A roman blinds buying guide really comes down to three choices. How the fabric folds when you raise the blind. Which lining controls light and heat in the room. And which control keeps the blind safe and easy to use every day. Get these right and the blind suits the room for years. Get one wrong, say the wrong lining in a bedroom, and you will notice it every single day.

This guide works through each choice in turn, with a plain test for each one. Every fact in it comes from our own roman blinds, not general industry claims.

Roman blinds fold styles: flat fold or soft fold explained

Raise a roman blind and the fabric stacks at the top. It does this in one of two broad ways. A crisp, flat fold shows a clean, structured line. A softer fold gathers more loosely and rounds off at the edges. Which one you get depends mostly on the weight of the fabric, and on whether it is lined. It is not really a named “style” you pick off a list.

Here is a simple test before you commit to a fabric. Ask to see a sample folded over your hand a few times at your free home measuring visit. A heavier fabric with a full lining behind it tends to stack into flatter folds. It shows off a plain or geometric print clearly. A lighter, softer fabric falls into rounder folds. It suits a more traditional look and works well with a floral or textured print. Neither fold is better. It comes down to what matches your curtains and the rest of the room.

Fold matters even more on a bay window. A bay needs a separate roman blind cut to each angled pane, not one wide blind across the whole window. We cover the reasoning behind fitting Roman blinds to a bay window in more depth, including why a single wide blind rarely works on angled glass. Still deciding between a roman blind and another option for a bay or a bifold door? Our full bay window and bifold door comparison sets out how each option behaves on sectioned glass.

 

Roman blind lining options for light and heat control

Fabric matters. So does lining. The lining sits behind the main fabric and changes what the blind actually does, not just how it looks. We offer three broad lining choices on our roman blinds: a full blackout lining, a thermal lining, and a lighter or sheer fabric with no heavy lining at all. The table below is a quick way to see which one answers your main problem.

Blackout lining for bedrooms and bay-window roman blinds

Blackout lining is a full lining fitted behind the face fabric. It is built to stop light passing through the fabric itself. Choose it for a bedroom or a bay-fronted room facing a street light or an early sunrise. How much light actually leaks round the edges of the blind is a different question, down to the fit rather than the fabric. We cover that properly in our guide to which blinds suit a bedroom, including how to get a darker room without a full blackout box.

 

Thermal roman blinds made to measure for cold rooms and winter nights

A thermal lining adds a layer behind the main fabric. It is designed to help keep a room cosy at night and through winter. That often makes the real difference in a room with a draughty or older window. Thermal roman blinds made to measure also tend to sit closer to the glass than curtains can, since curtains need room either side of the window to gather. A well-fitted blind holds warm air against the glass more evenly. Weighing up a roman blind against curtains for an older window? How Roman blinds compare with curtains looks at warmth and upkeep side by side.

 

Lighter and sheer roman blinds for living rooms and kitchens

Not every window needs to go dark. We also make lighter and sheer roman blinds. The fabric softens direct sun and gives privacy, without shutting daylight out completely. That suits a living room or a kitchen you use through the day. Pattern and colour do more of the work here than lining does. We offer more than 1,000 styles to choose from, in a wide range of colours, from plain block shades to patterned prints. That range is what lets the fabric get matched properly to the room, rather than picked from a short list.

 

Cordless roman blinds and other child-safe controls

Safety is not optional. Every roman blind sold in the UK has to meet British Standard BS EN 13120. It sets out that a cord or chain loop must sit well out of a young child’s reach, or carry a breakaway device that releases under a set amount of force. A corded roman blind is not banned. The standard just sets out how the control has to be made safe, and that matters most in a bedroom or a playroom.

Cordless roman blinds remove the loop altogether. For a child’s room, that is usually the simplest way round the whole issue. Whether a cordless mechanism suits a particular blind depends on its size and weight, so this is exactly the kind of detail worth asking about at your free home measuring visit, rather than guessing from a product description online. Where a corded or chain mechanism is used instead, a cleat, a tensioner or a breakaway connector all help meet the standard. We set out the full detail on these fittings, and on the standard itself, in UK blind cord safety rules. Read it in full if a cot or climbable furniture sits anywhere near the window.

Try this test in the room right now. Measure from the floor, or from the top of a cot or climbable furniture, up to where a cord loop or chain would hang. If that gap is short, or likely to shrink once furniture gets moved, treat the control mechanism as a real decision. Raise it when you book your measuring visit, not after the blind is up.

 

Made to measure roman blinds in London: why fit matters more than fabric

Fit comes first. A roman blind that is even slightly the wrong width will not fold evenly. One that is the wrong drop will leave a gap at the sill, or stack untidily at the top. That is the main reason an off-the-shelf roman blind rarely looks right for long, whatever the fabric. Made to measure roman blinds in London from us start with a window-by-window measure at your property. Bay windows get measured pane by pane, not as one width, so the fold sits evenly and the blind actually fits the recess or wall it hangs on.

Every roman blind we supply carries a 12-month manufacturer’s guarantee. Our fitting is covered by a 5-year workmanship warranty, so the fit you get is backed well beyond the day the fitter leaves. You can see examples of our fitted blinds before deciding on a fabric or fold.

 

Our roman blinds fitting service across East London

Our roman blinds fitting service covers East London and the surrounding Essex area. It starts with a free home measuring visit. There, you see and fold fabric samples against your actual window rather than a screen. We measure the window, talk through the fold, lining and control that suit the room, then fit the finished blind ourselves. There is no obligation to order after the visit. No hard sell. No pressure. No pricing is given over the phone either. Width, drop and lining all change the job, and so does the number of panes on a bay window.

Want a roman blind measured and quoted for your own windows? You can book a free home measuring visit, or start by looking at our made-to-measure Roman blinds to see the full range first.

 

What customers say about our roman blinds after fitting

We only use review quotes that are genuinely about the product being discussed. So there is one roman blind review to share here, from a customer with a bay window, which is exactly the fitting situation covered earlier in this guide.

“Quality blinds. Had Roman blinds installed on a bat window and am very happy with everything, highly recommended.” That’s Eesa Khalil, in a Google review.

 

 

Roman blinds questions we’re asked most often

Q: Do you fit roman blinds near me in East London?

A: Yes. Our roman blinds fitting service covers East London and the nearby Essex areas. We book a free home measuring visit at your property before anything is ordered.

 

Q: Can I order bespoke roman blinds London for an unusual window?

A: Yes. Bay windows, sash windows and awkward recesses all get measured individually, not fitted with an off-the-shelf size. On an unusual window, the bespoke measure matters more than the fabric choice.

 

Q: Can I get a thermal roman blinds made to measure service for a cold room?

A: Yes. Thermal lining is one of our standard choices alongside blackout and lighter or sheer fabric. Which one suits your room is one of the things we talk through at the measuring visit.

 

Q: How does your roman blinds fitting service work from quote to fitting?

A:  You book a free home measuring visit. We measure the window, including each pane of a bay separately, and talk through the lining and control options for that room. Then we fit the finished blind ourselves once it has been made.