One popular brand, Riviera, now offers both blackout and translucent blinds. The translucent variety lets through soft filtered light, that is guaranteed to brighten any room.  This type of blind is perfect for areas where you want light in the room, but still want a modicum of privacy as well.  If you’re looking to totally block out all light, such as in a bedroom, you can choose the same fabric but include a blackout finish.  That way you’ll have perfectly coordinated color schemes, but still get what you need for each room.

Prestige roman blinds are made of premium polyester fabric, and come in two styles hobbled style and flat fold style.  The hobbled style lifts in full, soft folds and creates a more formal, elegant look.  Flat fold blinds lift in neat folds, giving a more contemporary look to a room. As with the Riviera blinds, there is a variety of light filtering blinds available, including a blackout version.

Sanibel roman shades are available in the standard flat style, hobbled style and top down, bottom up features.  All Sanibel’s are backed with white on the side that faces the street, to give a more uniform appearance to the outside of your house. They are also available in hobbled or flat style.

Toscana roman shades are a long time favorite. They have an extensive choice of colors and are available in standard flat, hobbled or European styles.  Many review say that these have the best fabrics, that they are high quality and a good investment of money if you’re looking into this style of blinds.  They also offer a total blackout backing, which is white.

Bamboo Roman blinds add a real touch of class to any room, especially if you have different wood tones and matching decor. You can find these ready made Roman blinds fairly easily online, for reasonable prices. If your windows are not standard size, it is also very easy to order made to measure Roman blinds which will be sure to fit your windows.

Of course there are many other varieties of roman blinds available today. If you’re brave enough, you can even try to make your own roman blinds by following a pattern.  They are among the easier types of blinds to may yourself, if you are able and you can find instructions on how to make Roman blinds online.  If not, never mind, there are plenty of places where you can buy the completed blind, even on line.

Whatever your final choice of window blinds, most blinds come with varying degrees of light filtering which will be sure to fit any of your needs.  Easy to fit and easy to care for, they are a good choice for people looking for a more moderately priced blind, or for something to fit above your cafe shutters.

Here are some ideas of when you might want to consider choosing roman blinds for your windows.

To show off the view:  These blinds can be folded up even above your actual window which makes them the perfect choice for the window with a view.  Too often I’ve seen beautiful views partly hidden because of heavy curtains that cover up half of the window even when they’re opened.  If you have a beautiful view, show it off.  Let your whole window frame the beauty of nature.  If you have a large window it is still easy to find made to measure Roman blinds, or have them made to order.

You want a Mediterranean feel to your room:  What  better way to achieve this could there be than with Roman Blinds?  Especially if it’s a lazy, sunny summers day and there’s a light breeze blowing, these curtains give off the impression that you’re sitting on the banks of the Mediterranean enjoying a lazy day and a cocktail.

You’re busy, and don’t have a lot of time or money to spend cleaning curtains:  Look no further when it comes to ease of cleaning, especially if you get curtains made from bamboo or even canvas.  Cloth curtains are hard to keep clean, and they fade in patches where sunlight hits them.  The roman blind folds up during the day and is not exposed to uneven sunlight, and they’re very easy to keep clean.

To complement other curtains in a subtle way:  If you already have curtains in your room but you’re wondering just what to put over that little window that needed something, why not try the roman blind.  If you choose the right color and material it can be very unobtrusive, not drawing any attention to itself, yet it can cover the window when needed.

Used in conjunction with other curtains: Another quite stylish use I’ve seen is to mount the blinds on a window, but still have delicate curtains hanging to either side of the blind, or have a fantastic retro floor lamp set off to the side to highlight them. This can look very nice and stylish, and the great thing is if you have the blinds then the curtain material does not have to be heavy, or even lined if you don’t want it to. It can be more something to show off, or side-case your blinds.

Roman blinds come in different styles and colors.  You can choose the more classic form of blind that uses fabrics or you can launch out and try bamboo or even fine wood slats for your blind.  There are so many alternatives for decorating your room with Roman Blinds, that they really could be the perfect choice for you in redecorating! If you are handy at sewing you could even try to make your own. There are many sites that give detailed instructions on how to make Roman blinds.

Still not sure? Have a look at different ideas and tips for decorating either on line, or in decorating magazines.  If you take a look at some photos and see how other people have been decorating using this type of blind, you’ll probably get lots of ideas on how you can do it.

The blinds are mounted on top of the window with a cord attached to one side of the curtain.  When you pull the cord, the blinds fold up in intervals (as opposed to blinds that roll up.) They come in a variety of colors and are made with different materials so it’s very easy to find something that matches your home color coordinates.   They can also be made from a huge variety of different materials, and they don’t only have to be made from curtain material. In fact, they’re often more useful made from thicker or more firm materials.  The cord can be attached to either side of the blind or can even be interchangeable if you follow the instructions which is nice, as you can adapt the blind if you move it from window to window.

They can be used to highlight an area such as a window bay or some other type of feature window. Roman blinds can either be translucent allowing light through or made from a blockout material which blocks out the light and sun.  It’s really up to you and how you would like to use them.  I’ve seen some beautiful translucent roman blinds that allow soft sunlight to flood into a room, giving it a very warm, almost magical golden look. It really was very well done, and gave the whole room a nice soft glow.  Another translucent curtain was actually more like transparent and you coud see through it the beautiful view outside. That was the idea with this curtain, to highlight the beauty of the outside surroundings, and it was very effective in doing this.  You’ll also often see this type of blind used in cafes or restaurants. They give your window or room a sort of  Mid-Eastern feel, especially if they’re made from a material that also gives  this type of impression.

So, as  you can see, Roman blinds are not only serviceable and useful for keeping out too much light or sun but they can also be used to add to the overall mood and ambiance of your room. They are readily available in most curtain shops and can be easily bought on line also.