Solar Shades & Solar Blinds

Solar blinds, solar screen shades and solar roller shades are the same product under different names. What they are not is a privacy shade or a darkening shade. They are designed for daytime light and heat management, and everything else on this page follows from that.

Openness: The Number That Decides Everything

Every solar fabric is sold by its openness factor. A 5% openness means that 5% of the fabric is open and the rest is fibre. The lower the percentage, the more protection you get from heat, glare and UV – and the more muted the view becomes.

• 1% blocks up to 99% of UV and gives maximum glare reduction. The view is there, but softened.
• 3% blocks up to 97% and is the usual choice for a bright room where glare on a screen is the real problem.
• 5% blocks up to 95% and is our most popular openness level – the balance most homes settle on.
• 10% blocks up to 90% and keeps a clear exterior view.
• 14% blocks up to 86% and gives the best exterior view in our Premier line, for windows where the scenery is the point.

A useful rule of thumb: go lower on west and south-facing glass, where the afternoon sun is hardest, and more open on north and east windows, where glare is milder and the view matters more. Our guide to solar screen openness goes into more detail.

Colour Matters as Much as Openness

Two shades with the same openness can behave very differently depending on colour. Darker fabrics give the best glare control and the clearest view out, because a dark weave absorbs light rather than lighting up. Lighter colours are more effective at reflecting heat away and keep the room brighter, but the fabric itself glows in direct sun and the view through it is softer.

In practice: dark colours for rooms where you want to look out or work on a screen, light colours where heat is a bigger problem than glare. One more thing worth knowing before you choose – a solar shade hung close to an insect screen can create a faint moiré pattern, and lighter fabrics show it less.

What Solar Shades Do Not Do

Solar shades give daytime privacy, and it is real: with the bright exterior against a dimmer room, it is hard to see in. They do not offer nighttime privacy. When lights are on inside at night there is inward visibility, and that holds at every openness, including 1%. A lower openness makes detail harder to pick out, but it does not change what happens once the room is the brighter side.

They also do not darken a room. Even at 1%, the room stays daylit. For a bedroom, or any window that needs privacy after dark, the answer is a second layer – a blackout shade or drapery that closes at night, with the solar shade doing the daytime work. Our solar ranges do not come with a blackout backing or a dual-shade headrail, so plan it as two treatments from the start.

The Ranges

Premier Solar Screen Roller Shades are the core line, sold in five openness levels – 1%, 3%, 5%, 10% and 14% – with six to eight colours each. The fabric is a polyester and PVC blend with Greenguard certification, and Premier has the widest choice of controls.

Signature Solar Shades come in 1%, 3% and 5% across eight colours and build much larger: up to 156 inches in both width and height, enough for a wide picture window in a single panel. ProGrade Solar Roller Shades share that wide-format sizing in a 5% fabric.

Luxe Decorative Solar Shades trade the plain screen weave for textured decorative fabrics in 4%, 7% and 14% openness – the choice when the shade should read as a furnishing rather than a screen.

Zebra Solar Shades alternate sheer bands with 5% solar bands on one roller, so you can shift between an open view and a screened one without raising the shade. They sit alongside our other zebra shades.

Controls and Hardware

Every solar shade comes with a chain as standard, with a metal chain as an upgrade. Cordless lift is available up to 84 by 84 inches on Premier and up to 96 inches wide on Signature; above those sizes, a chain or a motor does the lifting. Motorized operation is offered on every range, up to 96 inches wide on the core lines, and Premier adds a motorwand option and an optional smart hub for app control. Our motorized collection shows the full picture.

At the top, Premier can be left as an exposed roll or finished with a cassette that encloses it; the Signature, ProGrade and Luxe ranges offer a white aluminium fascia or a fabric cassette. Most ranges also offer reverse roll, where the fabric drops from the front of the roll – useful for clearing window cranks and handles. On Premier, reverse roll is available without the cassette.

Where They Work, and Where They Do Not

• Living rooms with a view: the classic case. Glare goes, the view stays, and the room is usable through the afternoon.
• Home offices: a dark 1% or 3% fabric takes the glare off a monitor without shutting out daylight.
• Sun-facing rooms: UV is what fades floors, rugs and upholstery, and a low openness cuts most of it at the glass.
• Wide windows and glass doors: Signature and ProGrade reach 156 inches, which covers most sliding glass doors in one panel.

Where they are wrong: as the only covering in a bedroom, or on any window that needs privacy at night. And they are interior shades – made for windows and enclosed porches, not for open patios exposed to rain and wind.

Measuring and Ordering

Premier builds from 18 to 115 inches wide and 30 to 108 inches high, with shades wider than 96 inches limited to 84 inches high. Signature and ProGrade build from 24 to 156 inches in both directions. For an inside mount, Premier needs 2½ inches of depth, or 3 inches to sit fully flush, and slightly more with the cassette. Our roller shade measuring guide covers both mount types.

Order free samples and hold them against the glass at the time of day that matters. A swatch in your hand will not tell you how 5% looks across a large west window at four in the afternoon; held to the glass, it will. Every shade is built to your measurements, production runs about five to seven business days, shipping is free within the continental United States, and the MeasureSafe™ Guarantee covers you if a measurement goes wrong.