Double Roller Blinds

A double bracket holds two tubes, one slightly in front of and above the other, so both blinds roll down in the same window. Each has its own chain on the side you choose, or each has its own motor. The fabrics sit close together, so there is no bulky gap between them and the look from the room is a single clean line.

Because the two tubes stack, a double bracket is deeper than a single one. Inside a window recess it needs enough depth to sit clear of the glass and any handles. Where the recess is shallow, the blind is face fitted on the architrave or wall above the window, which also improves light control at the edges.

Sunscreen plus blockout is the standard and covers most rooms. Light filtering plus blockout is the alternative for a window that does not need a view, such as a bathroom or a bedroom facing a fence: soft light through the day, darkness at night, and no see-through in either direction.

Two sunscreens of different openness, or a sunscreen and a light filtering fabric, are less common but work for living spaces where darkness is never the goal. The colours do not have to match. Many people run a dark sunscreen for better view-through with a pale blockout that suits the room.

Blockout roller blind fabrics

Bedrooms with a view or a street frontage are the first place. Living rooms that double as a TV room, where you want daylight most of the time and a dark room for a film. Apartments where the windows face other apartments: a sunscreen gives daytime privacy and the blockout handles the evening.

They cost more than a single blind because there are two blinds, but less than two separate blinds on separate brackets, and they take up less room on the wall.

Chain control gives each blind its own chain, usually both on the same side with one behind the other. Motorised double rollers put a motor in each tube and run both from the one remote, with separate channels so you can drop the blockout without moving the sunscreen. Add a hub and both can run on a schedule: sunscreen down through the afternoon, blockout down at bedtime.

Motorised blinds