Bamboo Shades - Giving Windows an Oriental Treatment

Bamboo shades are made from various natural resources such as rattan, jutes, reeds and bamboo and are usually defined within the categories of natural Roman blinds or woven wood blinds. Bamboo shades bring about a mystical Asian flair within them thus generating greater authenticity in the oriental atmosphere created. However, some bamboo shades have the ability to create a rustic outdoor theme for the room while others helps to give a hinge of Asian flavor within the household.

In general, bamboo shades are manufactured in a roman-fold style or a rolled-up style. There are many bamboo blinds manufacturers in the current market today, however two of the more prominent brands for this type of blinds include Levolor and Blindsgalore, each of which have developed a great variety of bamboo shades for the market.

Levolor’s Bamboo Essence bamboo shades are categorized under natural woven woods. These designs consist of blinds that alternate between bamboo and reeds, with color stains used to add individual originality to the surface of the bamboo shades. Apart from that, they are also designed with wood valances made to match the various shades, as well as a fabric finished edge for decorations purposes. Despite of the natural light filtering properties of bamboo, Levolor blinds take it one step further by incorporating liners behind the shades for added privacy to the room. These liners are available either in semi-opaque for filtration of light purposes, or as an opaque type for a darkening effect. Both of these liners have been manufactured from polyester and cotton based on a 70:30 ratio. 

Blindsgalore also produces its own line of bamboo shades within four different platforms: Essentials, Textures, Exotics and Artisan. All of these four lines of bamboo shades contribute to 77 distinct designs to create huge variety for consumers. There are however only two general bamboo shade styles: the flat Roman or the Hobbled style with loops for added dimension. Similar to the Levolor brand, these bamboo shades are also equipped with blackout liners for privacy purposes. Additionally, all of them have been built for easy operation fit for modern convenience. Also, buyers have a choice between the Top Down/Bottom up system or the continuous Cord-Loop system, suited for larger shades.