The Pros & Cons of Roman Blinds

Roman blinds can provide the soft feel of draperies while offering a controllable window covering that opens and closes easily. Many home improvement and speciality blind stores offer in-stock Roman blinds available for purchase and same day do-it-yourself installation. For a more customised look, you can special order roman blinds, also known as roman shades in various sizes, styles and colours. There are both pros and cons associated with Roman shades, as with most other blinds.

Recognised as having a more sophisticated, classy look than most other shades, Roman blinds offer a large amount of style variety. The many different Roman shade styles, such as the teardrop fold style, and the wide assortment of materials used to create Roman shades, provide a large selection of choices for the consumer. When special ordering these shades, consumers have an almost endless amount of colour choices and can match colour swatches to coordinate with any decor. The variety of style options also offers a huge appearance advantage to the consumer. Roman shades also keep their attractive look when completely opened. Pulling the blind's lift cord pulls the folds of the shade to fold up underneath the next fold, leaving an appealing stack at the top of the window.

Roman shades offer a large amount of privacy and light blockage. The full fabric panels filter sunlight as it enters the room and prevent outside passersby from seeing into the home. For even more light blockage, most special order Roman blind manufacturers offer a blackout shade, constructed with a special lining that blocks out all light from rooms that need a complete room-darkening feature. The room darkening option also keeps shadows from being cast to the exterior at night when lights are on in the room.

While Roman shades are effective at blocking out the outside view to a room, the full fabric folds of the blind do have their disadvantages. Unlike the mini blind counterpart, Roman shades cannot be tilted open to allow partial view into a room. The full length of the blind can be pulled up to the top of the window to allow light into the room; however, doing so exposes the room to the outside.

While Roman blinds offer an elegant look, this type of blind is not suitable for a room that gathers a large amount of moisture, such as a bathroom. Steam from the shower can become trapped in the material of the blind and cause the fabric to mildew or mould. Roman blinds in the kitchen can also propose a problem. Cooking odours may become trapped in the fabric of the blinds leaving a strong smell that you cannot easily remove. Greece and oil may also spatter on the fabric of Roman blinds used in the kitchen, damaging the blind's material.

Roman blind manufacturers offer other options that provide style and functionality to the room's decor. Sheer fabrics provide complete light filtering ability for any room that only needs a sheer covering and not privacy. Cordless Roman blinds allow the homeowner to raise and lower their blinds without the use of lift cords. Top down, bottom up Roman shades not only fold from the bottom to the top of the window, but also can fold down from the top of the blind to allow a partial view without giving up complete privacy. Day and night Roman shades have both a lightweight, sheer shade and a heavier, lined blackout shade separated by a middle rail. You can lower the sheer shade for more light but less privacy, while the blackout shade blocks all light and ensures privacy.