Selecting Roman Shades: An Unbiased Look at 5 brands in our home

Woven roman shades are a wonderful addition to your home if you want to add texture and / or if you want to block out light. Today I thought it would be fun to create a guide on selecting roman shades while also comparing contrasting 5 different types we have in our home.

Over the years I’ve added more and more woven shades to our home. Lately I’ve been getting lots of questions on Instagram and emails about window treatments. Many design clients aren’t really sure what I’m talking about when I mention woven roman shades. So I thought I’d write a post all about selecting roman shades for your home. How you can find just the right one for your space! They come in all different styles and have different colors, some are lined some are not. Some companies offer cordless options.

Okay, first let’s discuss roman shades in detail.

What is a woven wooden roman shade?

Woven shades and blinds come in a variety of natural and hand woven materials from bamboo, to reeds and natural grasses to wood. There are a variety of patterns and colors which bring a natural element to any room.

How much light comes into the room with woven roman shades?

This varies depending on a few options. If the woven shades are unlined then light would still come in the room. If you opt for privacy lining that is more for people not seeing into your home. Black out lining prevents any light from entering the room when the shade is drawn.

What lift style is best?

If you have kids or dogs I highly recommend going with either cordless or motorized as the cords can present a strangulation risk to pets and young children. We have replaced all the blinds in our home to be cordless. Many companies offer the traditional loop cord, motorized, cordless and some places corded top down and bottom up to control privacy.

How much do woven roman shades cost?

This varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. We have some that are $700 a shade and some that were $25 a window. I’ll talk more about this but size of window, type of lining, type of lift all factor into the cost.

Should a roman shade hang inside or outside the window frame?

Either is right, but you just need to measure correctly. In our home we’ve opted for roman shades that hang inside our windows because we have really pretty moulding above the window that I want people to see.

Should roman shades be hung alone or with curtains?

I think this depends on your space. You’ll see in our own home we’ve done some long linen curtains with with bamboo and woven shades, but have also hung roman shades alone. The long curtains can sometimes soften a window.

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Selecting Roman Shades: An Unbiased Look at 5 Brands

Smith and Noble

• Price: $$$$$$
• Quality: *****
• Shipping: Quick
• Offers Samples: Yes
• Review of our experience: We LOVE our Smith and Noble blinds. We actually worked with the brand on a sponsored post to help readers understand more about roman shades and the selection process. You can see my post on selecting here and the review here. We’ve had these roman shades for 5 years and they still look brand new. They’ve held up wonderfully. We went with the Wendy Bellissimo Santa Barbara Natural Gray. At the time we had a dark wood headboard and it picked up the colors of it. Then we redid our bedroom and still love the pretty texture these shades add. We opted for cordless and black out. The shades open and and shut very easily and make the room very dark.

Here are some photos of the Smith and Noble woven waterfall shades in our room:

After we did our bedroom over:

Christmas Tree Shop

• Price: $
• Quality: **
• Shipping: Bought at store
• Offers Samples: No
• Review of our experience: I bought these at our local Christmas Tree Shop. I’m not sure of the manufacturer, but sometimes the store carries various window treatments. This was originally Luke’s office so thought cheaper roman shades would be great. They’ve worked great for the last three years. This is now Conor’s bedroom and we open a close them a lot more. One blind doesn’t go up all the way anymore but still functioning. There is no black out feature but the weave is tight enough so the light is blocked in the morning. These were affordable at the time and I’d probably upgrade his shades next time we need them.

Here are some photos of the Christmas Tree Roman shades when it was Luke’s office:

More photos now that this space is Conor’s bedroom:

Levelor with the Home Depot

• Price: $$$
• Quality: ****
• Shipping: Quick Shipping
• Offers Samples: Yes
• Review of our experience: We partnered with the Home Depot on these bamboo roman shades two and a half years ago and still love them. You can see the post here. We went with Levelor bamboo roman shades in origami as I wanted to pick up some of the tones in our dark woodwork. We opted for privacy lining which increased the price a little bit and opted for cordless. We are constantly opening a closing these and they’ve held up wonderfully. One thing I’ve noticed is that the bamboo is slightly scratching our woodwork but it might just be that boys aren’t careful when opening and closing the shades.

Here’s some photos of the bamboo shades in our living and dining room:

Walmart

• Price: $
• Quality: **
• Shipping: Quick Shipping
• Offers Samples: No
• Review of our experience: Our kids playroom has 11 windows and I needed something affordable with so many windows. The original paper shades had gotten shot with nerf bullets by Conor… So we opted for these affordable roman shades from Walmart. I shared more about them in this post here. These blinds have no lining and we don’t pull them down all that much only maybe when Conor is playing video games on the TV. We’ve had them for about a year and a half. In comparison, to our other roman shades I wouldn’t say these are made as well but they are good for the price.

Photos of these roman shades:

One from Halloween:

Select Blinds

• Price: $$$
• Quality: ****
• Shipping: Quick Shipping
• Offers Samples: Yes
• Review of our experience: We just ordered these roman shades for our bedroom a few months ago. I shared a blog post about the roman shades and window treatments here. We went with Honey Antigua with black out lining. We’re so impressed with these roman shades. They open and close easily and are well made. The room is soooooo dark in the morning which is wonderful when we want to sleep in.

Photos of these roman shades:

We’re slowly adding more elements to this room like the wall art and swivel chair.

I hope this post was helpful to you in selecting roman shades for your own home. I highly recommend getting shade samples so you can see the textures and colors in your own homes and spaces. It really makes a difference seeing and feeling them in person. If you’d like some extra help in decorating your space I offer eDesign and in home services.