Chemistry - Does a smell imply particles or chemicals in the air?

Smell works because your nose detects substances in the air.

Everything you can smell is the result of a molecule carried by air interacting with complex proteins in the nose/mouth (smell and taste are related but taste copes with solids and liquids as well as volatile airborne stuff). We broadly understand how smell works but the exact details are often a complete mystery.

The key is that smell-sensing nerves contain some proteins with very specific sensor sites that can detect particular groups of substances when they "fit" into the site. Exactly how the sites translate the fit into nerve signals is often a mystery. But the point that matters for this question is that the stuff being detected has to be carried into the nose via the air (which means it has to be a gas or, possibly, a very small particle that is easily carried by air).

So, yes, smell implies there are chemicals or particles in the air. However, the nose is extremely sensitive to some chemicals and being able to detect the smell does not imply a problem (even nasties like hydrogen sulphide are detectable by smell at below parts per billion concentration, hundreds of times below the level causing harm). Your blinds probably are emitting something but it is most likely both harmless and will probably fade with time like the smell characteristic of a new car.