The Ultimate Guide to Buying Roller Blinds

Everything You Need To Know About Buying Blinds

Buying roller blinds online is not the challenge it first appears; it’s a straight forward process and no more labour intensive than shopping for clothes on a website.

The most fun aspect, which is also perhaps the longest part, is figuring out which kind of roller blind you want and how to utilise its features to benefit your home whether it be a dimout roller blind or a double roller blind.

Briefly, understanding the features of a roller blind will allow you to find a window treatment that will not only provide shade but enhance your room’s interior design, compliment day-to-day life and assist with any activity you do in the room, from sleeping and relaxation to work and privacy.

This is the ultimate guide to buying roller blinds because it breaks down those key features with useful information to help you find the blinds to go perfectly with your lifestyle and needs.

Roller Blind Fabrics

For most people, blind fabric is one of the key deciding factors when it comes to choosing roller blinds – and quite rightly so!

Before we get into the extensive colour and pattern ranges from DotcomBlinds, we need to understand the two types of fabric on offer: dimout and blackout .

Dimout Fabrics

Dimout fabric dims any exterior light entering the room but doesn’t block it out completely. This is really effective at cutting glare on screens without casting the room into total darkness. We find many people use this type of roller blind in living rooms as it stops sunlight from shining onto television screens or making the room too bright and uncomfortable.

Generally, dimout fabric is thinner than blackout, has an open weave and comes in a variety of opacities. Opacity refers to how much light is blocked (think transparency in reverse), and we refer to its light and medium (high opacity blinds are blackout blinds) simply for ease of understanding. Light opacity dimout roller blinds are nearer voile and sheer fabrics, letting in lots of light, just filtering down direct beams of sunlight.

The wonderful thing with dimout fabric is that it catches the sunlight and changes tone as the sun moves across the sky, which is simply captivating, especially when the fabric seems to glow.

Blackout Fabrics

Blackout fabric has many advantages, namely the fact that it blocks all light from passing through it, thus casting the room into darkness. These roller blinds are used in bedrooms up and down the country as they provide unrivalled shading as well as being especially good for light sleepers and night shift workers.

Most often, blackout blind fabrics have multiple layers, from acrylic foam to fibreglass and PVC. These layers make the fabric a little thicker than dimout, but it just ensures the light will not pass through regardless of its intensity.

The density of the fabric also means that the fabric presents a more ‘solid’ block of colour, as opposed to the tone-changing essence off dimout fabric.

One last handy pointer on blackout fabric – they make great projector screens for home cinema setups.

Roller Blind Features

All fabrics on DotcomBlinds come with a list of features that vary between the fabric ranges but consist of moisture resistance, wipe clean, fire retardant, anti-bacterial and solar reflective. Use the filter to shop by feature if you have something specific in mind.

Roller Blind Colours

We at DotcomBlinds pride ourselves on the sheer choice on offer, particularly for our coloured roller blinds.

Roller blinds on DotcomBlinds can be sorted into colours by using the colour palette filter option on the category pages.  If you have a particular colour in mind, use this filter to find your dream blind.

A top tip for shopping for roller blinds is to order your free samples on the product page of the roller blind you like the look of. Order as many free fabric samples as you like and when they arrive, you’ll be able to see exactly how the blind will look in your room.

We have made every effort to ensure the fabrics are accurately portrayed in the images online, but sometimes screen resolution and natural lighting play with the colours and you may see a fabric differently to how it was intended! A sample lets you see and feel the fabric first hand. Tack the samples to your window once they arrive and see how they look as the day progresses and the sun moves across the sky.

There are plenty of colours available, from white, grey or beige roller blinds to vibrant red, pink, orange and yellow roller blinds – with everything in between! In terms of patterns available, choose from stripes, spots,patterns and text motifs and more.

Patterns are a great way to add colour and vibrancy to a room, utilising what can sometimes be seen as dead space around the window. Pattern roller blinds can make your window look taller or wider too, depending on how you use them.

Measuring for Roller Blinds

All of our window blinds are made to measure, meaning we make our roller blinds to the measurements you provide. You provide us with measurements by entering them on to the page of the roller blind you wish to buy.

Measuring your window for a roller blind is very easy and we talk you through the process in our simple measuring guide.

The first thing you’d need to do is establish whether the blind is going into a recess or outside of it, or if you have one at all. A recess is the name of the space where a window is set back from the room, often creating a window sill. Some windows don’t have a recess, and so you’d mount the blind to the wall above the window. This is indicated to us when you come to order by choosing ‘Recess’ or ‘Exact’.

Mounting above the window or outside of the window is called exact fit as we will take your measurements and make your blind to those exact sizes. Therefore, we recommend adding about 50mm or so to your width and drop measurements to ensure it covers the window fully without letting light leak around the edges.

With recess-fitting blinds, we will deduct the necessary measurements to allow for the brackets.

The actual process of measuring for roller blinds is so easy. Take a tape measure and measure the width of the recess or window. Take another two measurements further down the window to check for any anomalies as sometimes windows warp or tiles are added halfway down, which can catch on the bottom bar. If there is a discrepancy, check again and enter the smallest size into the width section of the website.

Do the same for the drop, taking a couple of measurements along the window to see if there are any areas that are longer than the other. Enter the longest drop measurement into our website when you come to order.

Installing Roller Blinds

Installing roller blinds is a straight forward job. Depending on the surface you’re installing it to you’ll either need to drill holes, use wall plugs and screw the bracket into them or simply screw into wood.

DotcomBlinds supplies installation instructions with every blind so you only need your tools, as well as some screws and wallplugs.

Whilst our fitting instructions explain in greater depth, simply mark holes where you will need to drill for the brackets, drill the holes, insert the wall plug and attach the brackets. The roller blind will clip into the brackets easily.

The finishing touch is the child safety device which holds the chain taut (but not too tight) and close to the wall, preventing children from becoming entangled in it..

Roller Blinds in Box and Angled Bay Windows

If you have a box bay window or angled bay window you can install roller blinds just as easily. We have dedicated measuring instructions to help you get the right sizes for the blinds to fit neatly together.

Most often for box bay windows, you’ll have two small side windows and a larger window in the middle – although they can be the same size on all sides. Our instructions detail three ways you can install the blinds, with skill levels ranging from novice to professional. It isn’t any more difficult than sizing up an ordinary window, but it does require a little more concentration to ensure you do a neat, impressive-looking job.

Angled bay windows can be measured so that they butt-up closely to each other but it is worth noting that it isn’t always possible to prevent a gap between the fabric on each window. This is something to consider for blackout blinds as it may be difficult to completely seal out daylight.

Picking Roller Blinds for Different Rooms

Roller blinds are ideal for so many rooms around the house and lend themselves to so many situations. DotcomBlinds lists the blind’s features on each product page, and you can even shop by feature as you browse – simply use the filter!

One popular place we find roller blinds installed in the bedroom. Capable of providing darkness and available in plenty of colours, a roller blind is on hand to always help! Whilst a blackout blind is most commonly used due to its ability to assist sleep, dimout fabric is also capable. This is because a dimout roller blind provides great privacy but still allows natural light to enter and the ability for the person indoors to see out – handy if you need to change in a hurry!

In kitchens and bathrooms, we find moisture resistant and wipe clean blinds reign supreme. This is because kitchens can often have quite high humidity levels and any blinds nearby risk absorbing moisture and becoming dirty from the food. Choosing a blind with these features allows you to cook up a storm without fear of damaging your blinds.

For living rooms and other larger areas made for people to gather, dimout fabric is a popular choice as it stops sunlight from shining on people’s faces or glare being cast on a television screen. Most often we will find large windows in these rooms, which is another key talking point.

When it comes to large windows, we automatically upgrade the barrel in thickness. The barrel is what the fabric is wrapped around and the weight of it on the barrel over a large distance can cause it to sag.

To prevent this, and as an indicator of the quality and passion we have for our blinds, DotcomBlinds incrementally increases the thickness to accommodate the extra weight, stopping any chance of your barrel bowing in the middle. This is not something every blind retailer offers, and so shop with caution if you have a wide window.

For homes with mucky kids, we recommend choosing a blind with wipe clean function and PVC fronted blinds as they are easily cleaned.

Child Safety & Other Features

Child safety is paramount when it comes to roller blinds. All of our roller blinds come with a child safety device, namely a p-clip, which keeps the chain out of reach of children and stops them from gaining access to the loop which they could get caught in. It’s very important that the child safety device is installed, even if you don’t have kids. It removes any element of risk that may arise if children were to visit and even protect pets from becoming entangled.

If child safety is of particular concern, DotcomBlinds offers alternative ways of operating a blind that renders it totally child safe. Instead of pulling the chain to raise and lower the blind, you can operate it with a detachable crank handle or with electric remote control.

The crank-operated roller blind replaces the sidewinder mechanism with a crank. The handle hooks on to the crank and is turned, raising or lowering the blind. The useful aspect of having a crank is that there is nothing for a child to get caught up in. If the handle becomes a source of entertainment for the little ‘uns, you can unhook and remove it completely, taking away the temptation to play with it.

The second alternative would be to upgrade your roller blind to an electric blind. This has the added bonus of allowing you to raise and lower your blind from the comfort of your armchair, as well as having no chains to pose a risk.

This added peace of mind is a worthwhile investment for homes with furniture quite close to the window, which provides access to climbing kids.

Caring for your Roller Blind

Once you’ve installed your roller blind, there are a few things you can do to keep it looking tip top and functioning correctly.

As with all blinds, regular cleaning – little and often – is the best way to stay on top of it. Fabrics featured under our Wipe Clean filter will allow you to take a damp cloth or sponge and wipe the blind down, and PVC fabrics can be used with soapy water. We recommend always testing a small spot close to the barrel before you clean with any cleaning product just to make sure it won't damage the fabric or the colour.

We always add a couple of extra rolls of fabric to your blind to ensure that the barrel is never exposed when the blind is at its full drop, and so by unrolling these extra rolls, you can test without fear of any odd-spots showing during the day-to-day use. An alternative way to test your fabric is to order a free sample of your blind’s fabric from our website to use as a testing swatch for your products.

Dab the blind with the damp cloth and never fully submerge it in a bathtub. If you have a particularly dusty blind, perhaps at the top of the barrel where dust settles if the blind isn’t regularly moved, then use the soft brush head on your vacuum cleaner.

In terms of actual maintenance, you’ll never need to oil or clean the mechanism of our roller blinds as they are a fully sealed system which is self-lubricating. You can test the brackets to make sure they are still holding strong (to avoid any chances of it falling down and giving you a fright!) and check the child safety device is still functioning correctly.

On Hand to Help

If you have any questions about roller blinds then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of the helpful team members. We’re proud of the quality of our roller blinds and can’t wait for you to experience them too!