****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
strings were a little long for my shorter windows.These Natural Bamboo Roll Up Blinds are beautiful and well made and were more than my expectation. I ordered these blind two years ago and hung them on my back porch. They held up well thru the rain, snow and wind and still look good. No fading, no tears, just need mild cleaning or dusting. I love them, hence the reason why I reorder them again July 2022. They were shipped early, two days after I ordered them, they arrived at my home! These are the best outdoor blinds I have ever purchased. They were not overpriced, yet look extremely expensive. If you are indecisive about ordering, don't be they are beautiful and very well made.I was wary about ordering blinds unseen but these were a winner: Sturdy, easy to install and very pretty to look at.I had researched blinds for a while, and I must have looked at hundreds from a lot of sources. This design was my favorite, but I hesitated due to some not -so-good reviews. I even preferred this design over some much pricier blinds. In the end I decided to go for this. It is a perfect match for my decor. The color is exactly as shown. It is almost a perfect match for my red mahogany piano. It came quickly instead of weeks of waiting. It was packaged very well, and arrived in perfect condition. I needed it to cut the sun glare on a south-west facing window, which is blinding in the middle of the day. It does that perfectly but lets in some filtered light.As to some of the complaints that I had read about these blinds, the white plastic attachments for the cords are safety devices meant to break away in case a child gets caught in the cord. That is stated in the hanging instructions. We have no children, and in any case, if a child is visiting, our window is only accessible by climbing over a table, so I tied the cord through the original metal tabs. This solved the issue of the breakaway plastic piece. The hanging hardware and cord cleat were included. I almost missed them in their plastic bag, as it fell on the floor after I opened the package, so check carefully in your packaging to make sure you find everything.I am so happy that I decided to purchase this blind.It is beautiful, substantial and solid. I am planning to purchase more.Lovely cherry stained bamboo shade. The interwoven fabric is a lovely, nice touch. I purchased these to keep light out of my room during the day to keep the temperature down. So far the dark wood is doing a great job at keeping my room cool. At night I'm sure someone can see through these shades, but only if they were really wanting to see inside. If you're wanting complete privacy, perhaps get something to put behind the shade.The reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is because the plastic clips that attach the string to the wood frame at the top come apart way too easily. Any time I touched the shades, the clips would fall out. My solution was to remove the plastic clips and tie the string directly in the holes where the clip was attached. Problem solved. Also, there is a funky smell when first opened, but after a couple of days the smell dissipates.UPDATE: April 2017 I recently moved and had to leave the other set of blinds at the old place, but I wanted these blinds again. I just purchased 2 more of these and I am still in love. I still had to retie the knots on the back, but that isn't hard to do. Lovely wood, beautiful fabric woven throughout the wood.I love the color and details of this roll-up blind. It feels very sturdy, looks great and is a nice value. The only problem I found is that the string wasn't threaded properly. I had to find a video online that explains how to install the string and plan to do so later. I hung it up as it is anyway, but can't roll it up/down for now.Be careful you don't lose the hardware when you hang it up; the small envelope falls out when unrolling blind for installation and can get misplaced if you're not careful.Super good buy! So easy to install, I did an outside mount, which I don’t prefer, but they look great! They work really smoothly, filter the light really pretty. I’m very happy with these and I’ll be buying more for my other windows. Great value.Installing was simple,but the flimsy construction of the pull cord's ends caused me to have to take them down and secure the ends to the blinds with a knot. The plastic connection on the end of the pull cord is poorly designed and seperates easily.
