Hi MD.....

We have timber venetians in our back family room - about 3yrs old.....

I think they're the feature of the room (3 large windows....) i love them, we always have people commenting on them. We bought ours from Curtain wonderland, so DH installed them himself.

They do get dusty, but im a slacker and rarely dust them, although recently we've extended our home yet again and the dust on these blinds were thick - so thick i did have to wipe them over......but i had to do that with everything else too.

We have timber floorboards in our home...so i feel they work well. The particular room these blinds are in gets the morning sun, and keeps it out fine.....i dunno about the cold though. Our house is cold in winter coz we have it protected so much from the sun in the summer......so cant help you there....

Good luck !