Venetian blinds: aluminium for the harbour side, timber for the cottages

Aluminium: the moisture and salt-air champion

25mm slats in powder-coated aluminium handle everything a Gordon's Bay kitchen, bathroom or laundry can throw at them — steam, splash, and the salt-laden air that comes with living this close to the harbour. Fabric struggles here in a way aluminium doesn't. On a harbour-facing window it also does the same glare-management job as a roller, but with the added trick of tilting the slats to steer light direction rather than just raising or lowering the whole blind.

Timber, for the harbourside cottages that ask for it

The older part of town — the streets closest to the harbour wall, with their Victorian-era and semi-detached cottages — often has sash-style windows that a warm timber venetian suits far better than aluminium. 50mm basswood slats read as a "real material" in a period room in a way that a modern aluminium slat doesn't, and they've earned their place on plenty of Gordon's Bay heritage facades. Keep them out of steamy bathrooms; a good lacquer finish handles normal humidity but not sustained steam.

Why tilt matters on this coast

A roller is open or shut by degree; a venetian steers light direction. Tilt up for glare-free daylight on a harbour-facing wall, tilt down for privacy from a street or a neighbour's upper window, close flat for full dark. On streets where houses climb the mountainside in close, stacked rows, that directional control solves a privacy problem a plain roller can't.