Window Shades and Blinds: The Complete Category Map

Eleven window shades and blinds from three merchants, read on their own product pages in August 2026. Not to crown a winner (the eleven posted prices rest on four different bases and cannot honestly be ranked) but to sort the category by the one thing that behaves consistently from listing to listing: what the product does when you pull it.

The stiffest thing here needs the shallowest frame

Start with the constraint that decides more purchases than taste does: how deep your window recess is.

The most rigid product on this page is a hardwood plantation shutter. Two Pages requires 1 3/4 inches of depth for it, and offers no outside mount at all: it is an inside-mount product or nothing. The softest product here is a roller shade, a single sheet of fabric on a tube. Neutral Curtains asks for 3 5/8 inches for its Tavi roller, more than twice the shutter’s requirement, though that figure comes with a caveat this article returns to at the end.

Everything else lands in between. Two Pages publishes 2 inches for its Aura cellular shade, and 2 1/4 inches if you want it mounted flush. Its Patti roman shade needs 2 3/8 inches. Half Price Drapes asks for 2 3/4 inches on its French Linen roman shade. The Loma venetian blind, the only slatted product in this group, needs a full 3 inches because of the depth of its headrail.

In the room

Minimum window depth for an inside mount

Neutral Curtains

3 5/8 in

Tavi Roller Shades

Two Pages

3 in

Loma Venetian Blinds Cord Lift

Half Price Drapes

2 3/4 in

Crisp White French Linen Roman Shade

Two Pages

2 3/8 in

Patti Linen Deco Fold Roman Shade Cordless

Two Pages

2 in

Aura Blackout Cellular Window Shades Cordless

Two Pages

1 3/4 in

TWOPAGES Veritas Hardwood Plantation Full Height Shutter

Measure the reveal before choosing a fabric. A shallow frame rules options out faster than a budget does.

Source: official product pages from Half Price Drapes, Neutral Curtains, Two Pages, checked 2026-08-22. Fold & Light does not measure products; any percentage is the one that brand publishes.

Nothing about the look of these six products predicts that order. The rigid wooden thing fits a shallow reveal that the soft fabric one does not, because the depth is set by the hardware at the top, not by the material hanging below it. Measure first. A shallow frame rules out options faster than a budget does, and it does it before you have chosen a colour.

Blind, shade, shutter: what the words are supposed to mean

The useful distinction is mechanical, and it is simple enough to state in one line each.

A blind has slats, and the slats tilt. A shade is a continuous piece of material that folds, rolls, collapses or gathers, with nothing to tilt. A shutter is a rigid framed panel of louvres, fixed to the window rather than hung above it.

That is the theory. On the listings themselves, the words drift.

Neutral Curtains sells a woven wood product titled Custom Bamboo Shades & Blinds, and a roman shade titled Lily Linen Roman Shades & Blinds. Both names carry both words, for a product that has no slats and nothing to tilt. Two Pages titles a product Loma Venetian Blinds Cord Lift and serves it from a URL that reads loma-aluminum-blinds: one product, two names, on the same page.

In the room

None of this is deceptive. Merchants name products the way shoppers search for them, and “blinds” is the word a lot of people use for anything that is not a curtain. But it means the family name on a listing is a marketing choice, not a specification, and it cannot be used to work out what will arrive.

One more thing worth saying plainly, because it shapes what follows: of the three merchants tracked here, only Two Pages lists anything with slats: venetian blinds and plantation shutters. Neutral Curtains and Half Price Drapes list soft treatments only: cloth and woven wood. Checked 22 August 2026.

Measure the reveal before you fall for a photo

Order width is almost never the width you measured. Every one of these brands takes a deduction at the factory, and each takes a different one.

• 1/4 inch on the Loma venetian, described as a headrail deduction so the blind does not rub the frame. Two Pages states that slight side gaps may result.
• 1/4 inch on the Aura cellular shade: order width equals casing width minus a quarter inch.
• 3/8 inch on both roller shades. Neutral spells out that its deduction applies to the headrail width rather than the fabric, and recommends an outside mount if you want less light at the edges.
• 3/8 inch on the Neutral bamboo shade, applied by default: the brand will skip it if you leave a note with the order.
• 1/2 inch on the shutter, where the finished width is typically half an inch narrower than the width you order.

The shutter adds a condition none of the others impose: Two Pages asks that the two diagonals of your window opening differ by no more than 1/2 inch, because a rigid frame cannot absorb an out-of-square opening the way fabric can.

Then there is the space the product occupies when it is open. Neutral publishes a minimum stack height of 7 inches on its bamboo shades, and approximately 7 to 10 inches on the Lily roman shade, noting in both cases that it varies with style and size. Two Pages warns that its Patti deco fold may extend beyond the window frame on an inside mount, and suggests an outside mount instead. A raised shade does not disappear; it sits at the top of your glass.

Made-to-measure is not made-to-the-millimetre either. Neutral publishes a tolerance of 0.4 inch on its handmade bamboo shades, and treats a discrepancy greater than 3/8 inch on the Tavi roller as its own error, to be remade free.

What ships, and what you buy separately

Two Pages Loma Venetian Blinds Cord Lift	included: 2 brackets, 4 screws, 4 nails, 1 blind
Neutral Curtains Tavi Roller Shades	included: installation hardware included
Neutral Curtains Custom Bamboo Shades & Blinds – Alum. Headrail	included: installation hardware included (screws for drywall into a stud or solid wood)
Half Price Drapes Millstone Grey Solid Cotton Room Darkening Tie-Up Window Shade	included: shade only; rod, rings and clips are not needed and not supplied
Half Price Drapes Light Ochre Solid Cotton Blackout Tie-Up Window Shade	included: shade only; rod, rings and clips are not needed and not supplied

Source: official product pages from Half Price Drapes, Neutral Curtains, Two Pages, checked 2026-08-22. Fold & Light does not measure products; any percentage is the one that brand publishes.

What arrives in the box is not the same across families either. The venetian blind ships with 2 brackets, 4 screws and 4 nails, and Two Pages lists the tools you will need to supply: a drill bit, an awl, a ruler, a pencil and a screwdriver. Neutral includes installation hardware on both the roller and the bamboo shade. The Half Price Drapes tie-up shade needs no brackets at all: it slides onto a rod you already own, up to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. The measuring itself, window by window, is covered in the guide to measuring for curtains and shades.

Five families, sorted by what moves

Group the eleven listings by the sentence on each page that describes the movement, and five families fall out. Not seven, not the dozen names the category uses: five.

What moves, family by family

Louvers that tilt

• Two Pages TWOPAGES Veritas Hardwood Plantation Full Height Shutter
  tilting louvers, cordless; single tilt up to 36 in high, split tilt 50/50 above
  hardwood slats with a PVC frame, Sherwin-Williams water-based paint · 1 3/4 in minimum inside-mount depth · the factory takes 1/2 in off the width you order · inside mount only
• Two Pages Loma Venetian Blinds Cord Lift
  tilting aluminium slats, cord lift, impact-resistant cord lock
  Aluminium slats, headrail and bottom rail, baked-on enamel finish · 3 in minimum inside-mount depth · the factory takes 1/4 in off the width you order

Fabric that rolls

• Two Pages Alvin Light Filtering Cordless Roller Shades
  rolls onto a tube; cordless or motorised; standard roll (curved cassette) or reverse roll (square cassette)
  30% Polyester, 70% PVC (except M171-2, M171-3 and M171-19: 55% Polyester, 30% Viscose, 15% Linen) · no minimum depth published · the factory takes 3/8 in off the width you order
• Neutral Curtains Tavi Roller Shades
  rolls onto a tube, corded lift
  100% Polyester · 3 5/8 in minimum inside-mount depth · the factory takes 3/8 in off the width you order

Cells that collapse

• Two Pages Aura Blackout Cellular Window Shades Cordless
  honeycomb cells that collapse into a stack under an aluminium-alloy headrail; cordless lift
  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 Patti Linen Deco Fold Roman Shade Cordless
  fabric that folds and stacks on a wood headrail; cordless as listed, motorised option carries a larger headrail (3/4 in x 1 1/2 in manual, 2 3/4 in x 3 1/2 in motorised)
  100% Belgian Linen · 2 3/8 in minimum inside-mount depth · inside or outside mount; the brand warns the deco fold may extend beyond the window frame on an inside mount
• Neutral Curtains Custom Bamboo Shades & Blinds – Alum. Headrail
  woven wood panel raised on an aluminium headrail; minimum stack height 7 in when fully raised
  woven wood: bamboo, ramie, jute depending on the collection chosen · no minimum depth published · the factory takes 3/8 in off the width you order · stacks minimum 7 in when fully raised
• Neutral Curtains Lily Linen Roman Shades & Blinds | Plain Fold
  fabric that folds and stacks; plain fold, each fold style sold as its own listing
  80% polyester, 20% linen · stacks approx. 7-10 in when fully raised
• 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

Nothing at all

• Half Price Drapes Millstone Grey Solid Cotton Room Darkening Tie-Up Window Shade
  no lift mechanism: a 4 in pole pocket slides onto a rod, two 70 in fabric ties gather the shade by hand
  100% Cotton (solid cotton twill), off-white lining
• Half Price Drapes Light Ochre Solid Cotton Blackout Tie-Up Window Shade
  no lift mechanism: a 4 in pole pocket slides onto a rod, two 70 in fabric ties gather the shade by hand
  100% Cotton (solid cotton twill), off-white lining

Source: official product pages from Half Price Drapes, Neutral Curtains, Two Pages, checked 2026-08-22. Fold & Light does not measure products; any percentage is the one that brand publishes.

Louvres that tilt. The plantation shutter and the venetian blind. Both control light by angle rather than by coverage: the panel stays where it is and the slats rotate. Two Pages offers the shutter in four louvre widths (2 1/2, 3, 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 inches) and splits the tilt into two independently controlled halves once the panel is taller than 36 inches. The Loma is aluminium throughout, slats, headrail and bottom rail, with a baked-on enamel finish and a cord lift.

Fabric that rolls. Two roller shades, one from each of two brands, and they are not made of the same thing. Neutral’s Tavi is 100% polyester. The Two Pages Alvin is 30% polyester and 70% PVC, with three of its twenty-three colourways made instead from a polyester, viscose and linen blend. A roller shade is the family where “fabric” is doing the most work as a word.

In the room

Cells that collapse. One product here, the Aura, and it is unusually well documented for this comparison: 225 gsm, in roughly 1-inch honeycomb pleats, with an aluminium-coated interior and an aluminium alloy headrail measuring 2 3/16 inches deep by 1 3/8 high. The cells are the point: they are what makes the shade insulate as well as darken.

In the room

Where this figure comes from

Two Pages · Aura Blackout Cellular Window Shades Cordless

Listed from $68.99

What that covers: listed starting price (7 colourways, all at 68.99, no compare_at). Size entered in the configurator.

Build your size at Two Pages

Affiliate link, disclosed: Fold & Light may earn on it, never as a surcharge to you, and it changes nothing about what Two Pages asks. The figure is dated 2026-08-22 and only the merchant page is current. That picture belongs to Two Pages and was taken from the catalogue on 2026-09-02.

Fabric that folds and stacks. The largest family: three roman shades and a woven wood shade. Patti is 100% Belgian linen at 248 gsm; the Half Price Drapes French Linen shade is 100% linen in relaxed or flat fold with a continuous-loop cord lift; Neutral’s Lily is 80% polyester and 20% linen at 350 gsm, despite the name. The bamboo shade belongs here too: it is woven wood rather than cloth, but it gathers upward the same way.

Where this figure comes from

Neutral Curtains · Custom Bamboo Shades & Blinds – Alum. Headrail

Listed from $65.00

What that covers: lowest base price of the six collections on the listing (Natural 65.00, Nomi 79.00, Ivy 81.50, Ramie 98.50, Willow 102.00, Hazel 125.00). The page states the rule itself: Total Price = Base Price + Add-ons.

Build your size at Neutral Curtains

Affiliate link, disclosed: Fold & Light may earn on it, never as a surcharge to you, and it changes nothing about what Neutral Curtains asks. The figure is dated 2026-08-22 and only the merchant page is current. Photograph from the Neutral Curtains catalogue, retrieved 2026-08-22.

Nothing at all. The two Half Price Drapes tie-up shades have no lift mechanism of any kind. A 4-inch pole pocket slides onto a rod, and two 70-inch fabric ties gather the cloth by hand at whatever height you knot them. The brand says so itself: these are a stationary style, not designed to be raised and lowered daily the way a roman shade or a roller is. It is a shade by name and a hung panel by construction. If the roman family is where you are headed, three roman shades set side by side goes further into that one than a category map can.

What each family does to light, in the brand’s own words

Across eleven listings, exactly one light-blocking percentage is published, and it appears on two twin products. Everything else is a word.

Two Pages calls the Aura a blackout shade and describes “high-density blackout fabric and an aluminum-coated interior that completely blocks light”. No figure accompanies it. The same brand calls the Alvin roller light filtering, saying it “gently diffuses sunlight” while keeping daytime privacy, and sells a blackout version of the same collection separately. Again, no figure.

In the room

Neutral offers its Tavi roller in blackout and light-filtering options, and then adds the sentence that matters most in this section: for 100% blackout, choose the front valance, because the back valance can let light in at the sides, the headrail being around 2 inches deep. That is a brand telling you, on its own page, that the darkness comes from the trim as much as from the cloth.

On roman shades, opacity is usually not a property of the fabric at all. Half Price Drapes offers its French Linen shade with Privacy Lining, Lined & Interlined, or Blackout Lining, and states that how dark it gets depends on which you pick. Two Pages publishes no opacity claim on Patti whatsoever; Lining Type is simply a step in the configurator.

The two tie-up shades are the exception that proves how rare a number is: Half Price Drapes states that their privacy lining blocks approximately 60 to 65% of incoming light. That is the brand’s figure, not a measurement of ours: Fold & Light does not test products. Where those opacity words come from, and what each of them is worth, is the subject of its own guide.

The word on the label is not the mechanism

Half Price Drapes sells two tie-up shades that make the point better than any argument could.

One is titled Millstone Grey Solid Cotton Room Darkening Tie-Up Window Shade. The other is titled Light Ochre Solid Cotton Blackout Tie-Up Window Shade. Same 100% cotton twill, same off-white privacy lining, same 4-inch pole pocket, same two 70-inch ties, same single ready-made size of 46 by 63 inches, same price of $10.50. And on both pages, word for word, the same sentence: the privacy lining blocks approximately 60 to 65% of incoming light.

In the room

So one shade wears the word “blackout” and one wears “room darkening”, and their own manufacturer publishes an identical figure for both. Nobody is lying here. The opacity vocabulary in this industry is regulated by no one, and a colour name gets a title that reads well. But if you shop by the word in the title, you are shopping by something that carries no information.

The same pages carry a second thing not to read too quickly. Both tie-ups show a struck-through $34.99 and a 70% OFF badge, permanently. A discount that never ends is a price, not an offer. Neutral’s bamboo listing does something odder still: a single compare-at price of $79.99 sits on all six collections, including the three that actually sell for $98.50, $102.00 and $125.00. On those three the anchor is lower than the price. Treat both as merchandising furniture and read the number you would actually pay.

Eleven listed prices, eleven different things being priced

The prices on these listings do not measure the same thing, so this article does not rank them. There are four distinct bases in play.

A finished product at a fixed size. The tie-up shades: $10.50 buys one shade, 46 by 63 inches, sold per shade, with nothing to configure. That number is a real price.

A configurator floor. The Loma venetian at $29.99, the Alvin roller from $41.99, the Tavi roller at $42.99, the Aura cellular at $68.99, the shutter at $107.99, the Patti roman at $109.99. Every one of these is made to your measurements, and none of them knows your window yet. The figure is the cheapest possible version of the product.

A base plus add-ons. Neutral prints the rule on its own page (Total Price = Base Price + Add-ons) and its bamboo listing starts at $65.00 for the Natural collection, rising to $125.00 for Hazel before any option is chosen. Its Lily roman shade at $35.99 is narrower still: that is the price of the plain fold, and each fold style is sold as a separate listing.

A calculator result. Half Price Drapes shows $179.20 on the French Linen roman shade before any size is entered, then recomputes on width by length.

Fold styles

Four bases, one page. Setting $10.50 beside $107.99 puts a finished cotton panel next to a made-to-measure hardwood shutter: two different transactions, not two prices for the same thing. What the base tells you is more useful: whether the number in front of you can still move. On nine of these eleven listings it can, and on the two tie-up shades it cannot. What a made-to-measure price actually covers takes that question apart line by line.

Where this figure comes from

Half Price Drapes · Crisp White French Linen Roman Shade

Listed from $179.20

What that covers: 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.

Build your size at Half Price Drapes

Affiliate link, disclosed: Fold & Light may earn on it, never as a surcharge to you, and it changes nothing about what Half Price Drapes asks. The figure is dated 2026-08-22 and only the merchant page is current. The shot beside it is catalogue work by Half Price Drapes, pulled 2026-08-22.

What none of these eleven listings tells you

The gaps are as informative as the specifications, and they are not evenly spread.

Nine of these products are made of fabric or woven fibre. Three publish a weight: 225 gsm on the cellular shade, 248 on Patti, 350 on Lily. The other six do not, and we are not estimating one.

Two roller shades sit side by side in this comparison. One publishes a minimum mounting depth and the other does not. Two Pages gives no depth figure for the Alvin at all, while Neutral gives one for the Tavi, and then contradicts it: the specification block says 3 5/8 inches, and an FAQ further down the same page answers “2 inches” to the same question, in a block that talks about roman shades on a roller shade listing. We have kept the specification figure and flagged the divergence rather than pick a winner between two numbers from one merchant.

Dimension ranges are published twice out of eleven. Patti lists 18 to 84 inches wide by 24 to 72 long as a manual shade, and 27 to 96 by 18 to 98 motorised. The Tavi roller offers 21 to 80 inches of width and 20 to 119 of height, in eighths of an inch. No other listing here tells you the largest window it can cover, which matters most on the widest ones.

What these listings do not tell you

• Two Pages TWOPAGES Veritas Hardwood Plantation Full Height Shutter: opacity
• Two Pages Loma Venetian Blinds Cord Lift: opacity, size envelope
• Two Pages Aura Blackout Cellular Window Shades Cordless: size envelope
• Two Pages Alvin Light Filtering Cordless Roller Shades: weight gsm, min inside mount depth in
• Two Pages Patti Linen Deco Fold Roman Shade Cordless: opacity
• Neutral Curtains Tavi Roller Shades: weight gsm
• Neutral Curtains Custom Bamboo Shades & Blinds – Alum. Headrail: weight gsm, opacity, min inside mount depth in
• Half Price Drapes Millstone Grey Solid Cotton Room Darkening Tie-Up Window Shade: weight gsm
• Half Price Drapes Light Ochre Solid Cotton Blackout Tie-Up Window Shade: weight gsm
• Half Price Drapes Crisp White French Linen Roman Shade: weight gsm, size envelope

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

Source: official product pages from Half Price Drapes, Neutral Curtains, Two Pages, checked 2026-08-22. Fold & Light does not measure products; any percentage is the one that brand publishes.

And our own gaps, which belong in the same list. We have not verified lead times, return policies on made-to-measure orders, or shipping costs for any of these three merchants, so this page says nothing about them. Those are the three questions a buyer asks last and cares about most, and an estimate would be worth less than the silence.

One line to read on any listing

Two sentences on a product page carry more decision-making weight than the family name, the photograph and the headline price combined.

Find the sentence that says how the product moves, and the sentence that gives the minimum mounting depth. If the listing has neither, the family name has told you nothing, and you should ask the merchant before you order.

Everything in this map came out of those two lines and the specification block around them. They are also, conveniently, the two things a merchant cannot fudge: a shop that publishes a mechanism and a depth has committed to something checkable, and a shop that publishes neither is asking you to buy a word.

Questions people ask before ordering

What is the difference between window blinds and shades?

Mechanically, a blind has slats that tilt and a shade is a continuous piece of material that folds, rolls, collapses or gathers, with nothing to tilt. On the listings themselves the words are looser than that: Neutral Curtains sells a woven wood product called Custom Bamboo Shades & Blinds and a roman shade called Lily Linen Roman Shades & Blinds, neither of which has a slat, and Two Pages serves a product titled Loma Venetian Blinds Cord Lift from a URL reading loma-aluminum-blinds.

How much window depth do I need for an inside mount?

It depends on the mechanism, and the range across these eleven listings is wider than most people expect. Two Pages asks 1 3/4 inches for its plantation shutter, 2 inches for the Aura cellular shade and 2 3/8 for the Patti roman shade. Half Price Drapes asks 2 3/4 inches for its French Linen roman shade. The Loma venetian needs 3 inches, and Neutral’s Tavi roller lists 3 5/8. Three listings publish no depth figure at all: the Alvin roller, the bamboo shade and the Lily roman shade. So ask before ordering those. The two tie-up shades need none: they hang from a rod rather than sitting in the recess.

Do shades and blinds come with the hardware you need?

Partly, and it varies. The Loma venetian ships with 2 brackets, 4 screws and 4 nails, and Two Pages lists the tools you supply: drill bit, awl, ruler, pencil, screwdriver. Neutral includes installation hardware with the Tavi roller and with its bamboo shades, where the screws are specified for drywall into a stud or solid wood. The Half Price Drapes tie-up shades need no brackets: they slide onto a rod up to 1 1/2 inches in diameter, which you provide.

When a shade is raised, where does the fabric go?

It stacks at the top of the window, and only two of these eleven listings tell you how much room that takes. Neutral publishes a minimum stack height of 7 inches on its bamboo shades and approximately 7 to 10 inches on the Lily roman shade, adding in both cases that it varies with style and size. Two Pages warns separately that its Patti deco fold can extend beyond the frame on an inside mount. The remaining listings publish nothing, and we are not estimating on their behalf.

Is a shade labelled “blackout” darker than one labelled “room darkening”?

Not necessarily, and Half Price Drapes demonstrates it on its own pages. Two tie-up shades (one titled Blackout, one titled Room Darkening) carry the same 100% cotton twill, the same privacy lining, the same 46 by 63 inch size, the same $10.50 price, and the same published figure of approximately 60 to 65% of light blocked. Those percentages are the brand’s; Fold & Light does not measure products.