Roman blinds

The style of your home, the colour scheme and furniture all have to be considered when choosing the fabric for your new custom roman blinds.

Your window furnishings should work with your home to enhance its character and feel, whilst delivering a solution that is both practical and beautiful. Whether you have a preference for neutral shades, or you are looking for a ‘jumping off point’ for a new colour scheme, we will provide you with the very best design advice.

We stock a wide range of over 5000 different fabrics, and that increases month by month as we keep upto date with the latest designs and trends.

Different fabrics have different characteristics in regards to appearance, durability, serviceability and how well they work in different environments. We know from experience which fabrics produce the best roman blinds, and we can advise you accordingly.

There are four ways to control your made to measure roman blinds.

The simplest method involves a cord which is pulled down to raise the blind, and then tied off on a cleat to hold the blind in position. This would be one of our recommendations when a small to medium size roman blind is needed. It is simple to operate and very cost effective.

As the blind increases in size and weight, we would make other recommendations to you. A cord lock can be added to the header bar of the roman blind. The lock holds the cord, and therefore the blind in place until the cord it pulled slightly to the side. Using a cord lock makes it easier to control a slightly larger and heavier blind.

For larger size roman blinds we would recommend either a chain mechanism, or for the ultimate in ease of use, a motorised system. A chain mechanism is housed in a metal frame, and is fitted out of sight on the underside of the header bar. Moving the chain up and down rotates the internal mechanism, which in turn smoothly raises and lowers the roman blind with minimal effort. This is a good solution when the roman blind is large or heavy, or the person operating the blind has limited capacity to manually lift the blind using a cord. A motorised roman blind uses a similar method, however the motor controls the internal mechanism instead of a chain. This allows the blind to be operated using a remote control, and can additionally be setup to work from a smartphone app or using a home assistant (Siri, Google, Alexa etc.)

If you have fitted pelmets or a plaster reveal running around the ceiling, that would generally be the best place to fit your custom roman blinds.

However it is more usual for roman blinds to be fitted either in a window recess, fixed to the architrave, or mounted higher up the wall above a window. Each method has its own benefits, and we would go through these with you to show how they relate specifically to your windows. Fitting into a window recess gives a clean look with the blind being completely contained within the window opening. Roman blinds don’t have fittings that extend beyond the width of the fabric, so in a window recess the fabric will run almost completely across the opening. This means there is a much smaller light gap between the edge of the fabric and the inside of the window recess, than would be the case with a roller blind for example.

Fitting to an architrave, or higher up the wall above the window, enables the blind to extend beyond the width of the window opening, and therefore provides better coverage – ideal if you’re looking to block out the maximum amount of light. Fitting above the window also means that the top folded panel of the blind, can sit flush with the top of the window, to maximise the light coming into the room when the blind is in the open position.

This is an important aspect which can easily be overlooked in the desire to achieve aesthetic perfection. We will discuss with you who uses the room, and how it is used.

For example, if the room is being used by teenagers to watch television and play video games, then minimising glare during the daytime would be a priority. We would also take into account that teenagers can be a bit heavy handed in their dealings with soft furnishings (we are speaking from experience with two teenagers of our own), and therefore we need to recommmend a control method that will be strong and durable.

In a bedroom the priority would generally be on privacy, and minimising the light coming into the room. We would focus on fabrics which offer the best blockout solutions, as well as making recommendations to you on the best way to fit the roman blinds to achieve this.

By fully understanding these points, our advice can be totally focussed on achieving the practical requirements as well as the aesthetic.