Matchstick Shades & Blinds

Matchstick shades are the thin slat woven look: narrow strips of bamboo, reed or grass bound together so the weave reads as fine horizontal lines rather than a solid panel. The version sold in a flat pack comes in three or four stock widths, so it either floats inside the opening with light spilling down both sides or overhangs the casing and will not sit flat. The second problem is privacy. An unlined woven shade is roughly 50% see-through, which is fine over a kitchen sink and not fine in a bedroom. Coverly builds the same weave to your exact opening and lets you close it off with a liner.

Which Coverly shades give you the matchstick look

Our Woven Wood Shades are the matchstick build, drawn from 41 patterns in Pattern Book A and 61 in Pattern Book B, woven from bamboo, jute, reed, flax, grass, ramie and paper. The weaves closest to the classic matchstick face are the bamboo slat constructions: Dawn, at 50% bamboo slat and 50% bamboo and 935 GSM, and the Husk, Haven, Lumen and Ridge group, each 20% bamboo slat, 20% bamboo and 60% paper.

Three fold styles are available on every operating system. Waterfall flows from the front of the headrail so the headrail is hidden and the face is smooth and continuous, with lift chains behind the shade and a back side valance that makes it inside mount ready. Flat Fold flows from behind the headrail so the shade hangs in a crisp flat plane when fully lowered. Hobbled holds cascading folds at any height. Light Filtering Roman Shades sit on this page as the fabric alternative, for the same folded silhouette with a defined opacity rather than an open weave.

Sizes, liners and lift systems

Maximum width is 96 inches on every woven wood operating system. A wider opening is covered by multiple shades on one headrail, to 118 inches total, though a common valance still caps at 96 inches. Cordless runs 19 3/4 to 96 inches wide and 18 to 106 inches high. Clutch and Loop runs 11 3/4 to 96 inches wide and 18 to 118 inches high, which makes it the only option on a genuinely narrow window. Wand control needs 24 5/8 inches minimum width, and the lithium ion and AC motors need 25 1/4 inches because the motor tube has to fit inside the headrail. The standard DC motor drops that minimum to 12 3/4 inches.

Liners are what turn a decorative weave into a working shade. With no liner the shade is about 50% see-through; a light filtering liner takes that to about 70%, and a blackout liner is 100% blackout. Blackout liners come in nine colors in polyester, light filtering liners in nine colors in cotton, and when you choose one both the shade and the valance get it. Top down bottom up is not compatible with movable liners, and a movable liner needs a deeper headrail at roughly 3 1/8 inches. Loose, low GSM and fray prone weaves are marked for edge binding, about 1/2 inch wide on the face, and the ones marked required should be ordered with it. Natural fibers are not suited to high humidity rooms such as bathrooms, and moisture damage is a listed warranty exclusion.

Measuring and installing them yourself

For an inside mount, measure the width at the top, center and bottom of the opening and use the smallest of the three, rounded down to the nearest 1/8 inch. Measure the height on each side with your back to the wall and again use the smallest, rounded down the same way. Send the exact opening measurements rather than doing your own subtraction, because the factory applies the 1/4 inch width deduction. Check depth before ordering: woven wood needs a minimum 1 5/8 inch frame depth to mount, and 2 5/8 inches to sit flush inside the opening. The bracket is 1 3/8 inches high by 1 3/4 inches wide with 1/2 inch of fabric clearance.

Your shade arrives built to your numbers with brackets and hardware included, under a limited lifetime warranty against defects. Order samples to see the weave in your own light first.