The great popularity of roller shades has brought them to the attention to many previous nonbelievers. Now, however, these people are asking how to use roller shades in their own decor. Roller shades have a tradition of being a basic, kind of a basic no frills window treatment. As a product, there used to be a minimal premium on roller shades. People used them as a simple and cheap method to darken their bedrooms. Roller shades were available in only a few colors, and could only be decorated with a handful of decorative trims or tassels. However, recent innovations in decorative roller shade fabrics as well as light filtering shade fabrics, have led to significant advances and increasingly more situations where roller shades can be used.

Blackout roller shades typically would work simply by covering the opening with a vinyl coated roller shade fabric which would block nearly all the light that tried to enter the window. Some light will enter on the sides of the roller shades, even if the shade is larger than the windows, however, the end result would have been usually enough for most. New systems however, build side channels onto the roller shades, allowing them to really block the light that tried to pass by the sides of the shades. These side channel roller shades are premium priced, but when attractive full light control is what you want, side channel blackout roller shades are what you need.

Premium roller shade fabric can be used to make attractive, usually translucent, decorative roller shades. Decorative roller shades is a growing part of this category. These attractive shades, when properly designed and sewn will hang flat and strait, and will present designs and styles that enliven your roller shades, not to mention living spaces. When decorative fabric is used, fabric roller shades can bring new found life to the windows and thus the spaces you decorate. In short, decorative roller shades give that finishing touch. This product, however, should contain one caveat. You cannot use any old fabric, particularly upholstery fabric, or a fabric that is not engineered for roller shades. Only true roller shade fabric can control to be straight and flat, so it can roll up onto the tubes evenly.

Now available in a tremendous range of styles and colors, one can easily decorate with roller shades. One should be looking for a flat and smooth appearance of the roller fabric, if a great design and appearance is what one wants. The quality fabrics for roller shades are made well and will certainly perform nicely. Choose your styles and then continue to choose from the range of colors. If the color you need is not available in the style you want, you can probably find a good choice fabric for the roller shades with the color you want somewhere. There are so many choices.

Roller shades are increasingly being used for solar shading using a solar screen material. These materials, often called roller screens, are a bit more decorative than plain bug screens, and usually a bit more colorful than blackout roller shades. Roller shades made from solar screen fabric can be useful in lowering the amount of UV light that enters a room, and can thus lower the heat and energy bills. These roller shades can also protect your furnishings from the damaging rays of the sun, and can help decorate your rooms. There are several options in what is called openness for these roller fabrics. Roller shades that face to the north usually do not need a very tightly woven screen, and by using a more open weave (a higher openness number) designers can keep more of the view available. However, if you live in a high rise facing the east or the south, the intensity of the sun can be limited tremendously by using a tighter woven shade fabric.

It is here that roller shades can become energy saving tools. A roller shade that completely blocks the sun will require a resident to turn on the lights when moving around in the room. On the other hand, if the sun is just too strong, but a resident wants good light, a solar shade can allow a room to be lit, without turning on the lights- and the roller shades will still allow enough natural light into the room to get by without using electricity (usually.)

Old style roller shades are, fortunately, much harder to come by. That s probably because consumers have been demanding more form their window treatments. Decor and function are now the result of a well selected shade, and can be popular with interior designers, who have employed the many choices of decorative and solar screen roller shade materials available and are using them in a decorative manner. It is this intense requirement from decorators for more expanded options choices in roller shades, which are a companion shade often, that has created a great offering for customers in the US.