Changing static mesh's properties in game

Hi all - I’m quite new to Unreal so bear with me! I’m trying to change a static mesh object’s properties in-game. I’m using Polymodels’ blinds in my scene, which inherit from a static mesh component. They have an “open-close” variable which controls how far the blinds are open, as a float value from 0-100. I have a user widget next to the blinds with two buttons - what I’d like to have happen is for the blinds to increment up or down while the user is holding the button. I tried setting the “open-close” variable in my blueprint via mouse press, but nothing happens.

Is it possible to alter a static mesh in-game? It is set to movable, although that doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. Will I instead have to use matinee animation, and if so, is there a way to do that smoothly to simulation the incrementing up/down movement I’m looking for?

Okay - update. I’m attempting to use the float property matinee, which seems like a good bet. In the details panel for the object in question, I can the variable increasing from 1-100 as I play the animation in the matinee editor, but there is no visible change in the object unless I go into the details editor and manually change the number. Thoughts?