Roller blinds built for paddock-facing glass

A roller blind is the simplest, cleanest way to manage a window — a fabric panel on an aluminium tube, made to measure for the opening in front of it. On a Beaulieu stand, that opening is usually bigger than most: long glazed walls looking straight over the paddocks, where a blind has to do real work without getting in the way of the view.

The fabric is the decision that matters. Blockout suits bedrooms, nurseries and anywhere you want total dark, and it doubles as a useful thermal layer against summer heat and winter cold. Sunscreen fabric — usually 3% or 5% openness for a big paddock view — cuts glare and UV while keeping the outlook intact through the day, though it reverses at night once the lights go on inside. For a room that needs both, a double roller pairs blockout and sunscreen on one bracket, so morning light control and night-time privacy are a single pull or button away.

Choosing the right fabric

• Blockout — total light stop, for bedrooms, nurseries and media rooms.
• Sunscreen (3%, 5%, 10% openness) — glare and UV control with the view preserved; lower percentages block more heat and glare.
• Light-filtering — softens daylight with full privacy where an open view isn't the priority.
• Double roller — blockout and sunscreen combined for rooms that need both, most often bedrooms with a paddock outlook.

Wide spans, handled properly

A single roller blind runs to around 3m of fabric width before it needs a central join or a second blind. Estate homes with long uninterrupted glass lines usually do better with several blinds linked to one motorised control, so the whole wall moves together instead of one seam catching the eye.

Child-safe as standard

Chain-driven rollers are fitted with cord and chain tensioners as a matter of course. For nurseries and children's rooms we'll talk you through cordless and motorised options at the measure — no dangling chain is the safest chain of all.

Putting a number on it

Roller blinds price by area: reckon on R1,000 to R1,600 for each square metre of blind hung, if it runs on a chain. Plain blockout sits at the bottom of that spread; a premium sunscreen, or a twin bracket carrying two cloths over one opening, sits at the top. Add a tube motor and reckon instead on R2,500 to R3,800 — motor, handset or wall switch, and the pairing-up all in.

Two things stop that being simple arithmetic. Below a certain size the price will not scale down, because a cloakroom window swallows the same tube, brackets and ladder time as a paddock-facing one. And what you are reading is a spread, not a quotation: the schedule gets priced window by window after the free measure, on paper, before anything is built.

We fit roller blinds right across the corridor — the anchor equestrian estates of Kyalami and Chartwell, and the newer estate builds in Blue Hills and Waterfall.