Cordless Blackout Shades & Blinds

Blackout shades with a long pull cord or a dangling bead chain are the wrong fit for a bedroom shared with small children, a curious cat or a dog that sleeps by the window. Cordless blackout shades and blinds remove the loose cord completely: you raise and lower the shade by hand from the bottom rail, and nothing hangs at the side of the window. You still get a dark room for sleep, naps and night shifts, and every shade on this page is made to measure for your opening.

Cordless blackout options and when to choose each

Blackout Roller Shades are the simplest and most affordable way to darken a room. The fabric rolls into a squared cassette at the top, so the shade almost disappears when it is up. Choose from 30 blackout colors, from white and soft greys to linen textures and deep charcoal.

Blackout Cellular Shades swap the flat roller face for a soft honeycomb profile that stacks neatly at the top of the window. Cordless cellular is made from just 12 inches wide, the narrowest start of any cordless option here, so it is the one to choose for small and narrow bedroom windows.

Blackout Roman Shades give you soft fabric folds instead of a flat face, which works in a primary bedroom or guest room where the window is part of the decor. Woven Wood Shades with a blackout liner pair natural bamboo, jute or reed texture on the room side with a full blackout backing behind it.

A design tip: in a nursery or kids room, a light color on the room side keeps the space cheerful in daylight, while the blackout fabric does the work at night. In an adult bedroom, a darker cassette and fabric make the window recede once the lights are off.

Sizes and limits for cordless blackout

Cordless works with a spring that balances the weight of the shade, so it has its own size range, and it is worth checking before you order.

Cordless blackout roller shades on our squared cassette run from 23 5/8 inches to 94 1/2 inches wide and up to 118 inches high. Blackout fabric is made on narrower rolls than light filtering, which is why the blackout maximum is lower than the light filtering one.

Cordless cellular shades run from 12 to 94 inches wide and up to 94 inches high. On cellular, cordless is priced into the cordless fabric rate rather than added on top.

Cordless woven wood shades run from 19 3/4 to 96 inches wide and up to 106 inches high, 12 inches less drop than the clutch version. The blackout liner comes in nine colors and lines the valance as well as the shade.

On roller, roman and woven wood, cordless is a flat $38 per shade. If a window is too wide or too tall for cordless, a motorized shade is the other way to remove the cord.

Measuring and installing for a darker room

Light gaps are the enemy of a blackout shade, so decide on mount style with that in mind. An inside mount looks neat but leaves a slim gap at each side. An outside mount covers the frame and blocks more light; for cellular shades we recommend adding about 3 7/8 inches to both the width and the height of the opening to improve the shading. For an inside mount, measure width at the top, middle and bottom and height on both sides, and give us the smallest figures. Woven wood needs at least 1 5/8 inches of frame depth to mount inside.

Roller and roman shades hang on a cassette bracket with four pre-drilled holes. Use a 6 mm (0.2 inch) bit and the anchor that suits your wall, hook the cassette onto the bracket latch and press it back until it clicks, then check that the top and rear are both locked.

Start with one bedroom, order a blackout sample in the color you like, and hold it up to the window at midday. When it passes that test, your cordless blackout shades are made to measure and shipped direct to your door.