Roller blinds in Parkhurst

A roller blind is the simplest thing we make and the hardest to get wrong: a single flat sheet of fabric on a tube, with no folds and nothing to gather dust. That simplicity is exactly why it suits the modern back half of a Parkhurst house, where the architecture is doing the talking and the window treatment should be quiet.

The decision that matters is the cloth, not the mechanism.

Choosing the fabric

• Sunscreen mesh — an open weave that cuts glare and UV while you keep looking at the garden. The right answer for living rooms and any window with a view worth keeping.
• Blockout — a coated cloth that gives real darkness for bedrooms, plus a useful extra layer against heat loss on a winter night.
• Light filtering — a softer middle ground for rooms you want bright but not exposed.
• Double roller — sunscreen and blockout on one bracket, so a single window can behave completely differently at 2pm and at 10pm.

Practical notes for these houses

• Cassette pelmets hide the tube and the roll for a flush, architectural finish — worth it on a new extension.
• Chain controls are fitted with child-safe tensioners as standard; motorisation removes the chain altogether.
• Very wide glass can be split into linked blinds so the fabric never sags or deflects in the middle.
• Inside-mounting into a steel reveal needs the opening measured at three heights — old frames are rarely square, and we allow for it rather than trimming on site.

Honest limitation: a roller blind manages light and privacy, not heat. If your rear extension is genuinely hot by mid-afternoon, pair it with an exterior zip screen that stops the sun before it reaches the glass.