Enjoying a clear and unobstructed outlook

Fabulous views—whether it’s out to a beautiful garden, the sea, the mountains or a spectacular landscape—should be there to be enjoyed, unimpeded, whether you are sitting inside or out on the terrace.

And, for sure, if the view is worth having, your architect or designer will certainly have ensured the design of your home incorporates beautiful, big picture windows to admire it through. But spare a thought at the beginning of your project, too, for the window treatments you are likely to want.

Window treatments, whether blinds or curtains, have both practical and aesthetic purposes. They ensure your home has privacy when you need it, help to retain warmth and create a cosy atmosphere and provide sun control as well, so most of us will be looking to include some sort of window coverings in our new home.

However, if you want the view to be the hero in the room, you may want to avoid the clutter of curtains stacked across the glass. An alternative to this comes from Vanda, a privately owned New Zealand manufacturer of window furnishing products; the company has designed the perfect solution – the Vanda Recessed FlushBox.

This clever piece of hardware fits neatly into the ceiling cavity above your windows, enabling your roller blinds to be concealed in a specially designed box within the ceiling space until you choose to lower them. Made from extruded aluminium, the FlushBox has a removable cover plate that conceals the roller blind from view. All you are able to see is a negative detail and a small aluminium flange on the ceiling, which can be coated to match the ceiling colour, making it virtually invisible.

Vanda’s Tim Wallace says the FlushBox means you can have the advantages of controlling sun and privacy without your window treatments interfering with the architectural concept of your interior or impinging on your views.

The only ‘but’ with the FlushBox is that it really needs to be planned for at the design stage, as the builder needs to frame out the area accurately to allow the box to be installed into the wall to ceiling junction above the window. The FlushBox can, however be fitted after the ceiling linings have been fixed, stopped and painted, as the box has an 8mm flange that covers the end of the cut gib sheet.

For some situations, for example, if there isn’t quite enough space for the full box, or if two blinds are required – one for sun control and a second blockout blind for privacy at night—Vanda has designed a Part FlushBox, and two of these can be installed side by side, accommodating both blinds or as a larger pocket using double brackets. Or, on a sarked ceiling you may not want the aluminium flange, so Vanda has now designed a flangeless FlushBox for these situations.

“We have had builders approach us with various scenarios, and we have custommade a special pocket that fits their particular situation. It’s all about finding a solution and, as we are a small company, we can be flexible,” Tim says.

“We have also had architects and interior designers asking if the flange could be a contrasting colour to the ceiling, which of course is no problem, so now we provide that option, too.”

Recently, Vanda was asked to supply its FlushBoxes for a home overlooking Auckland’s Milford Beach. “It was a real challenge because the glazing on the north and east of the house joined at a 90° angle. We ended up with mitred corner sections on motorised double FlushBoxes, so the blinds intersected seamlessly. By using these boxes it avoided what could have been a very busy corner with four blinds, cables and so on. Plus, the boxes were installed so the blinds rolled inwards, towards each other – very tidy and very successful!”

Vanda is also able to supply roller blinds if required, both styles for privacy and for sun control. These are available in a wide selection of colours and fabrics, or Vanda can simply supply the FlushBox and all the componentry to control them—either chains or motorised, and roller blinds can be sourced separately. The blinds can also be installed in combination with a home automation system, so they can be operated remotely.

“Our recessed product gives a seamless look and tidies away any data cabling and motorisation componentry that is associated with the blinds,” Tim says.

Vanda also manufactures other ranges of decorative curtain hardware and other recessed products. The recessed Flush Fit curtain track, which sits within the ceiling lining, has also been very well received by architects and designers.

“It fits inside the lining of the ceiling, creating a neat and very unobtrusive negative detail on the ceiling,” says Tim. “It also needs to be specified at the planning stage of a house. It can be bent round around corners. Any curtain heading can be used on the Flush Fit track including the wave heading, which is very popular with interior designers at the moment.”

The Vanda Flushbox, manufactured in New Zealand, uses aluminium extrusion from McKechnie Aluminium Solutions. This extrusion carries Toitu Carbon Reduce product certification, and Vanda has a sub-licence arrangement with McKechnie to access this product certification. Toitu Carbon Reduce product certification is based on annual third-party audit against ISO14067 (Greenhouse gases — Carbon footprint of products).

The high proportion of recycled aluminium used in the McKechnie aluminium alloy means the product has a very low carbon footprint.

Learn more about the range of recessed blind and curtain hardware suitable for your next project.