Roller blinds cut to the millimetre
Blockout for dark bedrooms, light-filtering weaves for soft daylight, screen fabric that keeps your view and zebra blinds that swap between the two. We measure every window ourselves, cut each blind to size and fit it, on a child-safe chain or a quiet motor, in the Western Cape and Gauteng.
Four fabric families
Any of the four can be made for any window; the right one per room is a question of how much light you want let through.
Blockout
A coated fabric no light gets through. Lower it and the bedroom stays dark long past sunrise, which makes it the default for bedrooms, nurseries and anyone who has to sleep while the sun is up.
Light-filtering
A woven fabric that softens hard sunlight into an even, comfortable glow. Privacy holds while the room stays bright, so it suits living areas, kitchens and bathrooms where total darkness would be a waste.
Screen
An open mesh that tames glare and UV while your view stays put. In daylight you look out and outsiders see only fabric; once the lights come on that flips, so bedrooms usually pair screen with a second layer.
Zebra / day-night
Bands of sheer and solid fabric alternate on a single roller. Align the sheers for filtered light and a soft view out; nudge the blind a few centimetres and solid meets solid for full privacy.
Measured properly, then made to fit
An off-the-shelf blind comes in a standard width and hopes for the best; Urbanshades builds each one the other way round. A fitter from your regional team measures each opening and checks whether the reveal runs true, and the blind is cut to those exact numbers, so it sits inside the reveal with a neat, even margin or covers the frame completely when face-fixed. No light striping down the edges, no tube bowing across a wide window.
You operate the blind on a stainless chain held taut by a child-safe tensioner fixed to the wall, or skip the chain entirely with a motor, remote and app. The measure costs nothing in either of our service regions, the written quote is fixed and reaches you within 48 hours, and the finished work carries a written guarantee recorded against your address.
The parts you notice for years
Fabric is the easy choice. The fit and the controls are what decide how the blind feels to live with.
We take the measurements ourselves and cut each blind to them, mounting inside the reveal for a flush line or over the frame where full coverage matters more. Hems hang level and edges run true.
Made to measure
Every chain-operated blind comes with a tensioner that pins the loop to the wall, keeping the cord taut and out of a small child's reach. Choose a motor and the chain disappears altogether.
Child-safe controls
Battery motors recharge from a cable and need no wiring; wired motors make sense mid-renovation. Either way you get remote and app control, and grouped blinds move together at one press.
Motorised option
How they're specified
What every roller blind we make and hang includes, whichever fabric you land on.
- Fabrics
- Blockout, light-filtering, screen and zebra families. Colours and weaves are chosen from physical samples at the measure, in your own room light.
- Measure & fit
- Our fitter measures, our team cuts to the millimetre. Inside-reveal mounting for a flush finish, or face-fixed over the frame for maximum coverage.
- Operation
- Stainless steel chain with a wall-fixed child-safe tensioner, hung to whichever side suits the window, or motorised with no chain at all.
- Motorisation
- Rechargeable battery motors with zero wiring, or wired units for new builds. Remote control standard, app control available, and banks of blinds can run as a group.
- Care
- Dust with a soft brush or a vacuum on low suction; lift marks with a damp cloth and mild soap. Blinds are never machine-washed or soaked.
- Guarantee
- The finished installation comes with a written guarantee, recorded under the address it was fitted at.
- Quoting
- The measure is free whichever region you are in, Western Cape or Gauteng, and the fixed written quote lands within 48 hours of it.
Roller blind questions
Fabrics, fitting, motors and money, answered before you book.
Which roller blind fabric suits a bedroom best?
Blockout, in almost every case, because it shuts light out completely and keeps early summer sunrises on the other side of the window. A zebra blind is the better pick if you also want daytime privacy with some light coming through. We bring fabric samples to the measure so the decision is made against your own window, not a catalogue page.
Where does Urbanshades fit indoor roller blinds?
In two regions: the Western Cape, where our Cape Town team covers the metro and surrounds, and Gauteng, where our crew works across Johannesburg and Pretoria. Both teams measure, make up and fit. Each region has its own roller blind page on this site, under Western Cape and Gauteng, with the local specifics.
Is a screen blind private at night?
No, not once the lights inside are brighter than the light outside. Screen fabric works one way: by day the bright side is outdoors, so you see out and nobody sees in, and after dark the effect reverses. On street-facing bedrooms we suggest blockout or zebra fabric, or a screen blind layered with curtains you draw in the evening.
Can roller blinds be motorised without an electrician?
Yes. A rechargeable battery motor lives inside the blind tube, so no walls are chased and no new wiring is added. Months of normal use fit into one charge, and topping up means plugging in a cable for a few hours. Remote and app control come with it; hard-wired motors stay the smarter route only if the room is being rewired anyway.
What do made-to-measure roller blinds cost?
The fabric family and the number of windows drive the price: each fabric sits in its own bracket, and covering several rooms in one order works out better per blind, since a single visit handles everything. The measure is free in both our regions, and the fixed written quote follows within 48 hours of it.
Do I need to measure my own windows?
No, and we would rather you didn't. Openings that look square seldom are, so a fitter from our regional team measures every window and owns those numbers. If a blind cut to our measurements fails to fit, putting it right is our cost, not yours, which is precisely why we insist on doing the measuring.
