Roller Shades Serve Many Needs

Among the most popular window treatments these days, roller shades are growing the fastest. This great popularity is driven by a new assortment of fabrics that can allow roller shades to achieve new results, easily. As a window treatment, roller shades once held the position of most basic choice. Only available in a handful of colors, roller shades could be decorated with a small assortment of decorative trims or tassels. However, recent innovations in decorative roller shade fabrics as well as light filtering shade fabrics, have led to significant advances and increasingly more situations where roller shades can be used. Room darkening blackout roller shades work simply by covering the opening with a vinyl coated fiberglass roller shade fabric which blocks nearly all the light that attacks a window.

The light which does enter is the exception of any light that passes around the shade on the sides, top or bottom. Among the most difficult, but not impossible problems to eliminate is the problem where sunlight circumvents roller shades, even when the shade is installed outside the window frame. Nevertheless, blocking the main light from the bulk of the window is usually a sufficient result with roller shades. Innovative manufacturers of roller shade control systems can now make guiding channels for the roller shades, forcing them to fully repel light so it cannot pass by the sides of the shades. These side channel roller shades are extremely expensive, but if they solve the sleep or entertainment needs of clients, and make a roller shade truly blackout, then price is not an issue.

Decorative roller shades made from premium roller shade fabric is an expanding niche in roller shades. These beautiful shades, when made right, are made from fabric that hangs flat, but shows lovely patterns. Fabric shades, when decorative fabric is used, can spice up the décor in your room; a simple touch in the windows, decorative roller shades give that finishing touch.

However, beware not to simply use a decorative upholstery fabric, or a fabric that is not engineered for roller shades. Fabric for roller shades must be straight and flat, so it can roll up onto the tubes evenly. Now available in a tremendous range of styles and colors, one can easily decorate with roller shades. One should be looking for a flat and smooth appearance of the roller fabric, if a great design and appearance is what one wants. The quality fabrics for roller shades are made well and will certainly perform nicely. Choose your styles and then continue to choose from the range of colors.

If the color you need is not available in the style you want, you can probably find a good choice fabric for the roller shades with the color you want somewhere. There are so many choices. Roller shades are commonly selected for solar shading using a solar screen material. They result in much more decorative roller shades, which have a solar component, helping in environmental goals.

As a result of the types of fabrics used on these shades, roller shades can lower heat and energy bills. There are several options in light management, measured by openness. This measurement is a method of comparing how much light will be allowed to pass through the roller shades. A view that has little light to fight can have a high openness. A view that is very bright, select a small figure for your roller shades. Because of this type of material, roller shades can become energy management equipment.

A roller shade that completely blocks the sun will require a resident to turn on the lights when moving around in the room. At the same time, should one experience a very strong exposure to the solar light, a roller shade can allow the room to be well lit, without using electric light, and still limit the illumination levels, but lowering the shade to cover the windows a bit. Roller shades no longer need to be a basic shade from the hardware store. Designers have found the many choices of decorative, blackout and solar shading roller shade materials available and have begun to use them, increasingly. It is this increasing demand from designers for more choices in roller shades that has benefited customers across the country, and will stimulate the decorative imagination to choose the best roller shades, and not just what is available.

Judith Persit is a student of interior design. She started in this direction due to a search for design options in window treatments. Ms. Persit writes about roller shades. Roller shades can be interesting, you can learn more about shades at her website with many pictures.