Room Darkening Wood & Faux Wood Blinds

Wood blinds are often chosen for the way they look: warm grain and crisp horizontal slats across the window. The question that comes next is usually how dark they will make the room. In a bedroom, a guest room or a den with a television, you want the slats closed tight at night and a room that stays dim on a bright weekend morning. This page gathers our made-to-measure wood and faux wood blinds for darker rooms, along with two blackout options for the windows where you need the room fully dark.

Blinds and shades for a darker room

Wood blinds suit a room where the window is part of the look. Real wood sits well with hardwood floors, wood furniture and traditional trim, and a stained finish adds depth to a quiet bedroom.

Faux wood blinds give the same slatted look in a wood-look finish. They are a natural pick for a kids' room, a guest room or a busy family bedroom where you want the look of wood blinds on every window.

ZeroGlow is for the window that must go fully dark, such as a shift worker's bedroom or a nursery used for daytime naps. It is a 25 mm blackout cellular shade held in an edge-to-edge frame that presses into the window opening with no drilling, sealed at the edges by a rubber weather strip. It is cordless, travels up and down or side to side, and comes in White, Black, Beige, Light Gray, Dark Gray and Straw fabric with three frame colors.

Blackout cellular shades give the same honeycomb blackout fabric on a standard headrail, for windows where a framed insert is not the right fit.

A few design notes. If you want blinds in most of the house but one bedroom needs total darkness, use wood or faux wood blinds on the other windows and ZeroGlow in that room, choosing a fabric close to your blind finish so the rooms still feel connected. A darker stain makes a bedroom feel cozier at night, while a white faux wood keeps a small room bright by day. Keep the slat size and finish the same on every window in a room.

Sizes and limits to check

Size limits, slat sizes and configuration options for wood and faux wood blinds are shown on each product page as you build your blind, so enter your widest and tallest measurements there before you order.

For the blackout options, ZeroGlow is built to the exact size of your opening, in inches or millimeters, and sits inside the window recess. Cordless blackout cellular shades build from 12 inches wide up to 94 inches wide and 94 inches high. Bead chain versions reach 197 inches wide and 157 inches high, and motorized versions need at least 23 inches of width and stop at 79 inches high.

Measuring and installing them yourself

Start by deciding whether each blind or shade will sit inside the window frame or on the wall around it. An inside mount gives a clean, built-in look. An outside mount covers the trim and can make a window look larger. For an inside mount, measure the width at the top, middle and bottom and the height on both sides, then send us the exact opening. For an outside mount on a cellular shade, adding 3 7/8 inches to both the width and the height lets it overlap the opening and block more light at the edges.

ZeroGlow installs without tools. Join the frame corners on a soft, flat surface, fit the rubber weather strip around the outside edges, then press the frame gently into the window opening until it is seated.

Compare wood and faux wood blinds with our blackout options here, order samples to see the finishes in your own light, then send us your sizes. We make each one to measure and ship it direct to your door.