Blinds in Carmona: Custom Solutions for Goa

A blind that can be left down and forgotten is useful in Carmona, where a house may wait months for its owners. Lowered, it keeps sun off the furniture and gives the caretaker one less thing to manage. But the village is near enough to the sea for salt to find every steel part, so the head rail should be aluminium and the chain and brackets stainless or plastic. Real wood slats warp in the damp that comes off the low ground towards the beach; faux-wood gives the same look beside old wooden windows and does not move. Old frames are seldom square, so no two blinds in the house will be the same size.

• Rooms shut for the year: coated roller blinds left lowered against sun, on aluminium rails with plastic chains that will not seize.
• Wooden-windowed front rooms: faux-wood venetians or roman blinds fixed to the frame face, matching the timber without warping.
• Holiday complexes near the shore: chain-operated blackout rollers in bedrooms, simple enough for any visitor to work without being shown.