Roller Shades & Roller Blinds

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Roller Shades and Roller Blinds: One Product, Two Names Both names describe the same product: US retailers mostly write roller shades, British and Australian sellers say roller blinds. Lowered, a roller shade is one clean plane of color; raised, it disappears into a roll. Because the fabric and tube are cut to your finished size, three things decide your order: how much light the fabric passes, how you raise it, and whether it mounts inside the frame or over it. Light Control: Four Fabrics and One Banded Option Most complaints about a roller shade trace back to the wrong opacity, so settle this before you look at color. Light filtering: daylight without the glare Light filtering fabric passes diffused daylight and blocks the direct beam. The room stays bright, glare comes off screens and glass, and nobody outside sees detail by day. It will not darken a room, and it will not hide a silhouette after dark with the lamps on. Room darkening and blackout: two different things These are two different fabrics, sold as two separate collections. Room darkening fabric takes 85 to 95 percent of the light out of a room without being fully opaque: right for a living room, media wall or light sleeper. Blackout roller shades add a laminated or foam-backed layer and block 99 to 100 percent through the panel, the choice for a main bedroom or nursery. Solar screen: keep the view, cut the heat Solar screens use an open woven mesh rated by openness factor: 1, 3, 5, 10 and 14 percent, the proportion of the weave left open. A 1 or 3 percent screen blocks the most heat and gives the tightest privacy, 5 percent is the usual sweet spot, 10 or 14 percent keeps the view crispest. All cut the UV that fades floors and upholstery, which is why solar shades and solar blinds suit a west-facing wall of glass. Zebra: two looks on one tube A zebra shade, also sold as a dual-layer or banded roller, carries alternating sheer and solid stripes on one tube: line the bands up for privacy, offset them for