Blind Colours: How to Choose the Right One

Most advice on blind colours assumes every blind is a roller and every window sits in a white wall. Neither is true here, where plenty of newer homes have black aluminium frames and one open-plan room can hold three kinds of blind. This is the order I'd make the decision in, after five years of measuring windows between Byron Bay and Brisbane.

Match the frame, not the wall

Curtains are furnishing. Blinds are closer to joinery: they sit in the reveal, right against the frame, so the frame is the colour they have to agree with. The wall is often a metre away from where your eye actually lands. Curtains work the other way round, which I go into in how to choose curtain colour.

• White or off-white frames. A white or warm white blind. It disappears into the window, which is the point.
• Black or dark frames. Charcoal or black. A white blind in a black frame looks like a sheet of paper taped to the glass.
• Silver anodised frames. A mid grey, which picks up the metal without trying to match it.
• Timber frames. Match the warmth, not the timber. Cream, stone or a warm grey. A printed wood colour next to real wood always loses.

The hardware has a colour too. The bracket range we fit roller blinds with comes in black, pure white, sandstone and silver grey, so the part you see at the top of the window can match the frame even when the fabric doesn't. It's a small decision, and very hard to unsee once it's wrong.

Choose the colour family before the shade

White and off-white blinds

White blinds are the default for good reasons. They bounce light back into the room, suit almost any frame and rarely date. The catch is undertone. A cool, blue-white blind against a warm off-white wall makes the wall look tired. Hold the sample against the wall and the frame together in daylight. If one of them suddenly looks grubby, the undertones don't match.

Grey and charcoal blinds

Grey blinds are the forgiving choice in a house with mixed frames or a lot of glass. Light grey reads as soft white from across the room. Charcoal reads as modern, hides the dust and marks that show on white, and on a sunscreen fabric gives a clearer view out.

Black blinds

Black blinds belong in black frames, media rooms and bedrooms where you want the window to vanish at night. In a small room with white walls, a black blind becomes the only thing you see. That isn't a reason to avoid it, just a reason to be sure.

Cream, beige and stone

The warm neutrals suit older homes, timber floors and rooms where the light is already golden. They're also kinder than bright white on a west window, which glows hard in the afternoon sun.

Bold colours

Navy, green, a deep terracotta. Possible, and occasionally right in a child's room or a study. I'd still put the colour in the cushions. A cushion costs a fraction of a blind, and you can swap it when you change your mind.

Let the blind type change the answer

The same colour behaves differently depending on what it's sitting on.

• Roller blinds. One flat plane of fabric, so the sample is close to what you'll get. The fabric type moves it more than the shade does: blockout reads solid, sunscreen reads a touch darker and lets the view through.
• Venetian blinds. You see the colour on every slat edge and on the ladder cord running down each row, so check the cord matches the slats. In aluminium venetian blinds, white and silver tones look crisp. In timber the grain does most of the work, so match the stain to the floor or the furniture, not the frame.
• Roman blinds. These are furnishing fabric folded into pleats, so treat the colour as you would a curtain. Pattern is allowed here.
• Vertical and panel glide blinds. Wide panels of colour across a whole sliding door. A strong colour there is a feature wall you can't repaint, so go a step lighter than the sample you first liked.

Decide how much view you want first

On a sunscreen blind, colour changes what the fabric does. A dark fabric cuts glare and gives a much clearer view out, because your eye isn't fighting a bright surface. A light one glows when the sun hits it, and you end up looking at the blind instead of through it. The cost is heat: dark fabric absorbs more of the sun and warms the room behind it. A charcoal blind on a west window in February gives you an excellent view and a fairly good radiator.

I've covered that trade-off, and what the 1%, 3%, 5% and 10% weaves each do, in the sunscreen openness factor guide. If heat is the real problem, no colour will fix it from inside. The Australian Government's Your Home guide to shading explains why stopping the sun outside the glass does far more.

Check the side the street sees

The back of every blind faces the street. On a single-fabric roller it's the same colour as the front, but some coated blockouts have a back in a different colour entirely. Turn the sample over before you sign off on it.

From the footpath, the front of the house reads as one surface. Keep every street-facing window the same colour, even when the rooms behind them differ. The rooms can disagree; the facade shouldn't. If you're in a complex or an estate, check the by-laws or covenants too, because some of them specify what the windows look like from outside.

Whichever colour you pick, the side facing the glass takes the full sun. Check ARPANSA's UV index for where you live, then choose a colour you'd still like a shade lighter in a few years.

Don't replace a working blind for its colour

If your blinds work and you're just tired of the colour, I'd leave them where they are. A well-made blind outlasts most colour trends, and a painted wall or new cushions will change the room for a lot less.

Replace them when the fabric has faded, the mechanism is failing, or the fabric is wrong for the room, like a sunscreen in a bedroom that needed blockout. Then colour is the bonus decision, not the reason. A colour you've stopped noticing is usually a colour that works.

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