Top Down Bottom Up Shades

About

How Top Down Bottom Up Shades Work: Two Rails Instead of One A standard window covering has one moving edge. These have two. The bottom rail rises the way any shade does, while the top rail drops away from the headrail and opens a band of glass above the fabric. Daylight in, without the street looking in. You will also see this sold as TDBU, up-down blinds or duofold. Same mechanism, and every shade here is cut to your exact opening. The Four Positions You Will Actually Use Fully closed is the baseline: both rails at the sill, maximum privacy and light control. Bottom-up is the conventional open position, fabric at the head, glass clear. Top-down is the reason most people buy this style. Drop the upper rail by a third of the window and you get sky and borrowed daylight off the ceiling, while everything at seated eye level stays covered. The fourth position is the one not many talk about, but we love: the floating band. Move both rails and you leave an open strip of glass at any height you choose. Set it at desk height to see the garden while you work, or low to watch the driveway while the top stays screened. Which Shade Types Come as Top Down Bottom Up Shades Cellular and honeycomb Our most common two-rail construction. Honeycomb cells trap air, which gives the best insulation of any soft shade, and the compressed stack is small enough that two rails do not eat much glass. Single-cell is cordless. On double-cell, TDBU is a control style you pick inside the product, which alone also offers a corded clutch. Go double-cell where heat is the real issue: one cell gives heat a single pocket to cross, a double gives it two plus the fabric between them. That buffer matters most on single-pane glass, older aluminum frames and drafty north-facing rooms. Pleated shades Flatter, single-layer, less expensive, also cordless. Pleated has crisper shadow lines and less bulk than honeycomb, but one layer gives modest insulation rather than the sealed two-layer performance of cellula