Bamboo Roman Shades & Blinds

A bamboo Roman shade is a fold, not a fabric. Most bamboo window coverings roll up around a tube and stack into a cylinder at the head of the opening. A Roman folds, gathering the material into horizontal pleats as it rises, and that reads differently: softer, deeper, closer to a curtain than to a blind.

What to put on the window

Woven wood shades are the centre of this page. They are the only shades we build from natural fibre, woven from bamboo, jute, flax, reed, grass, ramie and paper yarn, and the range runs from heavy bamboo and bamboo slat constructions up to 1533 GSM down to loose open flax weaves. The slat weaves are the ones that read as a traditional matchstick blind once they fold. Material level sets the look and the price, from bamboo through jute up to ramie.

Light filtering and blackout Roman shades are the fabric alternative for the same window and the same fold, the right call next to patterned tile or where you want a colour rather than a shade of bark. They are also the answer for a bathroom, because natural woven fabrics are not suited to high humidity rooms: prolonged moisture warps the weave, and moisture damage is a listed warranty exclusion.

Fold styles, liners and the sizes each system reaches

Three fold styles are available, all three on cordless, clutch loop, powerwand and motorized lifts. Waterfall runs the fabric off the front of a hidden headrail for a smooth continuous face, chains behind the shade, back-side valance concealing the hardware, which makes it inside mount ready. Flat fold hangs the fabric from behind the headrail so it falls in a crisp flat plane, chains at the front. Hobbled holds cascading folds at any height. All three finish with a fabric-wrapped bottom bar.

A bare woven shade is roughly 50 percent see through, which is decoration rather than privacy. The liner changes that: a light filtering liner takes it to about 70 percent, and a blackout liner gives full blackout, each in nine colours. The liner goes on the shade and the valance both, so the shade reads as one piece from inside. A movable liner, on its own control, needs a deeper headrail at about 3 1/8 inches and cannot be combined with a top down bottom up build.

Size is where a wide window gets specific. Woven wood maxes at 96 inches wide on every operating system, and a wider opening takes multiple shades on one headrail to 118 inches total, though a common valance still stops at 96. Height depends on the lift: cordless reaches 106 inches while clutch loop, wand and motor all reach 118, because a cordless spring balances the shade across the whole travel where a clutch or motor holds position mechanically. Minimum width moves the same way, 11 3/4 inches on clutch and loop, 19 3/4 cordless, 24 5/8 on a wand.

Measuring and installing it yourself

Measure the width at top, centre and bottom and use the smallest figure rounded down to the nearest 1/8 inch, then measure the height on each side with your back to the wall. Give us the exact opening, because the factory applies its own 1/4 inch width deduction. Then measure frame depth: woven wood needs 1 5/8 inches to mount inside, and 2 5/8 inches to sit flush. If your frame is shallower, mount outside.

Woven wood uses its own bracket, 1 3/8 inches high by 1 3/4 wide with half an inch of fabric clearance. Fabric Roman shades use the cassette bracket instead: a 6 mm drill bit at 1.1 inch screw spacing, with drywall and masonry anchors supplied. Two screws on opposite sides hold on a sound wall, and each bracket has four pre-drilled holes for the heavy ones. Hook the valance groove onto the latch, press back until it clicks, and confirm top and rear have locked.

Order samples first, because natural weaves shift a long way between one room's light and another. Everything here is made to measure, shipped direct, and carries a limited lifetime warranty against defects, with motors and controls covered for five years.