Roman Shades Work Best When the Liner Suits the Room

A roman shade is the tidy way to dress a window. Up, it stacks into soft folds at the top. Down, it is a flat panel of fabric with no fullness to push furniture away from the wall, which is why it suits kitchens, bathrooms, and windows with a radiator or a sofa beneath.

The fabric sets the look. Linen is relaxed and goes with everything, a woven grass or bamboo adds texture, and a print turns the window into a feature. The liner sets the light. Unlined shades glow, a light filtering liner gives privacy, and a blackout liner belongs in a bedroom.

Most of these are made to your window’s measurements, which is what gives a roman shade its fitted look. Two come in a standard size for windows that match it.

LUXDRAPE Florence Linen Roman Shade

Plain linen in flat folds is the roman shade at its simplest, and it is hard to get wrong. The fabric has the slubby, slightly uneven texture of linen, so even in white it never looks like a blank blind, and it sits quietly behind curtains or does the job alone. You choose how much light it lets through, from a soft unlined glow to full darkness for a bedroom. In a living room we’d leave it unlined and let the weave show against the light.

LUXDRAPE B1-1 Natural Ramie Woven Wood Shade

A woven shade brings in something fabric can’t, the texture of grass and fiber, like a piece of basketwork at the window. The LUXDRAPE is woven from ramie and wood fiber in a fine, even stripe, in a warm straw color that goes with rattan, linen, and bare wood. Unlined, daylight glows through the weave, which is the look to have in a sunroom or kitchen. In a bedroom, order it with a liner for privacy at night.

EaseEase Top-Down Bottom-Up Linen Roman Shade

This shade lowers from the top as well as rising from the bottom, which is the answer for a window that faces the street. Drop the top a little and daylight comes in over it while the lower half keeps the room private, a trick that suits a ground floor bedroom, a bathroom, or a front room on the sidewalk. The linen comes in a long list of colors, and in a warm oatmeal like the one shown it has a soft, tailored look.

EaseEase x Rita Linen Bamboo Roman Shade

Somewhere between a fabric shade and a woven one, the Rita shade is a flax and bamboo blend with a visible, streaky weave, folded as neatly as cloth. In the deep tobacco brown shown, it brings a dark, natural note to a room, good against white walls and beside leather and old wood. It has a library feel, and it would be handsome in a home office or a den with shelves of books.

TWOPAGES Custom Day Night Roman Shade

Two shades hang from one rail here, a sheer for the day and a solid fabric for the night, and each moves on its own. It is the bedroom shade for people who like to wake up to daylight, with the sheer down in the morning for soft light and privacy and the fabric down at night. In white on white it looks crisp and hotel-like, and it saves you hanging a separate sheer curtain.

TWOPAGES Gabrielle De Winter Print Cotton Roman Shade

A printed roman shade turns the window into the picture on the wall. This one is cotton with a trailing floral in soft pinks and greens, a pattern with the feel of an old English chintz, and flat folds show it in full bands as the shade goes up. It belongs in a bedroom, a breakfast nook, or a bathroom with painted paneling, and it is a way to bring in pattern without wallpapering. Pick one color from the print for the walls or the towels.

TWOPAGES Smart Motorized Roman Shade

A motorized shade is for the window you can’t easily reach, the one over the kitchen counter, behind the bed, or high on the stair landing. The TWOPAGES goes up and down from a phone or by voice, and it can be set to close at sunset, so the house looks lived in when you’re away. You choose the fabric from the TWOPAGES range, and the pale, loosely woven linen look shown would go with almost any room.

CHICOLOGY Cordless Roman Shade, Semi-Sheer

A ready-made shade means no waiting for it to be sewn, and with the CHICOLOGY a window gets the soft, folded look of a roman shade for very little. The fabric is semi-sheer, which means it softens the light and takes the glare off a screen while the room stays bright. That suits a kitchen, a home office, or a living room window. It comes in one standard size, so measure the window first.

Achim Cordless Blackout Roman Shade

A plain white blackout shade is the practical choice for a bedroom, a nursery, or a room with a television, and this one comes ready-made in a standard size. Mounted outside the frame, so that it overlaps the wall at the sides, it covers the gaps where light sneaks in. It is plain enough to disappear behind curtains, and we’d hang a pair of linen panels over it to soften the look.

Inside or Outside Mount

An inside mount sits within the window frame and looks tailored, since the trim stays visible around it. It needs enough depth in the window to hold the headrail, and each maker lists its own minimum, so check it before ordering. An outside mount covers the frame and overlaps the wall, which blocks more light at the edges and can make a small window look larger if the shade is hung above the frame.

Pairing a shade with curtain panels is common too.