In the shadowing market, outdoor blinds dominate. The most popular are silver ones.

Gone are the days when most houses and apartments in the Czech Republic were shaded by internal horizontal blinds. Customers and architects are increasingly opting for external blinds, which not only provide shade but also pleasantly cool the interior and look great on most buildings. Among the most popular external blinds are those with 90 mm wide slats in silver color.

For instance, the leading Czech manufacturer of external blinds – Žaluzie NEVA – produced and supplied more than 80,000 pieces of blinds to the market last year. The company's sales statistics indicate that customers most frequently want blinds in:

• silver,
• dark gray,
• silver-gray,
• bronze
• or white.

The first three colors accounted for about three-quarters of all orders at Žaluzie NEVA, which amounts to approximately 1,500 blinds per week. Customers prefer neutral colors – they are easy to maintain, and dust or pollen does not show up as much on them. Architects also like these colors because they align with modern trends. "Colors like blue, green, or red look good on window frames, but when used on blinds, they are unnecessarily bold," says architect Vlado Hrivňák from No-A Architects.

External blinds can be installed so that they are elegantly recessed into the facade.

The bigger, the better

External blinds excel in shading large glazed areas – for example, French windows, offices, or winter gardens. It is therefore no surprise that customers often order blinds in extreme dimensions.

"We manufacture blinds up to five meters high and up to five meters wide, but always with a maximum total area of 20 m². Larger blinds lose durability, are difficult to transport, and complicate raising and lowering, so we do not recommend them. However, we notice that the demand for large blinds is generally increasing," explains Jan Gajdoš, product manager at Žaluzie NEVA.

The same applies to the width of the slats; customers want the slats to be as wide as possible. The best-selling ones are those with a width of 90 mm, especially the Z-90, whereas narrower slats of 60 or 50 mm are usually chosen only by homeowners who have no other option due to the technical parameters of their construction.

External blinds perfectly cover large glazed areas. In the picture, the Z-90 blinds.

Growing interest in Smart Home integration

Most customers still choose the motorized option when purchasing external blinds, which they then control with a button on a wall panel or a remote control.

However, in recent years, there has been a growing demand for integration of blinds with smart home systems. Customers can then control the blinds using their phone, and thanks to intelligent sensors, the blinds automatically raise if, for example, a storm arrives or strong winds pick up.

What shading do you recommend to your customers during architectural planning?