The same window can get three different quotes and three different types of blind, depending on who walked in the door.
Nobody had agreed on what the blind actually had to do.
This guide fixes that. Eight chapters, in the order a specification gets built.
What window blinds are, and how the four formats differ. Then room by room, fabric and openness, tropical performance, control, measuring and mounting, and finally cost, care, and buying.
By the end you can specify the type, the fabric, the control, and the mount for any window, and defend all four.
Chapter 1: What window blinds actually are
Most people arrive at this decision using words nobody agrees on.
This chapter settles the vocabulary, then answers the question underneath it: window blinds or curtains for the window in front of you.
Blind, curtain, langsir, bidai
If you searched “blind curtain,” you are not confused.
You are using this market’s own words.
Here is what that phrase names.
A blind curtain is a blind.
Look at what people attach to it: roller blind curtain, roman blind curtain, zebra blind curtain, vertical blind curtain. Every one of those is a blind format.
The word curtain there just means the thing that covers a window.
A curtain is loose fabric that draws sideways on a curtain track or a rod.
In Malay, langsir.
A blind is a fabric panel or set of slats that raises, lowers, or tilts at the window.
In Malay, bidai. Local listings stretch that word from bidai buluh, the bamboo outdoor kind, to bidai zebra, an indoor fabric blind.
And a shade? That is the American word.
Where we say roller blind, a US showroom says roller shade. Same product, different market.
Both are window coverings. Only one is a curtain.
One window takes a blind. A room takes blinds. The category is window blinds.
That is what we say throughout this guide, even where one of our product pages says shades.
There is no official rule
You have read that blinds tilt and shades roll.
We went looking for who decided that.
Nobody did.
The safety standards this industry builds define each product one by one. A roller shade. A roman shade. A horizontal blind. None of them says what makes a thing a blind instead of a shade.
When those documents need one word for all of it, they avoid both.
They say window covering.
So there is no rule to break. The split is geography and habit, not product.
Here, the habit is ours.
So, window blinds or curtains
Malaysia’s own energy standard for homes, MS 2680:2017, lists roller blinds and curtains together as movable sun shading.
Our building rules treat them as one family. The showroom draws a harder line than the engineers do.
So the choice is narrower than it looks.
Plenty of the windows we measure already have curtains on them, chosen years ago. The owners want something simpler to live with and easier to clean.
Five things decide it.
The room. Damp or poorly ventilated rooms need materials that handle humidity well. Kitchens and bathrooms usually favor window blinds over fabric-heavy curtains.
The opening. Narrow recesses, sliding doors, windows above sinks, and nearby furniture can decide the choice before style does.
The light. A bedroom may need blackout. A living room may only need glare and privacy control.
Whether you will touch it. If you adjust the window covering several times a day, simple operation matters.
The look. Window blinds keep the window visually cleaner. Curtains add more fabric and visual weight to the room.
The rule is simple.
Small, wet, awkward, or frequently adjusted window? Start with a blind.
Large, dry, and a window you want dressed rather than managed? A curtain may suit it better.
Want both? Use the blind for light, privacy, or heat control, and the curtain to finish the room.
Chapter 2: Types of window blinds compared
There are more types of blinds on sale here than anyone needs.
This chapter maps the ones you will meet, then goes deep on the four we make.
The formats you will come across
We counted the catalogs of 68 blind sellers across Malaysia and Singapore.
Five formats appear in more than half of them.
Roller is on 66 of the 68. Venetian on 61, zebra on 54, roman on 41, vertical on 39.
Then it drops.
Honeycomb sits at 27, panel glide at 15, and the rest are in single figures.
Venetian blinds, and which kind. Almost every seller lists them.
Most never say what the slats are made of.
Aluminum, PVC, and wood all sit under one word. We make the wooden version, covered below.
For a utility room, aluminum is the sensible buy and easy to find.
Vertical. Vanes on a top track that rotate and draw sideways.
Still the standard answer for a wide sliding door.
We would run a roller blind or a RomaFold roman blind instead, because the vanes tangle and the look dates.
If you want vertical, you are well served elsewhere.
Honeycomb blinds, or cellular. Pleated fabric formed into air-filled cells.
The trapped air insulates better than a flat blind does.
Honeycomb blinds sit at 27 of the 68 lists, and we do not make them.
Worth knowing why.
Among the sellers who actually manufacture rather than resell, almost none carry it.
For a homeowner that changes nothing. For a dealer it changes lead time, spare parts, and who answers the phone when a cell splits.
The specialties. Panel glide, bamboo, pleated, and shutters each turned up on under a quarter of the lists.
Ask about them only if you have a skylight, very wide glass, or a window that is really joinery.
Outdoors is a separate category with its own engineering.
See the cable-guided outdoor blinds guide.
We make four of those five: roller, zebra, roman as RomaFold, and the wooden venetian.
Vertical we leave to others, and honeycomb, which sits just below the line.
Roller blinds
One panel of fabric on a tube. It rolls up.
That is the whole mechanism, which also means fewer moving parts.
It also runs the largest of anything we make, 6.0 m wide and 12.0 m of drop.
Where it falls short. It is one flat panel, so you get up or down and nothing useful in between.
A standard roller also leaves about 19 mm of gap down each side on an outside mount. That gap is why a blackout roller still leaks light unless you add side channels.
There is a way around the first one. Run two roller blinds on the same window, a sheer in front and a blackout behind.
Sheer through the day for view and glare control. Blackout at night for a properly dark room.
One window, two jobs, no curtain track over the top.
Pick it for large glazing, tall windows, and any job where the fabric should do the work.
Zebra blinds
Alternating sheer and solid bands on one fabric, in two layers.
Offset the layers for view.
Line sheer up with sheer for privacy with daylight.
Slide solid over sheer and the window closes.
One blind, three states, no second product.
Watch the name. Across those 68 catalogs, this one format sells under seven names: zebra, Korean combi, Korea, combi, rainbow, day night, and vision.
Two sellers slash two names together in one menu label.
One lists four of them as separate entries for the same product.
Where it falls short. It is narrower than a roller, stopping at 2.438 m standard and 3.657 m in the wide build.
The banded look is strong and not everyone wants it.
And fully closed it gets you room darkening, not blackout. Chapter 4 covers why those two are not the same.
Pick it for a window that needs view in the morning and privacy at night.
Roman blinds, RomaFold
Fabric that folds into horizontal pleats as it lifts.
The softest of the four, and the closest thing to a curtain that still behaves like a blind.
It runs 4 m wide manual and 5 m motorized. Drop is 3.7 m manual and 8 m motorized.
Where it falls short. It stacks.
Even fully raised, 18 to 35 cm of folded fabric sits in the top of the window, and up to 40 cm on a tall window in a heavy fabric. That glass is gone for good.
Mount it outside the reveal if you want the glass back. That is how we usually fit it anyway.
Pick it for rooms where you want fabric warmth without committing to a curtain track.
Wooden blinds
Horizontal slats, 35 mm or 50 mm, that tilt. Basswood, faux wood, or bamboo.
This is the only one of the four that angles light rather than blocking or filtering it.
You can hold the view and kill the glare at once, which no fabric blind does.
Where it falls short. It is the narrowest of the four at 2.90 m.
And the material is not a styling choice.
Real wood warps in a wet room.
The rule that prevents most complaints: faux wood for bathrooms and kitchens, real wood for air-conditioned rooms.
Pick it for studies and dining rooms, where the angle of the light matters more than blacking it out.
Matching format to window size
Check width and drop separately.
A format that clears your width can still fail on drop.
Width: roller 6.0 m, RomaFold 5 m motorized, zebra 3.657 m, wooden 2.90 m.
Drop: roller 12.0 m, RomaFold 8 m motorized, wooden 5.00 m.
Zebra has no published drop.
Ask for it against the fabric you pick.
More of this list works the same way, set against the fabric you choose rather than fixed in advance.
None of it is a stock size, because none of it is stock.
So measure both, pick the fabric, then confirm the size. In that order.
On a window that is both wide and tall, roller is the only one of the four that clears it alone.
The rest get split across several blinds on one headrail. That looks fine, but choose it rather than discover it on install day.
Not sure which format suits your windows? A free site measurement settles it in one visit.
Chapter 3: Choosing window blinds room by room
One blind spec across a whole house is the cheapest way to buy and the fastest way to regret it.
This chapter names a format for each of the five rooms, then the two things that override all five: what you want it to look like, and which way the window faces.
Bedroom, and how dark you want it
Decide how dark you want it before you pick the format.
For no light at all, fit a roller blind. One flat panel on a tube seals against a frame, and blackout is a system rather than a fabric. Chapter 4 covers it.
For a dark room that still reads as a room, a zebra blind does it. Its solid bands slide over the sheer and close the window to room darkening, not blackout.
Want softer folds? A RomaFold takes blackout fabric with a lining, and gets close to dark rather than all the way.
Which suits you depends on whether you sleep through light.
Living room, the room with the most glass
A 2025 study of 360 apartment residents in Johor Bahru, published by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, found the common failure.
People reached for curtains and ended up with dim rooms and the lights on.
In this climate the glare comes off a bright overcast sky, not off a single beam.
You are dimming the whole sky.
Fit a roller blind on anything wide. It is the only format we make that clears a 6 m span without splitting the window across several blinds on one headrail.
On a street-facing window, a zebra blind earns its place instead.
View in the morning, privacy at night, one product.
Kitchen, where the format has to get out of the way
Malaysia’s own energy standard for homes recommends more daylight in a kitchen than in any other room (MS 2680:2017, Table 1).
Reaching for darkness here is the wrong instinct.
Fit a roller blind.
It sits flat, wipes down in one pass, and leaves the hob clear.
Rule out RomaFold. The folds hold grease, and even fully raised it parks up to 40 cm of fabric across the top of a window you need light from.
For a kitchen the fabric matters more than usual. Chapter 4 covers what fabric does, and Chapter 5 covers which materials survive heat and damp.
Bathroom, and whether the surface dries
The problem is not that a bathroom is wet.
It is that it goes wet, then dry, then wet again, every day.
Check the extractor fan before the blind. Still air is what keeps a surface wet, and no material fixes that.
Two formats survive that, and they do it differently.
A faux wood Venetian blind hangs as separate slats, so air moves and it dries between showers.
A roller blind in a synthetic does not absorb water at all, and it wipes clean.
Leave it down to dry, not rolled up wet.
Either way, rule out a natural weave.
Mold feeds on the film of soap and skin that settles on any surface, so even a synthetic is not immune.
What decides it is whether the surface can dry.
Chapter 5 covers why the material changes here.
Study, glare on a screen
A dark study and a readable screen are opposite requests.
Fit a wooden blind. It is the only format we make that angles light rather than blocking or filtering it, so you can kill the glare and keep the view in one movement.
Two Malaysian studies support this.
One found a venetian gives better average indoor light than a roller (Othman and Mohd Khalid, 2013).
In the other, glare in a tropical home study fell from intolerable to imperceptible (Mousavi and colleagues, 2021).
And where taste leads, say so
None of the above tells you what the window should look like, and that part is yours.
The designers who reason room by room almost never reason in format.
Cate Gutter of CWG Design says to let the purpose of the room guide the material and the mechanics.
Katie Glaister of K&H Designs puts it shorter: there is no one best way to dress a window.
Then check which way the window faces
Two rooms with the same use can need different window blinds, and the reason is the compass.
That same energy standard singles out east and west walls for shading (MS 2680:2017, clause 4.6.1.2).
North and south glass never takes the sun head on.
So east and west glass needs more shading than the room’s use suggests. Chapter 4 covers which fabric.
And on a window that takes direct sun, choose a format you can adjust.
A blind you cannot adjust must be dense enough for the worst hour, which leaves it too dark for the other eleven.
Chapter 4: Fabric, openness, and light control
Fabric answers two separate questions: how much light gets in, and where the heat ends up.
Most quotes answer them with one word.
This chapter keeps them apart.
What the fabric is actually made of
A solar screen is a mesh. Polyester is the yarn. PVC is the coating on it.
Both figures are by weight, which is why our screens read 30% polyester and 70% PVC.
The coating is also why none of our screens is PVC-free. A PVC-free spec means a different fabric.
Light and view come through the open share of the weave.
A woven fabric has no gaps and no coating. Our light filtering fabric is a linen blend, 15% linen, 10% viscose, and 75% polyester.
It softens light through the fiber itself.
Format limits what you can specify. A roller blind takes either.
A zebra blind is a dual-layer woven polyester, so its sheer bands are part of the cloth.
RomaFold fabric is heat-set so it does not distort, and reinforced stitching at each fold point is what holds the fold line.
A wooden blind has no fabric panel, only cloth ladder tapes. Chapter 5 covers the slats.
What openness factor actually means
Openness factor is the share of the surface the weave leaves open.
It runs 1, 3, 5, and 10 percent, and it describes solar screens only.
That number sets how much light and view you get.
Take white from the tightest openness band to the most open.
At 1% openness, 12% of visible light comes through. At 10%, 19%.
In black the swing is wider, 3% at the tight end and 13% at the open end.
So the openness band moves a dark fabric further than a light one.
The rest follows the band.
Our 3% screen rates excellent for glare and blocks 95 to 99% of UV.
The 10% rates good, blocks 90 to 95%, and gives low privacy.
One thing no openness band fixes.
A solar screen gives daytime privacy, then reverses after dark.
Lights on inside, and anyone outside sees in.
So if night privacy matters, pair the screen with a blackout layer.
Sheer, light filtering, room darkening, or blackout
Openness describes a screen.
Every other fabric gets one of four light control levels instead: sheer, light filtering, room darkening, or blackout.
Keep the two apart.
A quote naming a light control level and an openness figure together tells you nothing about what the fabric does at the window.
What each format gives you:
- Roller blinds: all four levels, plus solar screens at every openness band
- Zebra blinds: sheer, light filtering, and a blackout fabric which, closed, still darkens rather than blacks out
- RomaFold: sheer, light filtering, blackout
- Wooden blinds: none, because the slats do the work
Room darkening still glows at the edges.
Blackout stops the light at the fabric.
Why blackout is a system, not a fabric
Blackout blinds usually fail at the edges, not in the fabric.
A standard roller leaves about 19 mm of gap down each side on an outside mount.
Put a bright morning behind it and you get two strips of light on the wall, through a fabric that blocks everything.
Closing that gap is fabric plus hardware, and it is five parts, not one:
- Blackout fabric
- A pocket above the window, or a fascia with a top back cover
- Side channels
- An exposed hembar, the weighted bar at the bottom, with black wool pile
- A sill angle, sealing the bottom edge against the sill
It does not work in reverse either. Side channels on a sheer fabric will not reach full blackout.
A RomaFold uses a lining instead of channels, claimed at up to 98% blackout consistency with blackout fabric and lining, at specified gap tolerances.
Specify the hardware with the cloth, or the room will not go dark.
White or dark fabric, and which keeps the room cooler
Here is the one most people have backwards.
Dark fabric looks like it should block more heat, because it blocks more light.
It does close to the opposite.
Same family, same openness, our 1% screen.
White reflects 72% of solar energy back outside and absorbs 13%. Black reflects 4% and absorbs 93%.
Both let very little light through, 12% against 3%. The difference is what happens to the rest.
Absorbed energy becomes heat at the glass.
View runs the other way.
Black gives the sharpest view out and the best glare control, because a dark surface does not bounce interior light back.
Light colors for heat. Dark colors for view and glare.
Almost everyone expects a dark fabric to kill the view. What actually sets the view is the openness, and only a solar screen has an openness band.
Choosing openness and color together
One honest limit first.
An indoor blind manages glare and some heat, but it cannot match outdoor shading.
By the time the sun reaches an indoor blind, the heat is already through the glass.
So when the room is hot rather than bright, the shading has to sit outside.
Outdoor zip blinds do that.
Inside, openness decides how much light and view survive.
Color decides where the heat goes.
That reading is ours, from our own color tables.
A west-facing window. Light color, then the tightest openness band you can live with.
Tighter means less heat and less view.
A window you want to see out of. Dark color, band set by the glare you can take.
A kitchen window. Light color, mid band at 3 or 5 percent, and the reason is daylight, not heat.
Color first, from whether you are protecting against heat or protecting the view. Band second, from the glare you can take.
Openness factor is easier to judge with a swatch in your hand at your own window.
Chapter 5: Built for tropical windows
Three things fail here, and none of them is bad luck.
Wood warps, fabric fades, and the wrong material grows mold.
Each one has a material answer.
Real wood warps, and the cord shows it first
Real wood absorbs water. In a kitchen or a bathroom it gets wet every day.
And it does not fail evenly.
It warps first where the cord pulls through the slat. Then it runs off-square along the whole lift line, and the slats stop tilting square.
Inside a year the install looks tired, and none of it is the hardware’s fault.
The composite faux wood does not absorb water, so that failure has nowhere to start.
The rule: faux wood venetian blinds for kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms, real wood for air-conditioned rooms.
Same hardware either way. The material is the whole decision.
One warning about spec sheets.
A humidity rating is measured in air that is damp but dry to the touch. A bathroom gets water on the surface, which is a different test.
So a humidity rating on a spec sheet is not bathroom clearance. Ask for the material instead, and specify faux wood.
Wood blinds go into kitchens and bathrooms often enough. What we check on site is whether water lands on them directly, because that is the part they will not take.
Fading, and the one number that leads
Ultraviolet is what ages a room. The blocking percentage is the one figure worth putting on a quote.
A roller blind blocks up to 99% of it, depending on the fabric.
The tighter screens sit at the top of that range. The most open one drops to 90 to 95 percent.
So the openness band you chose in Chapter 4 sets your UV number too.
Then there is the fabric holding its own color.
Ours is rated Grade 8 for color fastness, the top of the scale, against GB/T 8427-2008. At that grade the color is virtually unchanged after prolonged sun.
A wooden blind works differently.
The slat carries a UV topcoat and we publish no blocking figure for it.
So when the UV number has to appear on the quote, specify fabric.
Mold follows the material, not the room
Everyone blames the bathroom. The material decides it.
Cotton and linen support mold above 80% relative humidity in still air.
Engineered synthetics resist it far better (Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute).
So a fabric blind in a wet room is a synthetic, never a natural weave.
And ask what the hardware is made of, not just the fabric. Say the room is a bathroom when you ask.
Chapter 3 made the format call for a bathroom.
This is the half underneath it: what the cloth or the slat is made of, and whether it can dry.
That cuts against one of our own fabrics.
Our light filtering weave runs 15% linen and 10% viscose, and both are plant fibers.
It belongs in a dry living room, not a wet one.
One more detail on the fabric itself.
We heat-seal the edges of our roller blinds so they resist fraying. Sounds small, until you look down a row of windows.
The tropical spec, in three lines
- Wet room, faux wood venetian, or a roller in a synthetic
- Strong sun, fabric, with the UV figure written on the quote
- Damp air that never moves, an engineered synthetic and never a natural weave
Chapter 6: Manual, motorized, and smart control
Motorized blinds are not about convenience. They are about whether the blind ever moves at all.
Nobody moves the blind after the first week
A Malaysian study counted it.
In a green-certified Putrajaya office, 81% of occupants adjusted their blinds rarely, and only 3% ever opened them fully (Alam and Shari, 2019).
One in nine touched them daily.
Glare was the reason anyone moved them at all, not darkness.
And blind position tracked the building’s orientation and floor level, not the time of day.
That was an office, and nobody has measured Malaysian homes the same way.
But the pattern is the one every dealer already recognizes.
And it matters, because almost every comfort claim in this category assumes somebody moves the blind.
A motor is what makes that assumption true.
Manual, battery or wired
Manual is a line, not a downgrade.
Fit manual on a window you walk past every day. It is the cheapest place to put your money into fabric instead of hardware.
For motorized, the power route is set by format.
A roller blind takes battery or hardwired.
One trap on the battery route.
A battery motor will not take the side channels a blackout build needs, so a blackout bedroom is a wired window.
A RomaFold is wired only, with no battery option. A zebra blind runs wired.
On a wooden blind, the motor drives both the lift and the tilt.
Wired is the decision with an expiry date.
The cable has to land before the ceiling closes.
Nobody comes back unhappy about the motor itself. What we hear instead is that they wish they had known about the wiring earlier.
“I will motorize later”
You can, if two things were done at the start.
The tube and bracket, sized at the original measurement to carry a motor.
And the cable, run to the head of the window before the ceiling closes. A battery roller skips this. Zebra and RomaFold cannot.
Get both right and the retrofit drops a motor in and keeps your fabric and hembar. Miss the tube and the blind is refabricated from scratch. Miss the cable and you are cutting into a finished ceiling.
So say it at the site visit, even when the order is manual.
The tube is sized at the visit anyway. The cable is the part with an expiry date.
Smart means naming the ecosystem
Never accept the phrase smart blinds without an ecosystem attached to it.
Alexa and Google Home connect directly on our motorized lines. No extra hub, no second app.
Apple Home is where it gets specific.
On the Aqara route it bridges through the Aqara hub, which we include and configure at install.
On the Lutron route it runs through the Lutron motor option.
Ask which route your quote is on. The two do not behave the same way, and the difference shows up on day one.
Where a hub is involved, schedules sit in its app rather than in the voice assistant.
So a routine keeps running when the home Wi-Fi drops.
One note for integrators. You are specifying this rather than living with it, so we supply to you rather than to the homeowner. See supply for integrators.
The motor-failure question, answered straight
This is the fear in both markets, so it deserves a straight answer rather than a warranty line.
A motorized blind has no chain, so a power cut leaves nothing to raise it by hand.
What happens instead is that the blind holds where it is.
On roller, zebra, and RomaFold the settings survive the outage, so nothing needs reprogramming when power returns.
We publish no such claim for wooden blinds, so if that matters, ask us to confirm it against the motor on your quote.
If hand operation during an outage is a hard requirement, that is a curtain track conversation rather than a blind one.
If the motor does fail, the repair comes back to us, not to a marketplace seller who cannot service what they shipped. Chapter 8 covers the warranty.
So, motorize or not
Motorize the window you cannot reach, the room that runs on a schedule, and the wide span where a chain is a daily chore.
Leave manual on the window you pass anyway.
Then decide before the ceiling closes. That is the only part of this chapter you cannot redo cheaply.
Chapter 7: Measuring, mounting, and installation
A blind is made to the window, not picked off a size chart. So the measurement is the product decision, not the paperwork before it.
Inside or outside, and what each one gives up
Reveal-fix, or inside mount, sits the blind inside the opening. It keeps the most view and lines up with the wall.
Face-fix, or outside mount, goes on the wall above the reveal instead. It covers more, which is the point.
Pocket mount is the third option, on roller and zebra both. It is for when the architect designed a recess above the window into the ceiling.
The true blackout build needs face-fix or a pocket, because side channels have to sit clear of the reveal.
So the mount is not a styling preference. It follows the reveal you have and the light you need to stop.
The depth you have decides for you
A wooden blind wants 60 mm of reveal depth for an inside mount.
Less than that and the headrail projects past the reveal line, where it can foul a window handle or a curtain track sitting behind it.
Most reveals are not square. Plastered walls and renovated openings are the usual culprits.
End brackets carry 5 mm of adjustment either way, and that is what lets an installer true up an opening that is not.
A RomaFold has its own version of this problem, because it keeps folded fabric in the head of the window even when raised.
Chapter 2 covers the numbers.
The gap you cannot measure away
A roller blind leaves about 19 mm down each side on an outside mount.
It is ordered to the bracket-to-bracket width rather than the fabric width, and that difference is the gap.
Closing it is hardware, not fabric, and Chapter 4 covers how.
Self-measuring is where this goes wrong. A reveal’s width changes with its depth, so the number at the glass is not the number at the room.
Measure the narrowest point or the blind does not fit.
When someone measures for themselves, they usually measure the opening and stop there. Skirting and the working tolerance still have to come off that number.
And a small error turns an even gap into a light line you look at every morning.
What the visit actually does
Someone comes out and records the reveal width, the reveal depth, the projection clearance, and how square each opening is.
Obstructions get noted, whatever yours turn out to be.
Then the decisions get locked in the room.
Mount type, which side the chain or motor sits on, roll direction, and the fabric checked in your daylight rather than under showroom lighting.
Roll direction is the one people skip.
Reverse roll pushes the fabric off the glass to clear a window handle, and it cannot be used with a fascia, so choose one and say which at the visit.
The tube and bracket also get sized to carry a motor later, whether or not you order one now.
A measurement typically lands within 5 to 7 business days of enquiry. The quote follows within one business day of the visit.
The same company measures, fabricates, and installs. This is not a DIY product.
Do it before the ceiling closes
This is the expensive mistake, and it is not the blind.
Coordination with the electrical, audiovisual, and joinery trades happens at the same visit, so the install date lands before the ceiling shuts.
Leave it late and you are cutting back into a finished ceiling, rerouting cable, and rebuilding the pelmet.
The cavity and the wiring are the expensive things to change. The blind itself is not.
Inside or outside mount is decided at the window, not on a website.
Book my free site measurement, or send us your window photos and we will tell you what will work.
Chapter 8: Cost, care, and buying well
Two honest quotes for the same window can differ widely. The gap is usually specification, not markup.
What actually moves the price
Fabric is the first lever, and it moves a quote more than the format does.
A solar screen, a linen blend, and a blackout weave are different cloths at different prices, and the library spans several mills.
Certification is not the variable. GREENGUARD Gold and OEKO-TEX Standard 100 run across the whole 2026 library, so they are not what separates one quote from another.
Control is the second lever. Manual is one price point, and battery, wired, and specification-grade motors are three more.
Hardware is the third, and it is the one people underestimate.
The blackout build in Chapter 4 is a fabric plus four hardware components, and each one is a line on the quote.
So two quotes can name the same format and still describe different products.
One may be open-catalog fabric on a manual chain. The other, a specification-grade fabric on a wired motor behind a fascia.
We publish no price list.
So ask for the cost drivers itemized on your quote rather than a rate per square meter, because that rate moves with all three levers.
The quote usually moves after the measurement. That is because the visit is where the specification gets fixed, and the specification is what the price is made of.
How to clean window blinds, by format
Dust it, do not wash it. That covers almost the whole life of a fabric blind.
A feather duster, or a vacuum with a soft brush attachment, does the routine work.
Hard vacuuming distorts the fabric.
For a stain on roller blind, zebra blind, or RomaFold fabric, use a mild detergent and clean water on a soft cloth.
Blot it, never rub.
Test a hidden corner first, rinse with clean water, then let the blind air dry unrolled.
Blackout fabric is the exception. Never put liquid on the backing.
Never put solvent on a solar screen. Mineral spirits, paint thinners, and strong disinfectants attack the PVC coating described in Chapter 4.
A wooden blind works differently.
Tilt the slats fully closed one way and dust, then tilt fully closed the other way and dust again.
No furniture polish and no cleanser on the slats. Both damage the finish.
The cloth ladder tapes take a blot, never a rub.
Dry them with the blind lowered and the slats tilted open.
The hardware itself needs no maintenance. No lubrication schedule, no annual service.
When something does need adjusting, it goes back to whoever fabricated and installed it. Not to a general handyman.
The warranty, and what it actually covers
Five years, on every product we fabricate.
It covers fabric, hardware, mechanism, and the motor where one is specified, against material and workmanship faults.
Cover starts on the install date our team records.
It excludes misuse, unapproved modification, and damage from conditions outside the product’s rated range.
Lines we fabricate for Lutron carry Lutron’s own eight-year term instead. Ask which one your quote sits under.
Where to buy, and why the route changes the answer
Three routes into New Way, and they are not interchangeable:
- Direct from us, where one company measures, fabricates, installs, and answers the callback three years later
- Through a retailer on our dealer program, where the retailer holds the relationship and we fabricate behind them
- Project supply, quoted against an architect’s or a designer’s written specification
Two audiences have a page of their own: the homeowner route if the window is yours, and supply for retailers if you are specifying for a client.
Specifying for a client? Our dealer program keeps the relationship yours while we fabricate behind you.
What we commit to before you commit
Three dates, in the order they happen:
- A site measurement typically within 5 to 7 business days of enquiry
- The quote within one business day of the visit
- Fabrication and install dates confirmed at quotation, not after it
Conclusion
That was a lot of ground, and it is the whole decision path for window blinds.
So do not start by re-reading it. Start with one window.
Take a real window from your current project and run it through three chapters in order. Chapter 3 for the format, Chapter 4 for the fabric, Chapter 6 for the control.
Those three decisions constrain everything after them. Get the order right and the mount, the hardware, and the cost follow from them.
If the problem sits outside the glass rather than inside the room, so does the answer.
That is outdoor zip blinds, not an indoor format.
Which window in your current project is the hardest one to solve?
Frequently asked questions
Blinds, shades, and curtains
What is the difference between window shades and blinds?
Nothing in the product. The split is regional vocabulary, not a technical category. This industry’s safety standards define each product one at a time, a roller shade, a roman shade, a horizontal blind, and none of them draws the line between the two words. When they need one term for everything, they say window covering. Malaysia and Singapore say blind; a US showroom says shade for the same roller.
What is a window blind called?
A window blind is called a blind in Malaysia and Singapore, a shade in the United States, and bidai in Malay. A curtain is a different product, loose fabric drawing sideways on a track or a rod, and in Malay it is langsir. The local search phrase blind curtain combines both words and always means a blind: roller blind curtain and zebra blind curtain are both blind formats.
Is blinds better or curtains?
For a tropical home a blind is usually the better fit, though MS 2680:2017, Malaysia’s energy standard for homes, lists roller blinds and curtains together as movable sun shading rather than ranking them. Three things decide it: the room, since kitchens and bathrooms want an engineered material rather than cotton or linen; the opening, since a blind sits inside the window and a curtain hangs past it; and how often you will adjust it.
Types and specification
What type of window blinds are popular now?
Roller is the usual starting point, because it is the most basic format. It is one panel of fabric on a tube that rolls up, with few moving parts. That simple build also runs the largest sizes and takes every light level, from sheer to blackout. The right format still depends on the room, so Chapter 3 goes through it room by room.
What is openness factor, and which one should I choose?
Openness factor is the share of a fabric’s surface the weave leaves open, and it applies to solar screens only. It runs 1, 3, 5, and 10 percent. Choose the color first and the openness band second, because light colors reflect heat outward while dark colors give the sharpest view and the best glare control. A 3% screen blocks 95 to 99% of UV; a 10% screen blocks 90 to 95% and gives low privacy.
Do blackout blinds actually block all light?
Not on their own. Blackout fabric stops light at the cloth, but a standard roller blind leaves about 19 mm of gap down each side on an outside mount, so light arrives at the edges. Full blackout is a five-part build, from blackout fabric and a pocket above the window down to a sill angle. It does not work in reverse: side channels on a sheer fabric never reach blackout.
Performance and durability
Will humidity cause mold on fabric blinds?
Only where the material allows it. Cotton and linen support mold above 80% relative humidity in still air; engineered synthetics resist it far better (Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute). So a fabric blind in a wet room should be a synthetic, never a natural weave. A spec sheet’s humidity rating is measured in air that is damp but dry to the touch, so it is not bathroom clearance.
Cost, install, and maintenance
What drives the price difference between blind types?
Three levers, and format is not the main one. Fabric comes first: a solar screen, a linen blend, and a blackout weave are different cloths at different prices. Certification is not the variable, since GREENGUARD Gold and OEKO-TEX Standard 100 run library-wide. Control is second: manual is one price point, and battery, wired, and specification-grade motors are three more. Hardware is third and most underestimated.
