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Straight answers
Guides to choosing blinds, written like we quote
No showroom haze, no finest-materials talk. These are the actual decisions behind a good blind, in the order we make them at a measure, so you can walk into your quote knowing what everything means.
Blockout, light-filter or sheer: how to read a window
The one decision that sorts everything else, and the scale this whole business runs on.
Read the guideWhich mechanism for which household
Cordless, chain or motorised, and what the Australian child-safety rules actually require of an installer.
Read the guideBlinds for west-facing rooms
Why the 4pm room is a heat problem first, and the honest ranking of fixes from outside the glass in.
Read the guideBlinds that survive coastal salt and UV
What sea air does to cheap components, what UV does to entry-grade fabric, and the spec that shrugs both off.
Read the guideReveal fit or face fit
The measuring decision that decides light gaps, looks and how your blind seals, made window by window.
Read the guideThe window finder
Three questions per window and the finder places each one on the openness scale, mechanism included.
Try the toolPlain English
The glossary
Every term you'll meet in our quotes, defined the way we'd say it across a kitchen bench.
- Blockout
- A fabric that passes no light through the weave. What bedrooms and media rooms use for darkness. It stops light completely; heat only partly, which is why hot windows get extra thought.
- Light-filter
- A translucent fabric that glows with daylight but can't be seen through. Softens glare, keeps the room bright, gives privacy by day, but not at night with the lights on.
- Sheer
- An open weave you can see through from the darker side. Cuts glare and daytime exposure while keeping the view. The most open point on the openness scale.
- Openness
- How much light a fabric lets through, running from blockout (nothing) to sheer (plenty). Screen fabrics are often rated as an openness factor, a percentage describing the weave's open area: lower means denser.
- Reveal fit
- The blind sits inside the window opening, close to the glass. Neat and tucked away; leaves a few millimetres of running clearance at each edge.
- Face fit
- The blind mounts on the wall or architrave in front of the opening, usually oversized so it overlaps the window. The darkest option for bedrooms and the usual call on shallow reveals.
- Dual roller
- Two blinds on one bracket, typically a sheer or light-filter in front and a blockout behind, each operating independently. One window, a day answer and a night answer.
- Honeycomb (cellular)
- A pleated blind whose cross-section forms cells that trap still air against the glass, insulating in both directions: summer heat stays out, winter warmth stays in.
- Venetian
- Horizontal slats, aluminium, timber or faux-timber, tilted to steer light and sightlines by degrees rather than raised and lowered as one surface.
- Panel glide
- Wide fabric panels sliding on a track, stacking behind one another. The blind answer for big sliding doors and wide openings.
- Cordless
- A blind operated by its bottom rail with a spring assist holding position, no chain, no cord. The default for windows children can reach.
- Chain tensioner
- The restraint that holds an operating chain's loop taut against the wall or frame, fitted high, so it can't form a loose loop at child height. Required practice under Australia's corded window covering rules.
- Drop and width
- The two numbers a blind is made to: width across the opening, drop from head to sill (or floor). Made-to-measure means made to your millimetres, not the nearest stock size.
- Motorised
- A motor inside the blind tube, driven by remote, switch or timer, battery or wired. Earns its cost on high, wide or many windows; doesn't on a single easy reach.