them macrame vertical blinds.
Company owner Stormy Grumbeck told me that these blinds were the company’s hottest selling item from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. Pam understands! She was a macramaniac herself back then!
The sample strips shown could be made into a custom vertical blind window treatment similar to the plain vertical blind sample above. Hmmmm: Maybe the New Old Stock blinds themselves could be used for craft and decor projects.
Macramé style #1 is the only one of the five styles that deviates from the natural color of the woven material — mauve with bits of off white and blue. The other four styles are mostly natural with bits of color tucked in here and there.
Note: The blind “veins” vary in width from about 3.5″ inches wide to 3.75″ inches wide.
Buy these macrame vertical blinds:
- Contact Beauti-Vue Products Corp. to check style availability and to get a custom quote on pricing for your project.
Read all of our stories about Beauti-Vue’s NOS products
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Beauti-Vue’s history — making woven wood blinds and more since 1947
- Making woven wood-and-yarn Roman shades — a labor-intensive process
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In the last few years, there was a modernist house featured in Architectural Digest that had a lot of vertical blinds. The were not emphasized, but they didn’t try to conceal them, either.
A key quality of modernism: Form follows function! Like I said, verticals make a lot of sense for large expanses of windows.
Now this is something I might ponder buying. I have a huge sliding glass door that takes up most of the east facing wall in my dining room. I have cheap plastic vertical blinds on it now. These would look so much nicer. Macrame 3 perhaps…
Oh – any idea if they make valances to go with their vertical blinds?
I didn’t ask how they handled this
Yes… we could make a valance to cover the track.
Editor’s note: This is the Kristin of Beauti-Vue. Thank you, K!
I really love Retro Renovation and have been reading for about a year (newcomer, I know!). Just writing to let you know that your RSS feed hasn’t updated in days, which is a bummer since I usually read via RSS feed.
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I guess the correct name to call them would be the one given by the manufacturer, but to me these resemble Haitian Cotton fabric. I saw a sofa in it a couple of weeks ago and thought, Gee, Haitian Cotton needs to make a comeback.
Anyone know when vertical blinds came into being?
I’d like to put them in my Minimal Traditional house built in 1942.
Not a purist, just wondering.
I don’t know. But I say go for it, if functionally they suit your needs.
I had these vertical blinds in my home and just recently tossed them because some of the veins were damaged. I wish I’d seen this article FIRST! They were almost 50 years old and nothing fits better. I just called to get a quote and now I’m preparing for a shock. Can’t wait!