Four Families

Opacity: Sheer Sheers (also called Transparent) are simply awesome at allowing sun rays into your home at a reduced intensity. They will also give you both a clear view to look through & privacy during the day. (When the sun goes down and your light is on, your neighbours will be able to see right in!) Sheer is ideal for a living room, study or kitchen. A convenient way to get privacy and darken the room when required is to add a blockout roller behind a sheer blind.

Opacity: Screen Screen fabrics act like a sheer in terms of providing you with a clear view to the outside & letting natural light in your home. They are engineered to block the most harmful UV rays from entering your home and therefore prevent fading of your flooring & furniture. Ideal in a contemporary setting, they should be your #1 choice if heat protection and maintaining a clear view is your goal.

Opacity: Translucent Also called light filtering, this type of fabric brings the best of both worlds: a mix of what sheer & blockout fabrics do best. Translucent fabrics will give you privacy and let some natural light into the room at the same time. They are most often woven very tightly with a polyester yarn, and finished with a protective clear coating. It is remarkably efficient at creating a relaxed ambiance. The privacy that Translucent fabrics give is excellent, all that will be visible from the outside will be silhouettes of anything close to the window on the inside.

Opacity: Blockout If you’re looking to block nearly all natural light from entering a room, and have 100% privacy, a blockout fabric will do the trick magnificently. Your retailer will give you some recommendations on how to install your blockout blinds to ensure as little light as possible sneaks through on the side of the blind.

Colour:It is not all about looking good. Different colours affect the comfort in your home. Like a dark car getting hot, a dark coloured blind will absorb and radiate heat into your home, but the view through the fabric will be almost as sharp as looking through a tinted window. Exactly opposite, a white coloured blind is ideal for heat protection but is not as good at reducing glare.

Colour:Don’t take the colour choice lightly. A colour’s ability to keep your home cool can be tripled if you choose a light colour vs. a dark one. As with the sheer fabrics, dark will be incredibly efficient at giving you a very clear view to the outside and reducing the glare. Obviously if you want heat + view + glare protection, you will need to compromise slightly and pick an “in between” colour like grey or beige.

Colour:A magic way to flood your interior with softened & slightly coloured light. You can be certain to reduce glare & keep perfect clarity. Once again, light colours will be more suitable when keeping the heat out is the goal.

Colour:Since the fabric blocks out all the outside light, the colour you choose is the colour you will see, and won’t distort with any light shining through. For that reason, the choice is easy: choose a colour to suit your furniture & flooring and make sure you like it! The back of the fabric can be either white, to reflect most of the heat, or it can be the same colour as the front of the fabric. The latter option is also a good choice if you don’t want to see the white backing at the top the blind when it rolls up on the tube.

Texture:Textures add depth & sophistication. It is really a matter of taste, but any texture you have on a sheer fabric will be very visible when natural light is filtering through the fabric. A textured sheer is a very effective way of adding a discreet decorative element in your interior design scheme.

Texture:Screen fabrics come in several different weaves, but the end result is fairly similar. The two most popular (and most important) weaves are:
• The basket weave, also called 2x2. It gives the clearest view through.
• The half basket weave, also colled 1x2. It will give a softer look like a classic sheer fabric.

Texture:Most translucent fabrics are matched with a blockout fabric, therefore it is possible to keep a similar look & texture throughout your home. Plain & textured fabrics exist and the choice is a simple matter of taste. As opposed to sheer fabrics, the texture tends to become more obvious at night, without natural light shining through.

Texture:There are so many choices and unique looks. From the most conservative interiors, to the most daring layouts, they can all be dressed with a well matched texture. Over the past 10 years textile designers & weavers from all over the world have given a unique flare to the texture of soft furnishing & upholstery. Blind texture can be an integral part of your interior scheme.