Although woven shades may sound a bit old-fashioned, when they are made of natural materials such as reeds, grass or bamboo, they can have a special charm and a warm way of filtering the light, that such window treatments are often preferred by interior designers who want their creations to be in harmony with nature. Bamboo is warm, flexible and a rapidly renewable resource, therefore it quickly became a popular material for window blinds, shades or curtains. Most important window coverings manufacturers have at leas one line of bamboo blinds in their portfolio.

Levolor Blinds, Care for Your Comfort and Safety

Today we are going to take a look at Levolor’s Natural Woven Shades, which are among the most beautiful and innovative of their kind. Levolor has patented a shade control system that allows choosing whether or not to use the liner of the shade. This makes it possible to enjoy sheer bamboo shades during daytime, half sheer shades when you just want to darken your room more and all room-darkening shades for night-time, when you want full privacy. The system that makes this possible is based on the top down bottom up shades operating principle, and thanks to its versatility it’s an excellent choice for bedrooms or bathrooms, where light is nice, but also privacy is required at times. The Levolor exclusive cordless lift system is very simple to operate and very discrete, so it doesn’t interfere with the look of your windows. The absence of dangling cords adds a plus of safety for children and pets, so it’s good to consider it even if you don’t care too much about the looks. Another convenience feature offered by Levolor is the possibility of installing multiple shades on the same headrail. If you have wide windows, then you surely know how difficult wide shades are to raise or lower, so you probably appreciate this possibility at its real value.

Levolor Woven Bamboo Shades Colors and Finishes

Levolor woven bamboo shades are available in a wide range of colors. Free ordering of up to ten samples is also possible. This is a great idea, because nothing compares to the real look an touch, computer screens being sometimes far from showing the real colors. If bamboo is your favorite out of all woven woods, here are your possible options if you want to go for Levolor: Bamboo Essence Origami, Bamboo Essence Saatchi, Bamboo Essence Shibori and Bamboo Essence Tatami. There are also a few interesting choices of sisal and rattan, in case you’re undecided with the material. Depending on your home interior style, you may wand to make use of some added touches like valances or tailored edges. Valances are available in either wood or decorative scallops with various trim colors such as chestnut, carmel, natural or white. The classic wood valance is available in five finishes: black, white, chestnut, golden oak and sand n beach. Specialty shapes such as arched windows, angled tops or cutouts are possible, but for those you’ll have to visit a Levolor retailer because they can’t be ordered online like the classic bamboo blinds and shades.

Bamboo blinds and shades are not only beautiful but also environmentally friendly. Generally speaking, woven woods are better than classic wood because they are considered renewable resources. Indeed, a bamboo tree grows hundreds of times faster than an oak tree. This is what determined manufacturers of window coverings to take advantage of bamboo, reeds and grasses in creating special lines of eco-friendly products.

Hunter Douglas is one of the major players in the window treatments industry who take pride in protecting the environment while not giving up on quality and comfort. The Provenance woven wood shades offer a natural look, the warmth of nature inside your home, combined with excellent durability and with the latest technology available, in order to maximize the comfort.

The Hunter Douglas Provenance woven wood shades are eco-friendly in more than one way. Not only are they manufactured from renewable resources, but they also feature excellent thermal insulation properties and an outstanding solar heat control which lead to reduced energy consumption for heating or cooling the house. These insulating qualities are emphasized by adding the optional liner provided by Hunter Douglas with this line of window shades.

Hunter Douglas designers pay attention to details and this shows very well in the color-coordinated hardware which makes these shades look much better than cheaper ones that use only brass hardware or unfinished headrails. Edge banding is an other cool option that leaves room for creativity in matching all decor elements in a room. You can make your shades unique by combining fabrics and textures of your choice. Privacy and light filtering control are in the middle range, but these bamboo blinds can become almost opaque if doubled by liners.

Comfort is also one of the Hunter Douglas priorities, which is translated into the many options of operating systems, from the standard cord lock and clutch operated shades to the continuous cord loop systems and the motorized options which allow operating the shades by remote control. If you consider buying such blinds, the best you can do is to find a Hunter Douglas dealer close to you, pay them a visit and see what are the options available, so you can make the best purchasing decision. Beware that Hunter Douglas is anything but cheap, so be prepared to pay for the quality you’re asking for. Nonetheless, such high quality results in a much longer life of the blinds, so on long term it surely pays off nicely.

The Looped Roman shades are part of the Natural Shades line of Bali Blinds and they are designed for indoor use only, although the materials they are made of could easily stand bad weather as well. As Bali takes pride in being a “green” company, they make their Natural Shades window treatments from renewable sources: bamboo, grass, jute or rattan reeds are used. These window shades have 28.5% green content in their composition. All fabrics used are stained by boiling, then air dried, therefore saving energy in the manufacturing process. Eco-friendly raw materials that go into the Bali Natural Shades line of products are 100% recyclable, including the headrail which is made of reclaimed wood. Moreover, the packaging material is also recyclable, so if going green is one of your main concerns, by buying Bali bamboo blinds and shades you’re on the right track.

Although woven wood blinds aren’t usually total light blockers, they can be turned into blackout window treatments by adding a liner. The liner will also contribute to improving the energy efficiency of the window treatment. With or without the liner, these bamboo blinds are quite spectacular, because when they are folded they for soft, billowing loops which add some dimension to the windows, creating a dramatic effect. Colors are all natural and beautiful, and for many of them Bali provides free samples which can be ordered directly online from their website or by visiting a window blinds retailer.

The lift controls on these bamboo shades can be standard cord, continuous-loop lift or continuous chain-loop lift system. Continuous loop systems are a bit more expensive than the standard cord ones, but they are much safer for kids and for pets, because there are not dangling cords that present a strangling hazard.

The Looped Roman bamboo shades feature various types of hems and trims. If you don’t want your window treatments to attract attention, you can go for the classic, standard hem, which is barely noticeable. Other options are the deco-trim hem and the deco-pocket hem, which are cut to the shade width and which can be finished with French gimps.

In case a liner is needed, Bali offers two options: the privacy liner, available in four neutral colors, and the blackout liner, which is neutral to the street side, thus providing a unified appearance from the outside of the building. The blackout liner is available in three color options: Blackout Buff, Blackout Chestnut and Blackout Espresso.

The mounting brackets choice:

• Standard-mount, suitable for inside-mount or outside-mount window treatments
• Projection brackets, which are basically similar to the standard brackets, but they can have an extra depth which provides additional space for window molding or for operating hardware.
• Ceiling-mount brackets, which need to be used in case the window casing is too narrow to allow an inside-mount of the window treatments.
• Hold-down brackets have the role of securing the bottomrail of the bamboo blinds to the window sill.

Top down bottom up shades are among the most special window treatments, their versatility and beauty making them suitable for practically any room in a house. Top down bottom up bamboo shades can successfully replace cafe curtains in a kitchen or in a bathroom. Usually, the duofold or the top down bottom up facilities are upgrades which can be ordered with some shades models at various manufacturers. The point of interest in this type of window shades is that one can either raise them from the bottom or lower them from the top, depending on the privacy needs of the moment. Such bamboo shades form accordion pleats when raised or lowered, just like Roman shades do. As woven wood allows quite a significant amount of light to pass through, a liner is needed to double the shades in case total darkness is required.

Now that we agreed on what we’d like to buy, let’s see what are some available options:

Tropical Isle Bamboo Shades

We found the Tropical Isle Top-Down Bottom-Up Basic bamboo shades at Blinds Chalet and we were impressed with what they have to offer. Not only these shades come with limited lifetime warranty, but they also include a 6” valance free of charge. Tropical Isle bamboo shades are safe for children and pets, because they feature a continuous cord loop, which is a real cord and not a beaded chain as it happens in some cheaper models. When folded, the bamboo shades form those Roman shade-style pleats which can give so much elegance to any classic interior decor. These bamboo shades are available in a wide choice of colors: Bermuda, Cocoa, Dusk Reed, Jamaica, Natural Palm, New Guinea Amber and New Guinea Caramel. If you can’t decide which one fits best your interiors, you can order free samples. Blackout and privacy liner are available on request. Tropical Isle Basic bamboo shades are made to measure, which is a great option in case your windows aren’t typical.

Levolor Providence

Levolor is not a cheap window treatments manufacturer. However, they offer good quality for money, so they are one of the best options when ordering blinds and shades for windows. Levolor Providence bamboo shades feature light and dark reeds and either a classic wood or a waterfall valance. Besides the top down bottom up option, they are also suitable for installing multiple shades on a single headrail, thus being able to cover even extremely large windows. The shade style can be Roman, Classic Roman or Waterfall. For the Waterfall style, it’s mandatory to order either cordless operating system or continuous cord loop. The top down bottom up feature adds an extra $45 to the final bill.

Just Blinds - Economy Bamboo Shades

Woven wood shades aren’t necessarily expensive, economy options being available for those on a tight budget. While it’s true that they may not last as long as some expensive ones, economy bamboo shades are ideal to cover your windows when you either don’t have too much money, or you’re just renting on shorter term and you don’t want to spend huge amounts on improvements you’re going to leave behind anyway. These top down bottom up cheap bamboo shades from Just Blinds are available in more than 20 color combinations and finishes, and if you want, you can even order free samples. The 6” valance that comes with your shades order is free on charge. Optional liners are available for extra cost.

Sliding glass doors and French doors are among the most used solutions for the patio entrance of a house. Sometimes, such doors may be used for creating a temporary separation between two rooms, so they can be fully opened for allowing the two rooms merge into a bigger one. This can be a good idea for people who like to organize festivities and celebrations in their home, thus needing to occasionally set up a big dinner table to accommodate all those guests.

Because of their large glass areas, sliding glass doors don’t offer too much privacy if the glass is clear. This is where bamboo shades for sliding doors come into play: they can provide this privacy when needed, but they can also be completely open in order to allow daylight in at times when we don’t care if people in the street are staring at us through the glass of our doors. Bamboo has a natural look which helps creating an exotic and Earth-friendly atmosphere, while passing almost unnoticed. This is a nice feature, especially when it’s not desirable to have one decor element which focuses the attention, making people ignore other elements we’d like them to see and admire.

Styles of Bamboo Shades for Sliding Doors

Bamboo sliding panels: such window treatments can add a dramatic look to your room, offer you privacy, while allowing enough filtered light to pass through. They are usually multiple panels installed on a double track, so they can overlap when opened. The number of panels may vary depending on the opening size, but the most usual numbers are 4 or 6. This has to be an even number, because symmetry is nice to have when you slide the panels to the sides. Of course, you can opt for a one-way draw to open, case in which the number of panels doesn’t matter anymore. Bamboo is very good for such installations because it’s lightweight, therefore there’s no need for a sturdy track that could be hard to install and to secure in place, especially if the door opening is very large. Thanks to the liners that can be added to the shades, the light filtering degree can be chosen from very light to total blackout. Bamboo sliding panel curtains can be paired with matching valances, for more sophisticated interiors.

Bamboo Roman shades: this is another option for covering sliding door glass panes. Compared to sliding panels, Roman shades offer the advantage of not needing to open them each time you want to use the door. This is important when you have kids, because they might not be careful enough with curtains, drapes, shades or other window treatments, so they may damage the bamboo slats of the sliding panels if they use a lot those patio doors. After all, we can’t expect kids to slide open those panels when they have so many things on their mind, do we?

Be it we talk about sliding panels or Roman shades, bamboo slats are available in many color choices, from the darkest Black Cherry finish, to the warm Colonial shade or Maple Kauai and even to the unevenly looking Pecan color.