Zebra blinds in Dubai, day and night on one roller
A zebra blind is a roller blind made from one length of fabric, striped in solid and sheer bands and hung in two layers.
A short pull on the chain slides the solid stripes over the sheer ones, and the blind closes and dims the room. Another short pull lines the sheer stripes up again and lets the view back in, with the blind still down.
In Dubai, zebra blinds are also sold as duplex blinds or day-and-night blinds. Each one is made to measure from the sizes taken at your window.
AED 160 per m²
with the headrail, chain and fitting included.
Curtains Express measures and fits every zebra blind, usually within about a week of your go-ahead, and every one carries a two-year warranty.
Free measuring visit
There's no walk-in counter. Someone brings the samples to your home or office, holds them against your own glass and measures every window.
Headrail, chain and fitting included
The rate per m² covers the cassette the roll sits in, the headrail, the side chain and the fitting.
Two-year warranty
Every zebra blind we fit carries a two-year warranty. Each one is usually fitted within about a week of your go-ahead.
Zebra blinds, in short
- A zebra blind is a roller blind made from one length of fabric striped in solid and sheer bands, hung in two layers, one in front of the other.
- One zebra blind can be up to 280 cm wide, and glass wider than that takes two or more side by side.
- A zebra blind rolls up like any roller blind, and a short pull on its chain switches it between open and closed at any height.
- Open, a zebra blind keeps a room light and private by day. After dark, with the lamps on, it has to be closed.
- A zebra blind dims a room but will not make it dark, and light comes round its edges. A bedroom that has to go dark needs a blackout blind or blackout curtains.
- A zebra blind runs on a side chain, or on a wired Dooya motor priced at the measuring visit.
- Zebra blinds from Curtains Express cost from AED 160 per m², with the headrail, chain and fitting included, and a 2 m² minimum (AED 320). A zebra blind is usually fitted within about a week of your go-ahead and carries a two-year warranty.
If one layer is enough, a roller blind does the job for less. On a small window that matches a stock size, a ready-made blind costs less again. Made to measure is for the glass that doesn't.
What zebra blinds cost in Dubai
Zebra blinds cost from AED 160 per m², with the headrail, chain and fitting included. The cassette the roll sits in is part of that price.
The blind hangs flat, so it is priced on its own area, the width times the drop, with a 2 m² minimum. A small 100 × 120 cm window is 1.2 m², charged at the minimum, AED 320. A 150 × 180 cm bedroom window is 2.7 m², AED 432. At the widest a single blind goes, 280 cm, every metre of drop adds 2.8 m², AED 448.
Price your blind
- Area
- 150 cm × 180 cm = 2.7 m²
- Rate
- AED 160 per m²
AED 432
With the headrail, chain and fitting included; 2 m² minimum. The price of a Dooya motor, and the final figure, follow the free measuring visit.
What moves the figure:
- The size
- Width times drop, with a 2 m² minimum.
- Wide glass
- Past 280 cm the glass takes two or more blinds, each priced on its own area.
- A motor
- A wired Dooya motor in place of the chain, priced at the measuring visit.
- Work at height
- Glass that needs scaffolding or access equipment costs more to fit, priced at the measuring visit.
On the same 150 × 180 cm window, a roller blind in sunscreen or blackout is AED 243. A pinch-pleat sheer and blackout pair on a double track comes to the same AED 432 as the zebra blind: AED 189 for the sheer and AED 243 for the blackout, priced at the window's own size. Curtains usually run past the frame and often down to the floor, which adds to that.
The curtains get a room darker; the blind takes no wall beside the window.
Measuring is free. Pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, or in instalments with Tabby or Tamara. Our other base rates are on our price list.
How a zebra blind opens and closes
Move across the picture. Both sides are illustrations of one tower window, not a job of ours.
One length of striped fabric runs down the front, round the bottom rail and back up behind, so two layers hang one in front of the other. A short pull turns the tube a little and slides the layers past each other, shifting the stripes. Pull further and the blind rolls up into its cassette, or down.
Open
Sheer over sheer
The sheer stripes of both layers line up: daylight and the view come through in bands, and the solid stripes take the glare between them.
Closed
Solid over sheer
The front layer's solid stripes cover the sheer ones behind. The blind reads as one panel with faint lines, and the room dims.
Stop halfway and the stripes half overlap, softening the light while keeping a strip of view. A roller blind has no setting like it.
What the tower opposite sees, by day and after dark
Both pictures are illustrations of one window, not a job of ours: the same open blind, seen from the tower opposite at midday and again at nine at night. Nothing about the blind changes, only which side of the glass is lit.
So close it in the evening. The solid stripes then cover the sheer ones and the clear bands go, though the lamplight still glows through. How much of a lit room shows as shadow depends on the fabric: hold a sample up to a lamp at the visit.
Where the blind goes, and where two meet
We fit zebra blinds inside the recess, on the wall above the window, or on the ceiling or in a curtain pocket. Which one suits is settled at the measuring visit.
Zebra blind, roller blind or curtains?
What a zebra blind is usually weighed against, row by row.
| Zebra | Sunscreen roller | Blackout roller | Sheer and blackout curtains | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Striped fabric in two layers | Open-weave fabric on a tube | Solid fabric on a tube | Sheer and blackout, double track |
| To change the light | Slide the stripes | Raise or lower | Raise or lower | Draw one or both |
| Daylight with privacy | Yes, open | Yes, the view kept | No, up or down | Yes, the sheer drawn |
| After dark, lamps on | Closed, the lamplight glows through | The room shows | Private; lit edges | Private, blackout drawn |
| A dark bedroom | No, it dims | No | Yes, bar the edges | Yes, with the lining |
| Raised or drawn back | A thicker roll, in its cassette | A slim roll | A slim roll | Folds at the sides |
| Motor | Wired Dooya | Somfy or Dooya | Somfy or Dooya | Somfy or Dooya |
A home can mix them: stripes where a room is lived in by day, blackout where someone sleeps.
A wired Dooya motor in place of the chain
Motorized zebra blinds run on a wired Dooya motor instead of a chain. An electric zebra blind is the same thing. Motors for our other blinds are on the motorized blinds page.
When it suits
Glass out of easy reach, behind a sofa or a desk, or a window where you would rather have no chain at the side.
Power at the headrail
The motor is wired, so it needs power at the headrail. If the ceiling is still open, say so when you send the sizes, and the power can be planned before it closes.
Price and warranty
Priced at the visit, on top of the blind. Dooya motors carry a two-year warranty: if the motor fails in that time, you call us, and we deal with Dooya and swap it. The blind keeps our own two years.
Book a free measuring visit
Tell us which rooms, roughly how wide the glass is, and which way it faces or what stands opposite it. Someone brings the samples to you, anywhere in Dubai.
Good in a living room, not enough in a bedroom
A zebra blind suits a window someone could see into by day: over a walkway, beside a pool deck, facing the tower opposite.
Living rooms facing a walkway or a tower
Open by day, the room keeps its daylight and is hard to see into from outside. In the evening, one short pull on the chain closes the blind before the lamps go on.
Bedrooms
By day, yes. To sleep through a Dubai sunrise, no: in June the sun is up before half past five, and a closed zebra blind only dims the room. Hang blackout curtains on a track in front. There is more on that under bedroom curtains.
Home offices
Lowered and open, the stripes break the sun into soft bands across the desk while the room stays bright. With the sun straight on the screen, a short pull closes it. For a workplace, see our office blinds.
Sliding doors
A zebra blind on a slider has to be raised every time someone walks through. A vertical blind draws aside instead.
Glare, heat and the low afternoon sun
A blind hangs on the room side of the glass, which decides what it can do about the sun.
Glare and direct sun
Closed, it cuts the glare and keeps direct sun off the floor and the sofa. Open, the solid stripes still break the sun into bands.
Heat
It is shade rather than insulation: the sun still heats the glass and the air behind the blind, and that warmth reaches the room. If heat is the main problem, a honeycomb blind does more, because its cells hold still air.
West-facing glass
From mid-afternoon the sun comes in low on west-facing glass, and in summer that is the hour to close the blind. Light still comes round its edges, more inside the recess than on the wall above.
The disadvantages of zebra blinds
Five trade-offs to weigh before ordering:
It won't make a room dark
Closed, it dims a room but does not darken it. Where a room has to go dark, a blackout blind does that job, or blackout curtains hung in front of the zebra blind.
Open at night, the room shows
After dark with the lamps on, the sheer stripes show the room to anyone opposite, so it is one more thing to close every evening.
It costs more than a roller
A zebra blind costs from AED 160 per m² and a roller blind from AED 90 per m², both with the headrail, chain and fitting included.
A deeper cassette at the top
Twice the fabric makes a fatter roll, and a cassette sized to match. Inside a recess, it covers a strip at the head of the glass.
Two blinds on wide glass
Past 280 cm the glass takes two or more blinds, each with its own chain or motor, each set on its own.
Open, closed and half lowered
The questions people ask first
How much do zebra blinds cost in Dubai?
At Curtains Express, zebra blinds cost from AED 160 per m², with the headrail, chain and fitting included. Each is priced on its own area with a 2 m² minimum, so the smallest costs AED 320 and a 150 × 180 cm blind AED 432.
A Dooya motor is priced at the visit, and measuring is free. Our other base rates are on our curtain and blind prices page.
Why are zebra blinds more expensive than roller blinds?
A zebra blind carries about twice the fabric of a roller blind the same size: the striped cloth runs down the front and back up behind, in two layers. Zebra blinds cost from AED 160 per m² and roller blinds from AED 90 per m², both with the headrail, chain and fitting included.
Are zebra blinds blackout?
No. Closed, a zebra blind dims a room rather than darkening it, and light still comes round its edges. For a room that has to go dark, choose a blackout blind or blackout curtains.
Can you see through zebra blinds at night?
Yes, if a zebra blind is left open with the lamps on: the room shows through every sheer stripe, in bands, to anyone opposite. Closed, its solid stripes cover the sheer ones and the clear bands go, though the lamplight still glows through.
Which is better, roller blinds or zebra blinds?
Neither. They answer different windows. A roller blind is one fabric that goes up or down, from AED 90 per m². A zebra blind, from AED 160 per m², changes the light without being raised: open by day, closed at night.
Both include the headrail, chain and fitting, go up to 280 cm wide and have a 2 m² minimum.
Are zebra blinds worth it?
Yes, on a window you want light and private by day and closed at night, without raising the blind. They are not worth it in a room that has to go dark, or where the blind would only ever be fully up or fully down, which a roller blind does for less.
What are the disadvantages of zebra blinds?
The main ones: a zebra blind will not make a room dark, and left open at night with the lamps on, it shows the room in bands. It also costs more than a roller blind, needs a deeper cassette at the top, and glass wider than 280 cm takes two or more blinds.
Are zebra, duplex and day-and-night blinds the same thing?
Yes. All three are the same blind: one length of striped fabric, in two layers, on one roller. It is also called a Korean, combi or vision blind, a zebra shade or a double-sided blind. Some call it a zebra curtain, though it rolls up rather than drawing aside.
A double roller, two separate blinds on one bracket, is a different product. A day-night roman blind is two romans on one window, each priced on its own area.
Are zebra blinds good for bedrooms?
Not on their own, if the bedroom has to stay dark after sunrise. Closed, a zebra blind only dims the room, so for sleep hang blackout curtains in front of it or choose a blackout blind. By day it keeps the bedroom light and private.
How wide can a zebra blind be?
A zebra blind can be up to 280 cm wide. Wider glass takes two or more side by side.
Can zebra blinds be motorized?
Yes, with a wired Dooya motor in place of the chain, priced at the measuring visit. It needs power at the headrail, best planned before the ceiling is closed. The motor carries Dooya's two-year warranty.
How long does zebra blind installation take?
Usually within about a week of your go-ahead. Each window is measured on a free visit, the blind is made to those measurements, and a fitter fixes the cassette, hangs the blind and sets the chain on the side agreed.
How long do zebra blinds last?
Curtains Express does not put a number of years on a zebra blind. What it stands behind is a two-year warranty on every one it fits. If something needs looking at in that time, call us.
Do zebra blinds keep the heat out?
Not much. Zebra blinds are shade rather than insulation: closed, they cut the glare, but the glass and the air behind the blind still heat up.
An estimate for each blind, from rough sizes
Send the room and the rough width and height of each window, and say if any is wider than 280 cm. We will reply with an estimate for each blind, and the final figure follows the free measuring visit.