02 / Shades
Shades
6 lines
A shade is a panel of cloth that lifts out of the way, so what it does to a room is decided by the weave rather than by the hardware. Six lines sit here, from a single roller panel to a sewn and lined Roman, and they are the half of the range that can be made to genuinely black a room out.
Six lines, and they are not competing for the same window.
Start from what the room has to do at its worst hour — 6am in a nursery, 4pm on a west wall — because that is the one setting a shade has to get right.
Does it have to go dark?
Blackout roller, cellular or a dual shade. A zebra and a Shangri-La will not black out a room whatever the salesman says — the fabric itself passes light even closed, which is a feature until it is 6am in a nursery.
Does the view matter more than the darkness?
Zebra and Shangri-La exist for exactly that window. Both give you a middle setting that keeps the backyard and loses the glare, and both are what people set once in the morning and never touch again.
Is it the heat, or the look?
A cellular shade traps air at the glass and is the best insulator we carry — it is what a west-facing bonus room needs. A Roman is the opposite errand: it is the one you buy because the window is part of the decorating.
Free in-home estimate
See the shades in your own light.
We bring the sample books to your kitchen table, measure every window, and price the job on the spot. Free, about an hour — and it usually narrows 6 lines down to one.