Guides
Blinds or curtains? An honest comparison for a Dhaka flat
Dust, washing, floor space, cost and light control compared for Bangladeshi homes — including the three windows where a curtain is still the better answer.
We sell blinds, so read this with that in mind. It is still worth writing down honestly, because there are windows in a Dhaka flat where a curtain is the better buy and we would rather say so than fit the wrong thing.
Dust and cleaning
This is the argument that actually matters here. A curtain collects Dhaka dust in the weave and the only real fix is taking it down, washing it, drying it and rehanging it — a half-day job that most households do far less often than they intend.
A flat blind is vacuumed in place in about two minutes a window. A slatted blind takes a little longer but still stays on the wall. Nothing has to come down, nothing has to dry on a balcony during monsoon.
Slatted blinds do collect visible dust faster than flat fabric ones, so if dust is your main complaint, a roller or a zebra beats a venetian.
Floor space and furniture
A curtain needs clearance to hang and to be pulled back, and the stack sits over the wall on either side of the window. In a compact flat that is real space. A blind sits inside the reveal and takes none.
A curtain hem also reaches the floor, which puts fabric where the dust is. A blind stops at the sill.
Light control
A curtain is binary in practice: open or closed. Layering a sheer with a heavy curtain gives you a middle setting, at the cost of two sets of fabric to buy and wash.
A blind adjusts. A venetian tilts, a zebra slides its stripes, a triple shade steps through three fabrics. This is where the difference is widest — a blind gives you settings a curtain simply does not have.
Cost
Straight comparisons are unfair because they measure differently — curtains are priced by fabric length and fullness, blinds by finished area. In general a plain roller blind costs less than a lined curtain for the same window, and a triple shade or a wide veri shade costs more.
The three windows where we would still say curtain
- A bedroom where the look matters more than the light. A full curtain in a good fabric is warmer and softer than any blind, and if the room is dark enough already, buy the curtain.
- A very tall window in a room with no dust problem. Curtains handle height gracefully; a nine-foot blind is a heavy object to raise twice a day.
- A window you want to soften acoustically. Heavy curtains do slightly damp a room. Blinds do essentially nothing for noise, and we will not claim otherwise.
The practical answer for most Dhaka flats
Blinds on the windows you operate daily and the ones that face the sun. Curtains, if you want them, on the one or two windows where the room's look is doing the work. That combination gets you the control and the low maintenance without giving up the softness entirely.