Banded Shades by Solar Shield Blinds

With over 100 fabrics to choose from, there is a lot to look at. They fall into 2 groups: Light Filtering, Light Dimming. Our Design Specialists help you with color and texture selection. We bring the swatches and samples to your home so you can see the colors in your own lighting and in your own space, as part of your free in-home consultation.

Four: Standard Chain Loop, Cordless Lift (Child Safe), PowerWand (Child Safe), Motorized / Automated (Child Safe). Three of the four have no accessible cord at all, so they’re safe around kids and pets. Your Design Specialist helps you work out the right one for each window, and on a tall or hard to reach window that answer is a chain loop or a motor.

Our typical lead time is 4 to 6 weeks from order to final installation, and most projects are completed within one installation day. While you wait, we install free temporary shades on every window you’ve ordered for, and we take them down on install day. Our Install Techs clean up, take the packaging away, and walk every room with you before they leave.

We only carry products that hold up, and we back them with our Carefree Guarantee to protect your investment. Five years of service on defects, a Lifetime Product guarantee against defects in materials and workmanship for as long as you own them, and one unintentional damage event covered within five years. If something is wrong, call us and we will put it right.

Yes. Our custom window treatments come with transferable warranties. If you move, the warranty continues, which means the next owner is covered the same way you were. That’s the Transferable piece of our Carefree Guarantee: the coverage follows the address, not the person who placed the order, and it costs nothing extra.

Yes. Manufacturers use banded, zebra, dual and layered for the same construction, and we call them Banded Shades. Whatever the name, it’s one shade with solid and sheer horizontal bands that alternate, and the bands shift past each other as you move the shade. If you’ve seen zebra shades online, this is that product, custom made to your window and installed by our own Install Techs.

Line the solid bands up and yes, for practical purposes. At night with a light on inside, though, a silhouette can still register through the seams. In a bedroom or a bathroom where that matters, we’ll pair them with a blackout shade or a lined drapery panel, and we’ll tell you that at the consultation, not after the install.

Yes, and it’s a good pairing. Our motorized version is sold as Solar Shield Blinds Smart Banded Shades, with a remote, the app on your phone or tablet, wall switches, and voice control, plus schedules and scenes. A scene saves a specific band position, which is hard to hit the same way twice by hand. Rechargeable motors need no wiring, so they go into an existing house with no electrical work at all.

The privacy band comes in sizes from 3 inches to 5 inches, with the sheer band slightly smaller. A smaller band suits most standard windows and keeps the proportions right. When there’s more window to cover, a larger band fills the space without looking busy. Your Design Specialist brings both to the consultation so you can hold them up against your own window before you decide.

You can, with one honest note. Closed, the solid bands meet at a seam rather than a seal, so a little light comes through, and a banded shade on its own won’t make a bedroom properly dark. For a primary bedroom or a kid’s room, we pair them with a blackout shade so you get the daytime look you want and a dark room at night.

Yes. A patio door or a wide opening works well with two independently operating shades on one headrail, so each side runs on its own and the look stays unified from across the room. Cordless Lift, PowerWand and motorized versions all leave no chain hanging near the door. We measure the door and check the clearance on the visit before we recommend anything, so there are no surprises on install day.

Yes, that’s one of the reasons people choose them. Roll them all the way up and the fabric hides inside a 3 inch cassette at the top of the window, so the glass and the view are completely yours. Two layers of fabric roll deeper than one, which shows on a short window, so your Design Specialist measures the stack on the visit and tells you exactly how much of the glass it sits over.

That’s the room they were made for. A kitchen that’s bright at breakfast and glaring by mid afternoon, or a family room where the TV is unwatchable from three until six, wants a shade that changes with the hour without being raised and lowered all day. Line the sheers up for filtered light, close the solid bands when the sun swings around, and roll it up for the view once the sun is gone.

Yes, and it’s worth knowing before you order. Large light gaps are inherent to a banded shade, and they create a halo effect around the entire shade. In the sheer position there’s a gap at the window sill, a shallow casing leaves privacy gaps, and a window that’s out of square makes the light gaps more noticeable. Your Design Specialist looks at each window on the visit and shows you where you’ll see light.

Yes. Multiple units must be ordered side by side for proper band alignment, so the solid and sheer bands line up from one shade to the next. We measure and order a run of windows together as one job, and your Design Specialist plans it that way from the start.

Not fully. Banded Shades come in light filtering and light dimming fabrics, and light dimming fabrics do not create a full blackout effect. Where you need a properly dark room, we pair them with a blackout shade or a lined drapery panel.

Yes. Banded Shades work well on their own or with drapery. A top treatment over them needs a minimum of 3 inches of projection, and your Design Specialist checks that on the visit so everything fits on install day.

Yes. Exterior colors or shadows outside the window can affect the color of the shade, which is one reason we bring samples to your home. You see each fabric against your own glass and your own view before you choose.

Yes. Their clean, modern look is excellent for modern and transitional interiors, and they come in a wide range of colors and textures. The dual layered fabric gives you shading, a view out and privacy from one shade, with continuous loop, cordless or motorized operation.