Roller shades or Roman style shades made from bamboo, jute, and woven wood materials will provide texture and natural warmth to any room in your home without the expense and ecological impact of real wood blinds or shutters.

If you want something unique yet affordable for your window coverings, then bamboo shades may be just the thing!

Benefits of Bamboo Shades

Layered with red thai curtains, the bamboo shades provide natural texture and give a unique look to window coverings.

This woven shade uses small pieces of bamboo and the other materials and thus sometimes referred to as “matchstick” shades.

You can let more or less light into the room simply by lifting or lowering the window shade. And, depending on how tight or loose the weave and whether you select roller or Roman type bamboo shades, you can also purchase them with a liner to add privacy and darken a room more if desired.

Bamboo shades are also an energy efficient window covering option since bamboo traps air inside, providing good insulation from the heat and cold that window glass transfers between the exterior and interior of your home.

While they may look delicate, bamboo has a high tensile strength, which makes it a durable material that has long been used for window coverings and other decorative purposes in the home by many Asian and Polynesian cultures.

Affordable, attractive and lightweight, bamboo shades are simple to install and maintain. Just use a feather duster or vacuum with a brush attachment to keep your woven wood shades clean.

Types of Bamboo Shades Available

• Roll Up Bamboo Shades – traditional bamboo shades that are great in an informal room decor, for use outdoors or in an enclosed porch, roller type bamboo shades use a simple pull cord to raise or lower them for light and privacy control.
• Woven Wood Shades – refers to the use of bamboo, jute, reeds, grasses and similar materials to create a “woven fabric” that is used to make window shades and other products.
• Roman Bamboo Shades – made in the Roman style of shade, this popular style is both stylish and very functional.
• Light Filtering Bamboo Shades – with no liners and typically “loose woven”, bamboo shades will filter light but do not typically block out light entirely or provide complete privacy. The tighter the weave, the more light control and privacy your bamboo shades will offer.
• Privacy Lined Bamboo Shades – a white or other light coloured liner is sewn to the back side of the window shade, only available in the Roman style of bamboo shade, this option provides complete privacy and better light control.

Matching Your Room Decor and Bamboo Shades

Patterns can vary greatly with bamboo window shades, depending on the colour, size and texture of the materials used, which means you have a great selection of bamboo shades available to match other decorative elements in your room.

Select furniture like rattan or wicker, along with accessories like throw pillows and area rugs to create an exotic and inviting ensemble, complemented by your bamboo shade. A decorative fabric valance can be added to match the patterns of your bedding, upholstery or throw pillows.

Optionally, a cornice board made from wood or bamboo can be installed above a bamboo shade instead of a fabric valance, giving your window treatment a nice designer look that is at once simple and elegant, but far less costly than wood shutters or blinds.

Another way to dress up your bamboo shades is to add sheer curtains in the colour and/or pattern of your choice with tie backs to complete your stylish bamboo window covering.

While bamboo may bring to mind images of a primitive decor, you can match bamboo shades to a variety of room decors!

Buying Bamboo Shades

You can find bamboo window shades in most local home decorating centers or shop online for discounted prices on ready made and made to measure shades in a wide variety of patterns and woven wood styles.

When shopping for price, keep in mind that many factors affect the price and quality of bamboo shades. Bamboo used in making higher quality products is aged and treated properly to extend the useful life of your window shades, while lesser quality, cheap shades may crack, split or even discolour with time and exposure to the intense UV rays of direct sunlight.

Typically, bamboo shades are mounted inside the window opening (inside mount), since this style tends to block out more light, but some manufacturers also offer outside mount bamboo shades; be sure to measure correctly depending on which type you are ordering. If in doubt, email or phone your online window fashions retailer for advice on how to take correct measurements before ordering.

Look for bamboo shades that come with all hardware and clear installation instructions. Be sure to check the retailer or manufacturer warranty terms and return policy before ordering your bamboo shades so that you won’t have problems should they have defects or if the shades sent are not what you ordered.Of course, once you have installed your shades, in most cases you will not have the option of returning them, so plan ahead and be sure you know exactly what you want before you order.

Specialized cutting tools are used to cut the bamboo shades to the correct size, so ordering them with the idea in mind of cutting or trimming them down to size yourself is not recommended for quality window shades made from bamboo.

If you need a custom size shade, order from a retailer or manufacturer who offers custom sizes unless you are willing to try cutting them yourself and accept that the fit and finish may not be entirely perfect. This may be an option to consider if you plan to use cheap roll up bamboo shades outdoors where a rough look will be acceptable.

As you have seen in this article, you will find that bamboo shades can complement many styles of room decor and will add texture, natural colour and a unique look in your home and provides a flexible, inexpensive window covering.

While it’s true that bamboo is one of the most popular materials for woven blinds and shades, there are plenty of other options available to get the right look that you need.

The styles and options available have certainly progressed past the clunky, unattractive styles of the past.

Today, you can find woven wood shades in a variety of styles, colours, and patterns.

Consider using woven wood shades in your home; simply follow these tips to choose the right ones.

As an alternative to Venetian blinds, woven wood blinds and shades offer natural colour, texture and warmth in your home.

Selecting Woven Wood Blinds

Woven woods now come in a variety of styles and materials. You can purchase natural, environmentally friendly materials such as bamboos, jute, reeds, and grasses, or you can go with real or faux wood blinds. Combining them with curtains will give your window covering a stylish, one-of-a-kind look.

The material you choose will affect how the blind moves and looks. Very slim grasses or reeds will result in what’s called a matchstick blind. It’s very flexible and can offer a smooth or stubbled surface depending on the material. Larger wood or bamboo blinds will provide an increasingly more textured look with progressively lower levels of flexibility.

If you add a valance or curtains to your woven wood blinds or shades, you can create a very unique and stylish window treatment!

Some styles come with a liner that will help to filter out the light. Depending on the style you select, the liner may or may not show from the inside of the room.

As with the other types of window blinds, you have many options available regarding how they will open and close. One of the most common styles for woven wood blinds is the Roman shade, which pulls up into long pleats.

There are some varieties of the Roman shade which offer tighter or looser pleats as well. Roller shades obviously just roll up. Generally, they’re controlled by pull cord, although you can also find versions with decorative ties. The ties are really visually attractive, but they’re a pain to use and probably not the best option if you plan to be opening and closing the blinds frequently.

Taller windows and French doors can be covered with long panels that fold off to the side, similar to the operation of drapes.

Colours and trims can really make all of the difference for woven wood blinds. For example, a light-stained bamboo blind with natural tone binding will give a very different look and feel in comparison to a green-tinted matchstick with black binding. By incorporating valances and binding choices into your design, you can come up with a truly attractive option.

There are also woven wood shade choices out there which incorporate two or more types of wood, usually of different sizes and colours. These provide an almost striped look and can really pop in the right room.

In Japan, exterior bamboo blinds were traditionally believed to ward off evil spirits.

In Chinese culture, bamboo is believed to provide people with longer life and in Indian culture, bamboo conveys friendship.

Today we are much more likely to decide on exterior bamboo blinds to ward off the sun’s UV light from creating glare on the TV screen or heating our homes on hot summer days.

In many Asian countries, huts were once made using grasses and bamboo.

Window coverings were also made from bamboo to keep out inclement sun, wind and rain. Today, you will find that exterior bamboo blinds can provide a shaded porch and will hold up against any type of weather.

Exterior bamboo shades and blinds have long been used in warm Asian climates to keep outside areas and home interiors cool and refreshing.

Just think; you can barbeque on your porch during a rainstorm while protected from the elements. And, an exterior bamboo treatment reduces mildew on the protected area and the blinds as well.

Installation is very easy and you can take your blinds down at will to reverse the sides or to clean them. The instructions are simple to follow; all you need is a cordless drill and screwdriver bit.

You can choose from two basic styles; Venetian or Roll Up. Roll bamboo blinds are nice since you simply roll the blind up and secure with straps. Venetian-style blinds incorporate a rope system that can get tangled sometimes, so care must be used when opening and closing them.

You will find exterior bamboo blinds available in specialty blinds stores, online or in catalogs. Unless you live in a tropical climate, you probably will not find them in your local hardware store, due to low demand for tropical blinds in the UK and northern US states.

You may need to order your blinds and wait a couple of weeks to receive them, so be sure to order yours around the end of winter before warmer Spring and Summer weather arrives!

They make a durable and stylish window treatment in any room, offering natural texture and earth tone to your decor.

Whether you have venetian, roman shades or roller blinds, if your blinds are bamboo, they will attract dust and dirt over time and need periodic cleaning.

Fortunately, bamboo blinds are also easy to maintain and keep clean.

Read on to learn how to clean your bamboo blinds or shades.

Cleaning your wood or bamboo blinds or woven bamboo shades is easy to do yourself and will keep them looking fresh and new!

What you need:

• Bathtub in a well-lit bathroom
• Hot water
• Oil soap

Step One
Remove your bamboo blinds from the windows, taking care to remember which one goes with which window. Fill your bathtub with hot water, mixing in a small amount of oil soap. Quality oil soap will remove dirt, cobwebs and stains, and eliminates any bad odor from bamboo blinds.

Step Two
Place your bundled bamboo into the tub and move it back and forth so that soapy water reaches all surfaces. It’s best to clean your blinds one at a time.

Step Three
Leave the blind to soak for several minutes, then remove and set it aside gently.

Step Four
Drain and rinse your bathtub to wash away the grime, before refilling to wash the next blind.

Step Five
If needed, repeat this process until the blind is clean to your satisfaction. If not, fill up the tub with hot water and rinse well so no soap residue is left on the blind. You can also use the showerhead to speed things.

Step Six
Once all your bamboo blinds are clean, put them in a warm, sunny place, like the patio, deck or backyard, hanging them to air dry completely, usually about half an hour or so.

Step Seven
Once your bamboo blinds are totally dry, put them back in place, nice and clean!

However sometimes, we want to live a little wild and perhaps go for a more exotic look.

But how do you go about making your home decor feel more exotic?

You have the carpeting, expensive decorative pieces, but something seems missing, perhaps the exotic window treatment!

An excellent way to create an exotic setting in your room is to install bamboo blinds.

An environmentally friendly and natural home decorating material, bamboo is an excellent choice to give your interior that warm and exotic touch!

So that is where the great tool called the Internet comes in. Just one search on Google can get you thousands of matching and related results.

Of course the higher ranked it is, the more popular the site, so that will give you an idea of which brands are trusted and reputable.

Of course, their are many types of bamboo blinds and shades available. If you are into traditional Japanese you can choose from the models of bamboo blinds that are woven together in very thin shafts.

There are also much more contemporary styles and options for those who want something exotic, but more modern.

Then of course, there is the option of traditional hand woven blinds or the machine made blinds. The hand made ones are more expensive however, but you know the quality is there and of course they are more valuable and add to the unique and exotic setting you are after.

Another beneficial point of bamboo blinds is the fact that they are, environmentally, more structurally stable than other natural materials. The bamboo usually reaches its maturity within 6 years, allowing it to be a perfect material to use for blinds. They are sturdy and in abundant supply due to its rapid maturity speed.

While bamboo blinds offer an exotic and sturdy option for your blinds. It is important to be clear with the supplier what you are wanting to purchase and to be sure you have a reliable supplier at that. That is why it is important to read exactly what you are getting, ask questions and look on Google for the most searched sites.

With all that in mind, you can be sure to have an exotic setting in no time.

Since bamboo is a grass, not wood, it grows very quickly, reaching maturity in as little as 3 to 5 years.

Also, a single bamboo plant can be harvested multiple times, making it a great alternative to hardwoods, which take many years to mature.

Unlike vinyl or other faux wood finishes, bamboo brings the grain and natural textures of wood into your home without the expense and environmental concerns of wood blinds.

While straight bamboo cane shades like this one is what comes to mind when you think of bamboo blinds, there are a multitude of options on the market today.

Bamboo blinds bring natural texture, colour and an organic sense of the outdoors into your room decor. With natural materials and organic lines of nature, and the warm glow of the light honey colored tone of the bamboo, comes the reflex to relax and enjoy the surroundings.

Bamboo has long been used as a material for privacy screens in many Asian cultures and its use as a window blinds material goes back as far as the Ming dynasty in China.

There are two main types of bamboo blinds; the more traditional bamboo shade or woven wood shade and the Venetian style blind, which uses bamboo in place of wood slats. Woven bamboo style shades are available in either the roll up or the more popular Roman shade lift style.

While the rustic look of traditional cane bamboo shades works well with some home decor schemes, it is most popular still for use outdoors as an inexpensive patio shade option.

But today, bamboo is also woven together to make a woven wood fabric that rivals any other woven wood shade produced in terms of style and durability.

Loose weave bamboo shades are translucent enough to provide a warm glow to your room and will not completely block out sunlight. This makes them a good choice for some rooms and they can also be lined.

Bamboo reeds, grasses, jute and hand-spun flax or linens are woven together to produce literally thousands of patterns, texture and colour combinations.

How these materials are combined and the density with which they are woven determines how well they will keep light out of your room.

The looser the weave, the more light will pass through the fabric, while the tighter the weave, the more effective a woven bamboo blind will be in keep light out and provide privacy.

Another option is to purchase bamboo shades with linings, giving them better light control and a unique look if a loose-woven bamboo fabric is matched to the liner, which will often be of a light colour, giving your room a soft, warm glow.

You can purchase bamboo shades in three types; matchstick, grasses or bamboo.

So named for the size of the sticks used, bamboo matchstick blinds are made of small, flat pieces of bamboo. These sticks are combined into different patterns for a nicely finished appearance and are typically no more than a quarter to a half inch wide.

Bamboo shades may also be made of small to medium sized pieces of bamboo that are manufactured either in tight braids or loosely woven together.

In the straight bamboo style, the sticks may either be cut either flat look or small canes kept round.

Quality, choice and performance characterize today’s bamboo blinds. Combining traditional design and modern variations in style, these window treatments will add warmth and a natural feeling to your home.