Day and night blinds are also known as zebra blinds (pairs well with tiger bread…) and in some circles, vision blinds, mirage blinds, duo roller blinds, or “night and day” blinds.
Day and night window blinds are made of a single loop of sliding fabric in alternating sheer and solid horizontal stripes, hence the colloquial name of “zebra blinds.” Their appearance isn’t just a patterning choice or design gimmick, however; it allows you to adjust the alignment of the stripes to get just the effect you want.
This can take the form of a solid block of fabric for total privacy, fully open to allow you to enjoy the view and maximise the light, or partially aligned to control light and privacy in just the way you want.
Zebra blinds open the window to a whole new world of possibilities for any room, in terms of how you manage privacy, and provide both light and shade.
We like to think that our own UK-made-to-measure day and night blinds have that little something extra, that je ne sais quoi if you will, which can only be achieved by combining expert craftsmanship with the highest quality materials.
Let’s start with the basics: what are day and night blinds? This is most people’s first question, as day/night blinds are relatively new to the UK. They work like a roller blind in that they raise and lower with a side chain control and roll up and down around an aluminium tube.
However, unlike a roller blind, they are made of a single fabric loop that passes around both the front and back of the tube; and the fabric of a day and night blind is always horizontally striped.
A day and night blind’s stripes aren’t just a design element, but integral to what they do. The stripes are made of an alternating solid or opaque line, then a sheer or almost fully transparent line, similar to a voile or net curtain. As you roll the blind up and down, how the front and back stripes align controls the light coming in, how well passers by can see in, and how well you in your turn can see out.
Align the solid colour stripes and the day and night blind blocks external light – and eyes – fully. Alternate the solid and sheer stripes in matched pairs, and you get diffused but clear sunlight while making it harder for people outside to see inside; but leaving you with a virtually perfect view through the window yourself via the sheer stripes.
Day and night or zebra blinds are as simple and versatile as a roller blind, but also offer all of the privacy and light control options of a Venetian blind.
They are operated just like a regular roller blind. They have a control chain running in a loop at one side of the blind, and you tug on either the front or back of it to make the blind move up or down.
As you do this, the alternating horizontal strips of sheer and opaque fabric criss-cross past each other. If you’re adjusting your blinds because the sun is streaming in, this can create quite a funky/funny lighting effect for the duration, and/or can make your kids look like the the stars of an old flickering silent movie, only you know, probably not silent.
We’ve collated some day and night blinds reviews from our very first buyers to see what they think, and the main benefits they’ve shared with us include:
That depends on how you align the stripes, and the fabrics you choose for your blind.
Yes, blackout day and night blinds are entirely possible to make; the opaque stripes are made in blackout fabric just like that of a blackout roller blind, and to achieve the blackout effect, you just close the blind and align the opaque stripes to create a solid block of colour.
We generally recommend choosing day and night blackout blinds for bedrooms. (And remember to close them fully at night!)
If you’ve skipped right to the “ok but how much are day and night blinds? Question, here’s the skinny.
Are day and night blinds expensive? Well, they’re generally more costly than their nearest relation on the blinds family tree, common or garden roller blinds. Day and night blinds use twice as much fabric that is itself more costly to produce, as the stripes are not just a design/colour choice, but comprised of two entirely different fabrics.
They are also pretty innovative, have an undeniably contemporary style to them, and do more than roller blinds in terms of the flexibility they offer to control privacy and sunlight without taking the “all or nothing” approach that rollers do.
Roller blinds are like-for-like the lowest cost blind type of all anyway, so every other style of window blind is more expensive; not just day and night blinds!
How much do day and night blinds cost? Our open cassette day and night blinds start from £21.99, made to measure just for you. “Cheap” day and night blinds is something of a relative term; we like to think that ours are keenly priced, but they certainly don’t look cheap, nor compromise on quality.
We specialise in made to measure day and night blinds, manufactured in-house here in the UK to your exact specifications. This negates the need for you to have to try and trim them down or cut them to size at home, which we don’t recommend due to the challenges of getting this right for zebra blinds specifically.
Browse our complete range of day and night blinds for sale in the UK, all made-to-measure in the UK to your exact specifications.
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