Honeycomb blinds in Dubai, also called cellular blinds
A honeycomb blind is a strip of pleated fabric bonded into rows of hollow cells.
Seen end-on, the cells look like a honeycomb, which is where the name comes from. Each one holds a pocket of still air between the room and the glass, and air that isn't moving conducts heat poorly, so the cell slows heat crossing the window rather than only blocking the light.
In a city where the glass is the hottest surface in the room for five months of the year, that matters more here than almost anywhere else it's sold. Each blind is made to measure from the sizes taken at your window.
AED 210 per m²
with the headrail, chain and fitting included.
Curtains Express measures and fits every honeycomb blind, usually within about a week of your go-ahead, and every one carries a two-year warranty.
The samples come to you
There's no walk-in counter. Someone brings the fabric range to your home or office on a free measuring visit, so you see single and double cell, and the colours, against your own light.
Headrail, chain and fitting included
The rate per m² covers the headrail, the side chain and the fitting. Each blind is made to the measurements taken at your window, not trimmed down from a stock width.
Fitted, then looked after
We fit what we make, usually within about a week of your go-ahead, and every honeycomb blind carries a two-year warranty.
Honeycomb blinds, in short
- A honeycomb blind is pleated fabric bonded into hollow cells, and the still air inside each cell slows heat crossing the glass, so it insulates as well as shades.
- Single-cell honeycomb blinds suit a window where the blind is mostly for light and privacy; double cell is the one for glass that takes direct afternoon sun.
- Honeycomb blinds come in light filtering, dimout and blackout fabric. A blackout honeycomb blind passes no light through the cloth, but light still comes round its edges, so it dims a room rather than darkening it.
- A honeycomb blind can be built top down, bottom up, for privacy across the lower part of a window and daylight above it.
- One honeycomb blind can be up to 200 cm wide, so a big window takes two or more side by side, with a small gap between them.
- Honeycomb blinds are the wrong choice in a bathroom or over a kitchen hob, because the cells trap steam and grease.
- Honeycomb blinds from Curtains Express cost from AED 210 per m², with the headrail, chain and fitting included, and a 2 m² minimum (AED 420). A honeycomb blind is usually fitted within about a week of your go-ahead and carries a two-year warranty.
Tell us which way the window faces, what's outside it and whether the room has to go dark, and we'll say at the visit whether this is the right blind for it, or whether something else in the blinds range does the job better.
What honeycomb blinds cost in Dubai
Honeycomb blinds cost from AED 210 per m², with the headrail, chain and fitting included.
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 420. A 150 × 180 cm bedroom window is 2.7 m², AED 567. At the widest a single blind goes, 200 cm, every metre of drop adds 2 m², AED 420.
Price your blind
- Area
- 150 cm × 180 cm = 2.7 m²
- Rate
- AED 210 per m²
AED 567
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 200 cm the glass takes two or more blinds, each priced on its own area.
- A motor
- A 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 and a zebra blind AED 432. The honeycomb blind costs more because of the cell: two layers of pleated cloth bonded into tubes, not one flat sheet.
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 the cell works
Two sheets of pleated fabric are bonded back to back so the pleats form a continuous row of tubes running the width of the blind. Raise it and the cells collapse flat into a small stack at the head; lower it and they open into their six-sided section.
Honeycomb cloth is usually a spun, non-woven polyester, which is what lets a cell hold its shape without a rod or a batten inside it. The lift cords run hidden inside the cells. There is no slat, no ladder tape and no cord on the face, so a honeycomb blind reads as one continuous surface, quieter on a window than a venetian or a vertical.
Single cell is one row of tubes. Lighter, slimmer when stacked, and the usual choice where the blind is mostly doing light control.
Double cell is two rows bonded front to back, so there are two separate pockets of air in series instead of one. It stacks a little deeper, and it's the one to specify on glass that takes direct afternoon sun. We bring both to the measuring visit rather than deciding it for you.
What the cells do in a Dubai summer
Between May and September the outer face of a window here spends the afternoon well above 40°C, and a west-facing pane in a tower runs hotter still. Whatever heat passes through that glass, your air conditioning has to take back out again.
A roller blind or a curtain intercepts the light. A honeycomb blind does that too, but the cell also puts a layer of still air in the path of the heat, so less of it reaches the room to begin with. Fitted close to the reveal, the blind and the glass hold a buffer between them that the room's air never really mixes with.
How much difference it makes depends on things we can see at your window and can't guess from here: which way it faces, whether the glass is single or double glazed, and how deep the reveal is. Fabric makers publish insulation figures for their own cloth. A percentage lifted off somebody's homepage would be no use to you, so this page doesn't print one.
The same property works both ways and in both seasons: it slows heat coming in through the afternoon, and on a cool January night it slows heat leaving. It damps sound a little too, for the same reason: still air in a closed cell is a poor path for noise. It is not soundproofing, but it is noticeable on a road-facing window.
Light filtering, dimout and blackout
The cloth comes in three grades, and the words get used loosely by everyone selling them, so it's worth being precise about which is which.
Light filtering passes a soft, even daylight and gives full daytime privacy: you can't see through it, but the room stays lit. This is what most people picture, and what most living rooms get.
Dimout is a denser cloth. It takes the room down a long way without going properly dark.
Blackout honeycomb is opaque, so the fabric itself passes no light at all.
Here is the part most sites selling these leave out. Blackout fabric does not by itself make a blackout window. A blind fitted inside the recess hangs with a little clearance either side so it can run, and light comes round that gap whatever the cloth does. We don't fit side channels to honeycomb blinds, so a blackout honeycomb gives a well-dimmed room, not a dark one.
If a room genuinely has to go dark (a bedroom on an east elevation, or a room someone sleeps in during the day), say so at the measuring visit. Blackout curtains and blackout blinds are the alternatives worth putting beside it.
Light filtering against blackout, on one window
Move across the picture. Both sides are illustrations of one bedroom window, not a job of ours.
Light filtering
Daylight through the cells
Each cell glows as its own band. The room stays bright, and nothing outside can be read through the cloth.
Blackout
No light through the cloth
The fabric passes no light. The daylight left comes round the edges, which is why a blackout honeycomb dims a room rather than darkening it.
Top down, bottom up
A honeycomb blind can be built to move from either end. The bottom rail rises the way any blind does, and a middle rail can also be drawn down from the top, so the blind sits as a band across the middle of the window with clear glass above and below it, or covers only the lower part.
It solves one problem very well. On a ground-floor window facing a walkway, or a villa window onto a shared garden, you can cover the lower two-thirds for privacy and leave the top third open for daylight and a view of the sky. Nobody passing sees in, and the room doesn't lose its light.
It adds a second control, so it's worth specifying on the windows that actually need it rather than across a whole flat.
Honeycomb blinds on a sliding door
On a sliding balcony door, a honeycomb blind hangs over each door panel, so a wide door takes two side by side, each up to 200 cm wide with a small gap between them. Each rises on its own, so you raise only the blind in front of the panel that opens.
A door used many times a day means raising a blind every time you step out. If that's your door, say so at the measuring visit: curtains that draw aside may suit it better.
Where they suit a Dubai home, and where they don't
They suit bedrooms, living rooms, home offices, and any west- or south-facing glass where afternoon heat is the complaint. They suit tall tower windows, where the stack collapses to a slim bundle and leaves the view clear.
They are the wrong choice in a bathroom or directly over a kitchen hob. The cells are open at both ends, and steam, cooking grease and airborne oil settle inside them where nothing can reach. A roller blind wipes clean; a honeycomb cell doesn't.
Be careful too with a blind mounted tight against glass that runs cold under an air-conditioning vent. Any trapped-air system can hold condensation against a cool surface, and the inside of a cell is a poor place for moisture to sit.
Past 200 cm the glass takes two or more blinds side by side. Where the priority is the view rather than the insulation, a zebra blind may suit better.
Honeycomb, roller or zebra blind?
What a honeycomb blind is usually weighed against, row by row.
| Honeycomb | Roller | Zebra | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Pleated cloth bonded into cells | One fabric on a tube | Striped fabric in two layers |
| Against the heat | Shades, and the cells insulate | Shades | Shades |
| Fabrics | Light filtering, dimout or blackout | Sunscreen or blackout | Solid and sheer stripes |
| A dark bedroom | No, light at the edges | Yes, bar the edges | No, it dims |
| Raised | A slim stack under the headrail | A slim roll | A thicker roll, in its cassette |
| Widest single blind | 200 cm | 280 cm | 280 cm |
| Motor | Dooya | Somfy or Dooya | Wired Dooya |
All three include the headrail, chain and fitting, with a 2 m² minimum. Where heat is the complaint, the honeycomb; where the room is humid or greasy, the roller.
Motorized honeycomb blinds, with Dooya
A honeycomb blind can run on a Dooya motor in place of the chain. An electric or remote control honeycomb blind is the same thing. Motors for our other blinds are on the motorized blinds page.
When it suits
A high window, a wide run, or a room where small children or pets make a hanging chain a concern. The motor removes the chain entirely.
Price and warranty
Priced at the visit, on top of the blind. Dooya motors carry a two-year warranty, and the blind keeps our own two years.
Ask early
Mention it when you send the sizes, so the motor is planned at the measuring visit rather than added afterwards.
Book a free measuring visit
Tell us your area, roughly how many windows and which way they face. Someone brings the fabric range to you, anywhere in Dubai.
The disadvantages of honeycomb blinds
Six trade-offs to weigh before ordering:
Dust settles in the cells
The air here carries fine sand for much of the year, and an open-ended cell is a good place for it to settle. A closed blind is largely protected; one left half-raised for weeks is not. The honest maintenance answer is a vacuum with a brush head along the face every few weeks, and a hairdryer on its cool setting blown through the cells once or twice a year to clear them out.
They don't wet-wash
You can spot-clean the face, but a cell that gets soaked loses its crispness and can mark as it dries.
A crease is permanent
The pleats are set when the blind is made, and a cell folded the wrong way, usually in transit or by someone pulling the blind sideways, keeps the fold. It's a good argument for letting the people who made it fit it.
Blackout still leaks at the edges
Even blackout cloth leaves light round the edges, so a honeycomb blind won't make a room fully dark on its own.
A chain at the side
The standard blind runs on a bead chain at one side. Where there are small children or pets in the room, ask for a motorized one; the motor removes the chain entirely, and it is the sensible answer on a high window in any case.
It costs more than a roller
A honeycomb blind costs from AED 210 per m² and a roller blind from AED 90 per m², both with the headrail, chain and fitting included.
In a majlis, a dressing room and at dusk
Questions about honeycomb blinds
How much do honeycomb blinds cost in Dubai?
At Curtains Express, honeycomb blinds cost from AED 210 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 420 and a 150 × 180 cm blind AED 567.
A Dooya motor is priced at the visit, and measuring is free. Our other base rates are on our curtain and blind prices page.
Do honeycomb blinds actually keep heat out?
Yes, and by a different mechanism from other blinds. A roller or a curtain blocks the light; a honeycomb blind does that and also puts a pocket of still air between the room and the glass, and still air is a poor conductor of heat. Fitted close to the reveal so the buffer isn't bypassed, it slows the heat crossing the window rather than just shading it.
How much you gain depends on which way the window faces, whether the glazing is single or double, and how deep the reveal is. We look at all three at the measuring visit.
Are honeycomb blinds blackout?
The fabric can be. Blackout honeycomb is opaque and passes no light itself. But a blind fitted inside a recess hangs with a little clearance either side, and light comes round that gap whatever the cloth does.
We don't fit side channels to honeycomb blinds, so expect a well-dimmed room, not a dark one. For a room that has to go dark, blackout curtains do the job.
What are the disadvantages of honeycomb blinds?
Dust settles in the open cells, they can't be wet-washed, a crease is permanent, and even blackout fabric won't make a room fully dark, because light comes round the edges. They also cost more than a roller blind: from AED 210 per m² against AED 90.
They are the wrong choice in a bathroom or over a hob, where the cells trap steam and grease.
Single cell or double cell?
Single cell where the blind is mainly there for light and privacy: it's lighter and stacks slimmer. Double cell where the glass takes direct afternoon sun, because two pockets of air in series slow the heat more than one. Double cell stacks a little deeper.
On a west-facing window in Dubai, double cell is usually the one to choose.
Can honeycomb blinds be top down, bottom up?
Yes. A top-down, bottom-up honeycomb blind has a middle rail that lowers from the top as well as a bottom rail that rises, so you can cover the lower part of a window for privacy and leave the top open for daylight. It adds a second control, so it's worth it on the windows that need it, not across a whole flat.
How do you clean honeycomb blinds?
Vacuum along the face with a brush head every few weeks, and once or twice a year blow through the cells with a hairdryer on its cool setting to clear out settled dust. Spot-clean marks on the face gently.
Don't wet-wash them. A soaked cell loses its crispness and can mark as it dries. For anything worse than a surface mark, send us a photo first.
Honeycomb blinds or roller blinds?
Choose honeycomb when heat is the problem: it insulates as well as shades, and no roller does that. Choose a roller blind when the room is humid or greasy, such as a bathroom or a window above a hob, because a roller wipes clean and an open-ended cell can't be got at.
A roller is also the cheaper option on a straightforward window where you only want light control: from AED 90 per m² against AED 210.
Can honeycomb blinds go on a sliding balcony door?
Yes. A honeycomb blind hangs over each door panel, so a wide door takes two side by side, each up to 200 cm wide, and each rises on its own: raise the one in front of the panel that opens and leave the other down.
On a door used many times a day, raising a blind each time gets tiresome, and curtains that draw aside may suit it better.
Can honeycomb blinds be motorized?
Yes, with a Dooya motor in place of the chain, priced at the measuring visit. It's the sensible choice on a high window, a wide run, or anywhere small children or pets make a hanging chain a concern. See motorized blinds.
Are honeycomb blinds worth it?
On glass that takes real sun, yes: they do a job no other blind does, and the air conditioning runs against a smaller load for it. On a shaded north-facing window where you only want privacy, a cheaper blind will do the same work.
They're also the wrong product for a bathroom or a kitchen hob window at any price. We'd rather tell you that at the visit than sell you one.
Talk to us about the window
Send the rough width and drop of each window and which way it faces, and we'll come back with an estimate for each blind. Measuring is free.