Choosing the right fabric for your roller blind can make all the difference to how it looks and performs.
Deciding on what your main goal is for your blind will help determine which fabric to go for. Are you looking for strong glare control for your living room? Privacy for your bathroom? Complete light exclusion for hotel bedroom? Let us break down the differences and help you decide which fabric to choose.
Voile Fabric
Voile is a soft, sheer fabric, usually made with polyester.
Traditionally voile fabric would be used in tropical climates due to its light and breezy nature.
More recently, homeowners in the UK have been choosing voile roller blinds for their homes in areas where not much shading is needed. An area such as a hallway is a great example of this, where the window doesn’t need to block much light but it would benefit from a stylish window treatment.
Voile blinds also provide privacy to stop onlookers from seeing into your home.
Voile can be used on most roller blinds but is best suited to small and medium windows as the fabric is too lightweight to hold its shape on very large windows.
Dimout Fabric
Dimout fabrics are designed to provide privacy since there is no visibility through them and block a significant amount of light. These fabrics are good for glare control but will not block 100% of light.
Dimout fabrics are popular for living rooms and dining rooms where the homeowner wants to stop glare on their TV but aren’t concerned gentle natural light ingress. They are also popular in commercial buildings such as offices and libraries which need to control glare and privacy for the wellbeing of the occupants.
The effectiveness of a dimout is affected by the colour of the material. A white dimout fabric will let in more light than the same fabric in black, so that is something to bear in mind when choosing your fabric.
Dimout fabrics tend to be made from polyester. This isn’t stable enough for very wide blinds, where the fabric may curl on the edges or scrunch up on the tube.
Blackout Fabric
A blackout fabric does exactly what it says on the tin: blocks out the light.
Blackout fabrics can be rated to block anything from 1000 to 100,000 lux – that’s as bright as the lights in a surgical theatre!
The amount of light being blocked isn’t affected by the colour of the fabric, so you can choose any colour to complement your room décor and still achieve full blackout.
Blackout fabrics can be made from many materials, PVC and polyester are at the lower end of the quality and price range whereas high-end options will often be made from vinyl laminated fibreglass and acrylic.
It’s worth bearing in mind though that no matter how good your fabric is, if you don’t use a blind system with a cassette and side channels there will always be light bleed around the top and sides.
A system like KuroLok™ which has zip-retention side channels and a neat square cassette, will block light gaps that would otherwise be there on a standard roller blind.
Screen Fabric
A screen fabric is a woven material, available in different levels of openness, to allow more or less light through depending on your choice. Available in wide widths and made from anything from polyester to fibreglass, these fabrics can be used on large windows and rooflights.
Screen fabrics are great for thermal shielding, and some even have a metalised silver backing for heat reflection. This makes them ideal for areas that tend to get very hot, such as orangeries and south facing elevations, or rooms with lots of windows such as a hotel reception area.
Screen fabrics allow some visibility which makes them perfect if you want to be able to look out of the window whilst still blocking glare and heat. The amount of a view you get will depend on how open the weave is and the colour of the fabric, with a 1% screen allowing the least view out and a 10% offering the most view out. There are even some fabrics available in a looser weave again, such as 24% openness, for specialist applications.
Speciality Fabrics
For projects with specific requirements, or if you need something a bit more unique, you may need to look at a specialist blind fabric. These can be anything from anti-microbial fabrics for the public sector, fabrics with eco-credentials such as cradle to cradle for new builds, fire retardant fabrics for commercial spaces and much more.
For help choosing the right fabric for your project, it’s best to speak to an expert. Here at Umbra we have over 45 years’ experience in the blinds industry to help you find the perfect solution.
Get in touch today to discuss your requirements. Call 01792 562015 or drop us an email to [email protected].
Or book a 15-minute session in our virtual showroom to see our products in action.