Blinds or shades: what each one is, and where it belongs
| Type | What it is | Best for | Light and privacy | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faux-wood blinds | 2 inch PVC or composite slats on a tilt cord or wand | Bathrooms, kitchens, laundry, rentals | Tilt for light with privacy; raised, they stack 6 to 8 inches | Heavy over 60 inches wide; sag on very wide windows |
| Wood blinds | Basswood slats, stained or painted, 2 or 2.5 inch | Living rooms, offices, bedrooms with a dry climate | Same control as faux wood, lighter weight, warmer look | Warp in a steamy bathroom; longest lead time of the blinds |
| Aluminum mini blinds | 1 inch metal slats | Garages, utility rooms, budget rooms | Fine control, little insulation | Dent, rattle, read as an office |
| Roller shades | One flat panel on a tube, light-filtering or blackout | Modern rooms, large windows, anywhere a clean look matters | Up or down; no in-between light control unless it is a dual (zebra) shade | Light gap of 1/4 to 1/2 inch each side on an inside mount |
| Cellular (honeycomb) shades | Pleated fabric cells that trap air | Bedrooms, nurseries, cold or sunny windows | Best insulation of the group; blackout versions exist; top-down/bottom-up option | Cells collect dust; cords on older styles |
| Roman shades | Fabric that folds into soft or flat pleats as it rises | Bedrooms, dining rooms, windows that get curtains elsewhere | Fabric decides it; lined for privacy, blackout-lined for sleep | Made to order almost always; longest shade lead time |
| Woven wood (bamboo) shades | Natural reeds or grasses that roll or fold | Living rooms, sunrooms, texture over a plain wall | Filters light; privacy needs a liner | Gaps show at night without the liner |
| Shutters | Hinged louvered panels on a frame | Front-facing rooms, coastal or traditional houses | Full control; permanent-looking | 6 to 10 weeks; frame changes the opening; priciest option |
The split that matters for a renovation is not the look, it is the timing. Blinds and roller or cellular shades in standard sizes exist in a warehouse somewhere and can be in the house inside a week. Roman shades, real wood blinds, shutters and anything motorized are made for your window after you order, and a wrong measurement starts the clock again.
Lead times by product and tier
| Product | Stock size (off the shelf) | Made to measure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Faux-wood blinds | Same day to 5 days | 1 to 3 weeks | The workhorse; most online sellers cut to size in a week |
| Wood blinds | Rare in stock | 3 to 5 weeks | Stain matching to the floor adds a sample round |
| Aluminum mini blinds | Same day | 1 to 2 weeks | Cut-down service at the big-box desk for stock widths |
| Roller shades | Same day for common widths | 1 to 3 weeks | Fabric choice drives the wait; blackout and solar fabrics often ship fastest |
| Cellular shades | 2 to 7 days | 1 to 3 weeks | Top-down/bottom-up and cordless are made to order even in stock sizes at some sellers |
| Roman shades | Limited stock widths, 2 to 7 days | 3 to 6 weeks | A custom fabric adds the fabric mill's lead time on top |
| Woven wood shades | Rare in stock | 3 to 5 weeks | Liner is a separate line on the order; add it |
| Motorized (any shade) | Rare in stock | 3 to 6 weeks | Battery or wired; wired needs the electrician before drywall |
| Shutters | Never | 6 to 10 weeks | Measured by the installer, not by you |
Add a week to any of these if the color or fabric is a sample you have not seen in the room. Window coverings are chosen late, so the sample round is where most of the delay hides. The same sample rule, with the fullness and length math, is in custom vs. ready-made curtains; curtains and shades on the same window are ordered together so the colors are seen side by side.
Inside mount or outside mount
An inside mount sits within the window frame, between the jambs, and shows the trim. An outside mount hangs on the wall or the casing above the window and covers it. The decision is made by the window, not by taste, and it is made after the trim is on.
| Question | Inside mount | Outside mount |
|---|---|---|
| How deep is the frame? | Needs a flat, unobstructed depth: about 1 inch for a roller or cellular shade to fit at all, 2 to 3 inches for it to sit flush; wood and faux-wood blinds want 3 to 3.5 inches to sit flush | Any depth; the product sits on the wall |
| Is the opening square? | Within 1/4 inch top to bottom, or there will be a light gap on one side | Hides an out-of-square opening |
| What is in the way? | Crank handles, tilt latches, alarm sensors and tile returns all collide with an inside mount | Clears all of them |
| Light control | Light gaps of 1/4 to 1/2 inch on each side of a shade; blinds leak less | Overlap 1.5 to 3 inches each side and 2 to 4 inches above; the best blackout |
| Look | Clean; shows good trim; the standard for faux wood in a bathroom | Makes a small window look taller; covers plain drywall returns |
| Measure | The opening itself; the seller deducts the clearance | The area you want covered; you set the overlap |
Drywall returns have no trim to measure from. A window finished with drywall wrapped into the opening (no wood casing) gets its final width when the corner bead is mudded and painted, and that width can be 1/4 inch narrower than the rough frame. An inside mount measured before the paint is a blind that does not fit. Wait for the painter.
When to measure, and how
Measure after the casing is installed, caulked and painted, after any tile that returns into the window, and after the sill or stool is on. Before that, every number you take is a rough number. The measuring itself takes ten minutes a window with a steel tape.
| Step | Inside mount | Outside mount |
|---|---|---|
| Width | Measure at the top, middle and bottom of the opening; write down the narrowest, to the nearest 1/8 inch; do not deduct anything, the factory does | Width of the area to cover: the casing outside edge to outside edge, or the opening plus 1.5 to 3 inches each side on a plain wall |
| Height | Measure at the left, center and right; write down the longest for a shade, the shortest if the blind must clear the sill | From where the headrail will sit (2 to 4 inches above the opening) to the sill, or 1 inch below a sill that does not stick out |
| Depth | Flat, unobstructed depth from the glass stop to the front of the frame; this is what decides flush or not | Not needed, but check that the wall above the window is flat for 3 inches |
| Obstructions | Note cranks, latches, sensors and handles; most products list a minimum depth to clear them | Note the casing profile; a thick top casing may need spacer blocks |
| Controls | Decide the cord or wand side now; it is set at the factory | Same |
| Label | One line per window: room, window, width × height, mount, control side, product and color | Same; two windows side by side are two orders, not one |
Order every window in the room on one order, in one color run, the same week. A faux-wood white from one batch and the same white from a batch three months later are two whites in the same room. If one measurement is in doubt, hold the whole order a day and re-measure rather than order the others first.
The order date
| Step | When | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| Choose the type and color | With the paint and the curtains, samples in hand in the room | Three fabrics and a wall color meet at the window; chosen apart they fight |
| Decide the mount per window | The day the casing is finished | Depth and squareness are final only then |
| Measure | After the trim is painted and any tile return is grouted | The finished opening is the only one that counts |
| Order stock faux wood, roller or cellular | 2 to 3 weeks before move-in | A week to ship, a week to find the one that arrived bent |
| Order wood, roman, woven, motorized | 5 to 7 weeks before move-in | 3 to 6 weeks to make it, plus the sample round |
| Order shutters | 8 to 12 weeks before move-in; installer measures | 6 to 10 weeks to make, then an install visit |
| Install | The last day, after floors are finished and the painter has left | Dust and a second coat of trim paint both ruin a hung shade |
If the house is occupied during the work, buy a $10 pack of paper pleated shades the day the old coverings come down. They tape to the frame, last for months, and keep the bedroom private through the whole gap. The rest of the living-through-it plan is in how to plan a renovation while living in the house. Where the windows themselves fall in the schedule, and why their lead time runs the whole job, is in when to order windows.
Where to order, by product
Faux-wood and cut-to-size roller and cellular shades are a commodity: order them from a cut-to-size blinds seller that lists the deduction it takes on an inside mount, and keep the confirmation email, which repeats your measurements back. Motorized roller and cellular shades, especially with a remote or an app, are a separate category; a motorized-shade maker will ask about the window depth and the power source before the fabric. Roman shades in a specific fabric are closer to curtains than to blinds and come from a made-to-measure curtain and roman shade workroom, on the curtain lead time, 3 to 6 weeks.
Three mistakes that cost a reorder
- Deducting for an inside mount yourself. Sellers take 1/4 to 1/2 inch off the width at the factory. Send the exact opening; a shade measured at 35 inches and ordered at 34.5 arrives at 34 and lets in an inch of light.
- Measuring one window and multiplying. Four identical windows on a drawing are four different widths after the trim carpenter, by up to 3/8 inch. Measure each one.
- Ordering before the tile. A tile return in a bathroom or kitchen window takes 1/2 inch or more from each side of the opening. The blind measured on bare drywall does not fit the finished window.
Window coverings are the last thing on the window and the first thing a neighbor sees. Choose them with the paint, measure them after the trim, order the fast ones three weeks out and the slow ones six, and hang them on the last day.