Blinds in Dubai, chosen at your own window

At Curtains Express they start at AED 80 per m² for a sunscreen vertical blind and run to AED 300 per m² for panel blinds, with the headrail or track and the fitting included.

Roller blinds and aluminium venetians are AED 90, blackout verticals AED 110, zebra blinds AED 160, roman blinds AED 180, and faux wood and honeycomb AED 210 per m². Most have a 2 m² minimum; vertical blinds 3 m² and roman blinds 2.5 m². On a 150 × 180 cm window that comes to AED 240 for a sunscreen vertical, AED 243 for a roller and AED 567 for faux wood.

Neither is better everywhere. A blind is the neater answer on a single window, over a sink or a desk, and in a bathroom; a curtain closes wide glass, a double-height window or a door better, and a heavy lined pair softens the echo in a room.

Many bedrooms have both: a blind on the glass for the day and blackout curtains over it at night, or sheer curtains in front of a blind for a softer face.

A blackout roller blind, for darkness. Fitted on the wall over the recess it lets far less light round its edges, and with side channels and a closed cassette it is as dark as a blind gets.

A blackout roman blind gives a softer, folded look with a little light at the edges, and a zebra blind suits a bedroom you want bright by day and private at night.

Roller, aluminium venetian and faux wood blinds, because they wipe clean with a damp cloth and steam does them no harm.

Keep roman blinds out of wet rooms. The fabric is fixed to the headrail, so it can only be dry cleaned in place.

Vertical blinds or roller blinds. Vertical louvres draw to one side, split from the middle or stack in the centre, so the door opens without anything being raised, and a single vertical blind runs to about 4 m wide.

A roller blind is at most 280 cm wide, so a wide door takes two or three side by side, as on the triple garden doors of a Jebel Ali Village villa we fitted. Panel blinds suit a slider too: their flat panels slide sideways like the door and park beside it, though most of ours divide rooms.

Not on their own. Even a blackout fabric lets daylight round its edges, because a blind needs a few millimetres of clearance to move.

Fitting it over the recess, so it overlaps the frame, cuts most of that. A blackout roller run in side channels under a closed cassette is properly dark. Slatted blinds, faux wood and aluminium, are never fully dark. Our blackout blinds page draws each fit and prices all four blackout types.

Yes, every blind we fit. Roller and faux wood blinds take a Somfy or a Dooya motor, roman, bamboo and panel blinds a Somfy, and vertical, zebra, aluminium venetian and honeycomb blinds a Dooya.

Motors are priced at the visit. A wired motor needs power at the headrail, which is easiest to plan before the ceiling is closed.

Usually about a week from your go-ahead, for every blind Curtains Express supplies. The free measuring visit comes first, and nothing is made until the sizes and the price are agreed.

Two years, on every blind we supply and fit. A Somfy motor carries Somfy's five-year warranty, the battery excepted, and a Dooya motor two years.

Sometimes. Send photos of the blind first: if we have compatible parts and it can be repaired, we repair it.

We don't repair vertical blinds, ours or anyone else's, or roman blinds made elsewhere.

No. There's no walk-in counter: the fabric books and the slat and louvre samples come to your home or office on a free measuring visit, anywhere in Dubai, so you choose against your own window and light.

Sometimes, yes. On a standard-size window in a rented flat, a ready-made roller blind from a homeware store costs less and does the job.

Made to measure is worth it on a window that isn't a standard size, a recess out of square, a bedroom where light at the edges matters, or wide glass.