What Top-Down Bottom-Up Shades Actually Cost (and Why One Merchant Has Four Prices for It)

How much extra is top-down bottom-up? It is the reasonable question, and it has no single answer. On one merchant’s site, on one day, the same mechanism on four of its own fabrics was charged at thirty-five dollars, at fourteen, at nothing at all, and once at fifty dollars less than the plain version. Those are not four merchants disagreeing. That is one catalogue, checked on 11 September 2026.

The reason is not that the feature is hard to price. Top-down bottom-up is almost never sold as an option. It is sold as a separate listing, and a separate listing gets its own price, its own size table and its own maximum drop. What follows is how to find what it costs at your window, which is a different number from the one on the page.

In the room

Two Rails, Two Stacks: What the Mechanism Does to the Window

A standard shade gathers its fabric in one band at the top. A top-down bottom-up shade carries a second rail at the bottom edge, and that rail has to have somewhere to sit. So the fabric gathers at both ends: a band under the head rail, and a band resting at the sill.

Close up

That doubling is the real cost of the mechanism, and it is paid in glass rather than in dollars. Inside the reveal, the two bands close in from opposite directions and the view you keep is the strip between them. Mounted above the frame and dropped past the sill, both bands land on wall, and the opening stays clear. Neutral Curtains publishes the figure that lets you plan for it: its Lily roman shade stacks approximately 7 to 10 inches when fully raised, the same range on the plain listing and on the top-down bottom-up one, and its bamboo shades are given a 7 inch minimum. Add the bottom rail and you have the band of window the shade occupies even when it is open.

What moves, family by family

Cells that collapse

• Two Pages Aura Top Down Bottom Up Blackout Cellular Window Shades Cordless
  top-down bottom-up cellular shade: the honeycomb panel can be lowered from the top rail or raised from the bottom rail, cordless on both
  100% Polyester · 2 in minimum inside-mount depth · the factory takes 1/4 in off the width you order

Fabric that folds and stacks

• Two Pages Top Down Bottom Up Soft Fold Sheer Roman Shades Cordless
  top-down bottom-up sheer roman shade with deco folds, cordless
  100% Polyester · no minimum depth published
• Neutral Curtains Lily Linen Roman Shades & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up
  top-down bottom-up roman shade: the fabric can be lowered from the top or raised from the bottom, stacking approximately 7 to 10 in when fully raised
  80% polyester, 20% linen · no minimum depth published · stacks approximately 7 to 10 in when fully raised, varying with style and size
• Neutral Curtains 100% Belgian Flax Linen Roman Shades & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up
  top-down bottom-up roman shade in Belgian flax linen, stacking approximately 7 to 10 in when fully raised
  100% Belgian flax linen · no minimum depth published · stacks approximately 7 to 10 in when fully raised, varying with style and size
• Neutral Curtains Extra Wide Bamboo Shade & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up
  top-down bottom-up shade: the panel can be lowered from the top or raised from the bottom, stacking 7 in minimum when fully raised
  stacks 7 in minimum when fully raised, varying with style, size and material
• Half Price Drapes Crisp White French Linen Roman Shade
  fabric that folds and stacks; relaxed or flat fold, continuous-loop cord lift
  100% Linen · 2 3/4 in minimum inside-mount depth

Published, but unlike the others

• Two Pages Liz Top Down Bottom Up Roman Shade Cordless
  top-down bottom-up roman shade: the fabric can be lowered from the top rail or raised from the bottom rail, cordless on both
  10% linen, 90% polyester · no minimum depth published
• Two Pages Rae Top Down Bottom Up Woven Wood Shade Cordless – Series D
  top-down bottom-up woven wood shade: the woven panel can be lowered from the top rail or raised from the bottom rail, cordless only
  woven wood, bamboo and jute · no minimum depth published

Read off the Half Price Drapes, Neutral Curtains, Two Pages listings themselves, 2026-09-11. None of these numbers is ours: where a percentage appears, it is the manufacturer claiming it.

What the mechanism does not seem to demand is a deeper recess. Two Pages gives its Aura cellular shade a 2 inch minimum inside-mount depth, 2 1/4 inches for a flush fit, and prints exactly the same two figures on the top-down bottom-up version of the same 225 gsm honeycomb. Same head rail too, at 2 3/16 inches deep by 1 3/8 high. If the plain shade fits your reveal, so does this one.

The proportion to work to

two stacks, not one

A shade that opens both ways stacks at both ends

Count the stack twice: once at the head, once at the sill, and mount so neither band lands on glass you want to keep.

A shade that only rises gathers its fabric in one band at the top. A shade that also drops from the top carries a second rail and a second gather at the bottom, and that band sits on the sill even when the shade is wide open. Inside the reveal, the two bands close in on the glass from both directions, so the view you keep is the strip between them. Mounted above the frame and dropped past the sill, both bands land on wall and the whole opening stays clear.

Measurable geometry rather than a product claim. Hold it against your own window before you trust it.

So the window is not what makes the feature expensive. Which leaves the listing.

The Same Fabric, Two Listings, Two Prices

Every one of these shades exists twice at its own merchant: once plain, once top-down bottom-up, on two separate product pages. The fabric codes give the pairs away. Two Pages sells its Liz linen roman shade under the code 1908 in 38 colourways, and the top-down bottom-up version under the same 38 codes with a TB suffix. Neutral Curtains sells that same 1908 fabric as Lily, also in 38 colourways, also twice.

Side by side

Read off the Two Pages listings themselves, 2026-09-11. None of these numbers is ours: where a percentage appears, it is the manufacturer claiming it.

In the room

Put the pairs side by side and the pattern falls apart. At Two Pages, the Liz pair is priced identically: 59.99 plain, 59.99 top-down bottom-up. The Aura cellular pair is 68.99 against 82.99. The Rae Series D woven wood pair is 129.99 against 164.99. And the Soft Fold sheer, a single 140 gsm polyester in both listings, is 119.99 plain against 69.99 top-down bottom-up.

Where this figure comes from

Two Pages · Liz Top Down Bottom Up Roman Shade Cordless

Listed from $59.99

What that covers: listed starting price, identical on all 38 colourways, no compare_at. Size is entered in the configurator and billed on top.

Build your size at Two Pages

This is an affiliate link: a commission may come back to us, you pay nothing extra for it, and Two Pages charges the same either way. The number above was read on 2026-09-11, so treat the live listing as the figure that counts. Catalogue photography supplied by Two Pages, retrieved 2026-09-11.

That last one is not a bargain, and it is worth saying why. The two Soft Fold listings do not describe the same shade. The plain version carries a wood and PVC head rail of 3/4 inch by 1 1/2, and drops to 84 inches. The top-down bottom-up version carries the brand’s standard aluminium top-down rail, 1 5/8 inches high, and stops at 72. Fifty dollars separates them because they are built differently, not because one is discounted.

In the room

Those two rails do not look the same above a sheer. A 3/4 inch rail sits close enough to the top of the fabric to read as part of it, while a rail more than twice that height is visible hardware sitting above a translucent panel, with daylight behind it all day. Two Pages also warns on the top-down bottom-up page that the deco fold may extend beyond the window frame, so on an inside mount the folds break the line of the reveal instead of sitting inside it. On a sheer, where the whole point is that the window looks soft and uninterrupted, both of those show.

The base under each price

Brand	Listed	Basis
Two Pages Aura Top Down Bottom Up Blackout Cellular Window Shades Cordless	$82.99	listed starting price, identical on all 7 colourways, no compare_at. Size entered in the configurator, and the configurator raises it: see the price measured at a real window.
Two Pages Liz Top Down Bottom Up Roman Shade Cordless	$59.99	listed starting price, identical on all 38 colourways, no compare_at. Size is entered in the configurator and billed on top.
Two Pages Rae Top Down Bottom Up Woven Wood Shade Cordless – Series D	$164.99	listed starting price, identical on all 15 colourways of Series D, no compare_at. Size is entered in the configurator and billed on top.
Two Pages Top Down Bottom Up Soft Fold Sheer Roman Shades Cordless	$69.99	listed price, single variant, no compare_at. Size is entered in the configurator and billed on top.
Neutral Curtains Lily Linen Roman Shades & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up	$59.99	base price, identical on all 38 colourways, add-ons excluded. The page states the rule itself: Total Price = Base Price + Add-ons.
Neutral Curtains 100% Belgian Flax Linen Roman Shades & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up	$99.99	base price, identical on all 10 colourways, add-ons excluded. Total Price = Base Price + Add-ons.
Neutral Curtains Extra Wide Bamboo Shade & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up	$65.00	lowest base price of six collections (Natural $65.00, Nomi $79.00, Ivy $81.50, Ramie $98.50, Willow $102.00, Hazel $125.00); Total Price = Base Price + Add-ons, so this is not a total
Half Price Drapes Crisp White French Linen Roman Shade	$179.20	figure shown before the size calculation; the page carries a Price Calculator (Regular Price / Final Price) that recomputes on width x length. Sold per shade.

Not like-for-like. These figures rest on different bases, so they cannot be ranked against each other. Read what each price covers before comparing.

Read off the Half Price Drapes, Neutral Curtains, Two Pages listings themselves, 2026-09-11. None of these numbers is ours: where a percentage appears, it is the manufacturer claiming it.

At Neutral, the split runs through a single catalogue just as cleanly. Lily goes from 35.99 plain to 59.99 top-down bottom-up, a 67% increase for a listing that publishes the same 80% polyester and 20% linen, the same 350 gsm and the same 7 to 10 inch stack. The 100% Belgian flax linen roman shade is 99.99 either way, across the same ten colour codes. The bamboo shades carry six collection prices, from 65.00 to 125.00, and the top-down bottom-up listing repeats all six to the cent.

In the room

Here is the part that settles it. Two merchants sell the 1908 fabric. Both of their top-down bottom-up listings land on exactly 59.99. It is the plain listings that differ, at 59.99 and 35.99. The mechanism is not what varies. The decision about what to charge for it is.

Where this figure comes from

Neutral Curtains · Lily Linen Roman Shades & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up

Listed from $59.99

What that covers: base price, identical on all 38 colourways, add-ons excluded. The page states the rule itself: Total Price = Base Price + Add-ons.

Build your size at Neutral Curtains

This is an affiliate link: a commission may come back to us, you pay nothing extra for it, and Neutral Curtains charges the same either way. The number above was read on 2026-09-11, so treat the live listing as the figure that counts. That picture belongs to Neutral Curtains and was taken from the catalogue on 2026-09-11.

What Each Merchant Charges for the Same Option

Line the amounts up and the word “surcharge” starts to look misplaced: four figures at one merchant, two at another, on the same day. One of them is not a sticker gap. The cellular pair is shown at twenty-four dollars rather than at the fourteen its two starting prices suggest, because twenty-four is what the merchant’s own configurator charges once a real window is entered. The next section is about that difference.

What each merchant charges for the same option

	Two Pages	Neutral Curtains	Half Price Drapes
Top-down bottom-up	$24.00 · Aura Top Down Bottom Up Blackout Cellular Window Shades Cordless $0.00 · Liz Top Down Bottom Up Roman Shade Cordless $35.00 · Rae Top Down Bottom Up Woven Wood Shade Cordless – Series D -$50.00 · Top Down Bottom Up Soft Fold Sheer Roman Shades Cordless	$24.00 · Lily Linen Roman Shades & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up $0.00 · on 2 of 3 listings	not published

Same options, different tickets. Two Pages prices 1 of 1 · Neutral Curtains prices 1 of 1 · Half Price Drapes prices 0 of 1. Nothing here is added up across merchants, and an option a merchant does not price is left empty rather than filled in from the other column.

Read off the Half Price Drapes, Neutral Curtains, Two Pages listings themselves, 2026-09-11. None of these numbers is ours: where a percentage appears, it is the manufacturer claiming it.

Half Price Drapes has no column at all, and that absence is an answer rather than a gap. Its roman shade configurator offers one lift and one only, a plastic beaded continuous loop running through a clutch at the head rail, with the chain on the left or the right. A catalogue search for “top down bottom up” on 11 September returned two products, both of them tie-up shades, which are a different mechanism entirely.

In the room

For a reader who wants that brand’s linen, the useful thing to know is what the continuous loop gives instead. The brand states that the shade locks in position at any height, so you get precise control over how far up the shade comes. You do not get the top half, and that changes what the room looks like rather than merely how the shade works.

A shade lifted from the sill uncovers the room from the bottom, so the first thing it puts on show is the part a passer-by can see into, and the daylight arrives at eye level as a bright band with the glare in it. Dropping the top instead keeps the covered band where people are standing and lets light in above head height, where it reaches the ceiling first and comes back down as a wash rather than a beam. Same window, same fabric, opposite result. That is why a shade which only rises is a different product rather than a cheaper one.

Where this figure comes from

Neutral Curtains · 100% Belgian Flax Linen Roman Shades & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up

Listed from $99.99

What that covers: base price, identical on all 10 colourways, add-ons excluded. Total Price = Base Price + Add-ons.

Build your size at Neutral Curtains

This is an affiliate link: a commission may come back to us, you pay nothing extra for it, and Neutral Curtains charges the same either way. The number above was read on 2026-09-11, so treat the live listing as the figure that counts. That picture belongs to Neutral Curtains and was taken from the catalogue on 2026-09-11.

What Top-Down Bottom-Up Shades Cost at a Real Window

Every price above is a starting price. These shades are made to measure, so the listed number covers a window nobody has and the size you order is billed on top.

Two Pages runs its size pricing in the page itself, so its two Aura listings can be compared at a real window. Set both to an inside mount at 30 inches wide by 48 inches long, in US dollars, and the plain cellular shade comes to 194.49. The top-down bottom-up version of the same honeycomb comes to 218.49. The gap is twenty-four dollars, not the fourteen the two starting prices suggest.

Worth doing

Find the same fabric on the other listing before you order

Before you order a shade in a named fabric, search the merchant for that same fabric name and compare every listing it appears in, side by side, at the same width and drop.

A merchant rarely sells one fabric once. The same cloth is usually listed several times, one listing per mechanism, and the listings are written by different hands on different days. Two of them can carry a different maximum drop, a different head rail, a different set of lift options and a different size table, with nothing on either page telling you the other exists. Pulling them up together is the only way to see what the mechanism is actually costing you, and the only way to catch the one that cannot be ordered at your window.

Method, not merchandise. No part of this changes with where you bought the curtain.

The merchant’s own configurator shows why. The top-down bottom-up listing does not just start higher. Each of its size bands starts five dollars above the matching band on the plain listing, in width and in length alike. Fourteen on the base, five on the width ladder, five on the length ladder, and you reach twenty-four before a single option is added.

Where this figure comes from

Two Pages · Aura Top Down Bottom Up Blackout Cellular Window Shades Cordless

Listed from $82.99

What that covers: listed starting price, identical on all 7 colourways, no compare_at. Size entered in the configurator, and the configurator raises it: see the price measured at a real window.

Build your size at Two Pages

This is an affiliate link: a commission may come back to us, you pay nothing extra for it, and Two Pages charges the same either way. The number above was read on 2026-09-11, so treat the live listing as the figure that counts. Photograph from the Two Pages catalogue, retrieved 2026-09-11.

Be clear about what those twenty-four dollars do not buy. Both listings describe the same 225 gsm honeycomb in approximately 1 inch pleats on the same aluminium head rail, so hung and left alone the two shades read identically on the wall: the same fine horizontal banding, the same depth of rail on show above it. Nothing you pay for here is visible. It is bought entirely in what the shade can do at eleven in the morning.

Two lessons, and the second is the useful one. At a perfectly ordinary bedroom window this shade costs more than two and a half times its advertised starting price. And comparing two listings on their “from” price is like comparing two quotes on their first line: the number that decides anything is the one you get after entering your own width and drop, on both pages, in the same session.

Neutral does not make that possible on the page. Choosing 30 inches by 48 on the Lily listing leaves the displayed price sitting at 35.99. Option surcharges do appear there; the size price does not. You reach it at the cart, so the only figure you can compare between the two Lily listings before you commit is the base price.

Check What the Listing Takes Away Before You Check What It Adds

The instinct with a dearer listing is to ask what the extra money buys. On these pairs it is more useful to ask what the second listing quietly drops.

In the room

Two Pages sells its Rae Series D woven wood shade plain with two lift systems, cordless or corded, a no-drill bracket included for widths between 18 and 50 inches, and three published liner grades: unlined, a privacy liner the brand rates at 50 to 75% shading, and a blackout liner it rates at 96 to 100%. The top-down bottom-up listing of that same Series D costs thirty-five dollars more and offers cordless only. No corded option for a high window, no no-drill bracket, and no opacity figures of any kind. On a tall or awkward window, the corded lift is the one that makes the shade usable, and it is the option that disappears.

What these listings do not tell you

• Two Pages Liz Top Down Bottom Up Roman Shade Cordless: min inside mount depth in, weight gsm, opacity
• Two Pages Rae Top Down Bottom Up Woven Wood Shade Cordless – Series D: min inside mount depth in, weight gsm, opacity
• Two Pages Top Down Bottom Up Soft Fold Sheer Roman Shades Cordless: min inside mount depth in
• Neutral Curtains Lily Linen Roman Shades & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up: size envelope, price by size, opacity, min inside mount depth in
• Neutral Curtains 100% Belgian Flax Linen Roman Shades & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up: min inside mount depth in, size envelope, opacity
• Neutral Curtains Extra Wide Bamboo Shade & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up: size envelope, opacity
• Half Price Drapes Crisp White French Linen Roman Shade: weight gsm, size envelope, care cleaning method, tdbu surcharge usd

Missing from the product page, so missing here too. A brand that prints the number is doing you a favour worth counting.

Read off the Half Price Drapes, Neutral Curtains, Two Pages listings themselves, 2026-09-11. None of these numbers is ours: where a percentage appears, it is the manufacturer claiming it.

The missing liner grades are the ones to think about hardest, because on woven wood the liner is what the room looks like. The brand notes on the plain listing that unlined shades may cast slight shadows during the day, which is the polite way of saying that light comes through the weave rather than around it: the panel glows, the pattern of the reeds appears on the floor, and the room is dimmer without being dark. A privacy liner rated at 50 to 75% turns that glow into an even surface. Ordering from the listing that publishes no liner scale at all means choosing between those two outcomes without being shown which one you are buying.

The Liz pair does something similar with dimensions. The plain listing takes 22 to 63 inches of width and 20 to 70 of drop, and states a 2 1/2 inch minimum depth for an inside mount. The top-down bottom-up listing takes 18 to 63 wide and 24 to 63 long, and publishes no minimum depth at all. The width range gets better by four inches at the narrow end. The drop gets worse by seven.

Where this figure comes from

Two Pages · Rae Top Down Bottom Up Woven Wood Shade Cordless – Series D

Listed from $164.99

What that covers: listed starting price, identical on all 15 colourways of Series D, no compare_at. Size is entered in the configurator and billed on top.

Build your size at Two Pages

This is an affiliate link: a commission may come back to us, you pay nothing extra for it, and Two Pages charges the same either way. The number above was read on 2026-09-11, so treat the live listing as the figure that counts. Catalogue photography supplied by Two Pages, retrieved 2026-09-11.

Seven inches sounds like a rounding error until you hold it against a window. Anything taller than 63 inches of finished drop, which includes most full-height bedroom windows and every glazed door, cannot be ordered on that listing at any price. The question of what the feature costs never arises, because the feature is not available at your size. That check takes ten seconds and belongs before the price comparison, not after it.

The vanished depth figure deserves the same treatment. A shade whose plain twin needs 2 1/2 inches of reveal probably needs something similar with a second rail on it, but the top-down bottom-up page does not say so, and we are not estimating it. If your recess is shallow, that unpublished number is the one to get in writing.

What to Ask Before You Order

Three questions, all answerable by any merchant selling a made-to-measure shade. Send them together, because asked one at a time they invite one-word replies.

A different arrangement

Open a shade from the top, not the bottom

On a street-facing window, leave the bottom of the shade down at standing eye level and let the light in over the top of it.

A shade raised from the sill trades privacy for light one inch at a time: the first thing it uncovers is the part of the room a passer-by can see into. Dropping the top instead keeps the covered band exactly where people are, and brings the daylight in above head height, where it bounces off the ceiling and reaches further into the room than a low, direct beam would. It is the same window, the same fabric and the opposite result, and it is the whole reason the mechanism exists.

A way of laying out what is already in the room, not a shopping list. Nothing new has to be ordered for it.

What is the total for this shade at my exact width and drop, and what is the total for the plain version of the same fabric at those same dimensions? That one question replaces the whole price comparison, and a merchant who cannot answer it is quoting you a starting price rather than a price.

What is the maximum finished drop on the top-down bottom-up listing? Ask it even when the page states a range, because the range the reader has already seen is often the one on the plain listing.

What minimum recess depth does the top-down bottom-up version need for an inside mount? Ask this whenever the page is silent about it, which on these listings is most of the time.

None of that requires knowing anything about honeycombs or head rails. It requires refusing to treat the price on one listing as the price of a feature, when the merchant has already priced that same feature four different ways.

Where this figure comes from

Neutral Curtains · Extra Wide Bamboo Shade & Blinds | Top Down Bottom Up

Listed from $65.00

What that covers: lowest base price of six collections (Natural $65.00, Nomi $79.00, Ivy $81.50, Ramie $98.50, Willow $102.00, Hazel $125.00); Total Price = Base Price + Add-ons, so this is not a total

Build your size at Neutral Curtains

This is an affiliate link: a commission may come back to us, you pay nothing extra for it, and Neutral Curtains charges the same either way. The number above was read on 2026-09-11, so treat the live listing as the figure that counts. The image above comes from the Neutral Curtains listing, retrieved 2026-09-11.

Questions

How much more does top-down bottom-up cost? There is no single figure, even within one catalogue. Two Pages put four different amounts on the same mechanism on 11 September 2026, one of them below zero.

Do these shades need a deeper window recess? Not on the cellular pair at Two Pages: both listings state a 2 inch minimum inside-mount depth. The brand’s top-down bottom-up roman listings publish no depth at all, so ask.

Can I get one for a tall window? Not always. Two Pages takes the Liz roman shade to 70 inches of drop on its plain listing and stops at 63 on the top-down bottom-up one.

Does every merchant sell them? No. The Half Price Drapes roman shade configurator offers a continuous loop lift and nothing else, and its catalogue returns no top-down bottom-up shade.