Order The Fit, Not Just The Fabric
Blockout roller blinds made to your openings in Australian-made fabric, with the side channels and roll direction that decide whether a room actually goes dark. Measured and fitted from Byron Bay to Brisbane, and supplied nationwide on larger projects.
Why Lusso
A Few Millimetres Decides The Room
Every blockout fabric sold in Australia is genuinely opaque, and has been for years — on that measure there is nothing to choose between us and a box off a shelf. What separates a dark room from a nearly dark one is the clearance a roller needs in order to run, and what gets done about it. That is a specification decision, and it is made before anything is manufactured.
The range
Australian conditions
Built For A Harsher Sun
A blockout roller specified for a northern-hemisphere window is under-specified here. Our sun sits higher, our summers are longer, and a great deal of Australian housing stock is single-glazed with almost nothing at the glass — so the blind is doing work that a window should be doing. The government's own guidance on glazing is worth reading before you spend money at the window rather than on it.
Then there is the humidity. North of about Coffs Harbour, a coated blockout fabric in a closed-up room holds condensation against itself, and that is where the mould people blame on the blind actually comes from. It is a ventilation problem wearing a fabric costume.
A blind is also the cheapest shading device you will ever fit, which is why it gets asked to do more here than it was ever designed to. Ask it politely.
The detail that matters
Roll Direction, Coating And Cords
Three things decide how a blockout roller performs, and you will struggle to find any of them on a product page. None are upsells. All of them are settled before the blind is made, which is the only reason it is worth knowing about them now.
On a standard roll the fabric comes off the front of the tube and hangs further from the glass. On a back roll it comes off the rear and sits closer to the reveal, which narrows the side gap for nothing extra. Back roll is the better bedroom answer nine times out of ten — and the wrong answer entirely on a window with a handle, a deep architrave or a security screen in the way. It is a two-minute decision at the measure and it cannot be changed afterwards.
A blockout roller fabric is a woven base with an opaque coating bonded to the back. The coating is what stops the light, and it is also the part that fails — cheap ones chalk, crease and eventually delaminate along the bottom rail where the blind is handled most. You cannot see the difference in a showroom, which is precisely why we specify Australian-made fabric and can still get you a matching replacement in five years.
Australia has a mandatory standard for corded internal window coverings, and it binds the installer as much as the manufacturer: a loose cord must not be able to form a loop 220mm or longer below 1,600mm from the floor. Cleats, tensioners and breakaway devices exist to meet it. In a child's room we would rather skip the chain altogether — see the ACCC mandatory standard for what your installer is actually obliged to do.
Brisbane & Gold Coast clients
Judge Us On The Ones We Fitted Years Ago
Any blind looks right in the first week. The ones worth reading about are the ones still running smoothly after a decade, and the jobs that went well from three hours away.
Hi Debbie, Once again, Helen and I would like to thank you for the supply and fitting of Blockout and Sunscreen blinds to all windows in our new unit. We sincerely appreciate your attention to the quality of all fittings…
Wal & Helen Edgar
I ordered Vertical Blinds from Lusso and living three hours away from the Gold Coast was extremely impressed when they were exactly what I was hoping for when they arrived. Deb rang once and all the info was collected and…
Margi Gagen
I would highly recommend Lusso blinds for their service and experience. Have been dealing with Debbie and Tony over the last 10 yrs and they are the nicest people to deal with.
Michael Whyte Goodman
Where they go
Five Rooms, Five Different Answers
The room that justifies the whole specification. Back roll where the reveal allows it, side channels, and a drop that runs past the sill rather than stopping at it. This is the one room where we will push you towards the full package, because it is the one you will notice at five in the morning.
QuoteCordless or wand, always, and we will not be talked out of it. Beyond the safety question a blockout roller is simply the most practical thing in a nursery — one hand, no cords, and a room that goes dark for a daytime sleep.
QuoteHere you want the light gone rather than merely reduced, so side channels stop being optional. Worth pairing with a blockout curtain over the top if the room doubles as a living space — the blind does the dark, the curtain does the acoustics and the softness.
QuoteThere is a width past which a single roller becomes a heavy, unwieldy thing that nobody enjoys operating, and we would rather tell you now than after it is made. Past that point we would usually split it into two blinds or move you to panel glide blinds instead.
QuoteRooms that get closed up and steamed up are hard on a coated fabric, and this is where most blockout mould complaints actually start. A blockout roller can work here with the right fabric and honest ventilation — but if the room is genuinely wet, shutters are the better answer and we will say so.
QuoteHow it works
Three steps, quote in 48 hours
We come to you anywhere from Byron Bay to Brisbane. Detailed quote within 24 to 48 hours, valid for 30 days — no deposit to get a price.
We need the dimensions and the aspect of the room before we can quote — and on a blockout roller we also need to see what is sitting proud of the reveal, because that is what decides roll direction.
Itemised component by component, so you can see what the side channels and the control choice actually cost. Valid for 30 days, and no deposit to get a price.
Nothing starts until you are comfortable with the selections. Allow roughly two to three weeks from check-measure to installation on a standard blockout roller; motorisation adds about a week.
Where we work
We Come To The Window
From Byron Bay to Brisbane, across the whole Gold Coast and inland to the hinterland. If you're anywhere on that stretch, we'll come to you.
Before you ask
A roller blind made from a fabric that is completely opaque — light cannot pass through the material at all. That is the easy part, and every blockout fabric on the market manages it. The reason two blockout roller blinds can perform so differently in the same room is what happens at the edges: a roller has to run a few millimetres clear of the reveal to work at all, and unless that clearance is dealt with, light comes around the blind rather than through it.
It is which way the fabric comes off the tube. On a standard roll the fabric falls down the front, so it hangs further out from the glass; on a back roll it falls down the back, sitting closer to the reveal and cutting the side gap noticeably. Back roll is usually the better choice for a bedroom, but it will foul window handles, deep architraves and anything else sitting proud of the reveal — which is exactly why we want to see the opening before we quote it.
The fabric does. The installation decides whether the room does. Fitted inside the reveal with nothing else, expect a visible outline of light around the blind at dawn. Add side channels and a cassette or pelmet and you get a genuinely dark room — that combination is what people are picturing when they ask for blockout, and it is worth specifying up front rather than discovering later.
We will not put a figure on a window we have not measured, and anyone quoting you one over the phone is guessing. What moves the price: the size of the opening, whether you want side channels, the fabric range, and whether the control is a chain, a wand or a motor. You get an itemised quote within 24 to 48 hours of the measure, component by component, valid for 30 days — so you can see exactly what each decision costs before you commit to any of it.
A dry microfibre cloth for dust, and warm water with a little mild detergent for marks — wiped, not scrubbed, because the blockout coating is a surface layer and it will not survive being attacked. Mould is almost always a ventilation problem rather than a fabric problem: a coated blind in a closed-up bathroom, laundry or holiday apartment holds condensation against itself. If that is the room you are buying for, tell us and we will specify accordingly.
You can, and for a single straightforward window in a rental it may well be the sensible call. Two things change that answer: side channels have to be aligned to the blind and to each other or they bind, and the cord safety rules below are a legal obligation on whoever installs the blind, not a suggestion. Every blind we supply is measured and fitted for you as part of the job.
Only if they are specified that way, and it is worth being blunt about this one. Corded blinds are a genuine hazard to small children, and Australia has a mandatory standard covering it — a loose cord must not be able to form a loop 220mm or longer below 1,600mm from the floor. We specify cordless or wand controls in nurseries and kids' rooms as a matter of course, and we would rather lose the upsell than fit a chain in a cot room.
We measure and install from Byron Bay to Brisbane, and that whole corridor is a normal service call for us. Beyond it we supply nationwide for larger projects — the Hopkins family have been doing this since 1978 and the work has never stayed inside one postcode. If you are further afield, tell us the scope and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it.
Get in touch
Free measure & quote, Gold Coast wide
Tell us which rooms and we'll come to you with the fabric range, measure properly, and tell you honestly which windows need side tracks and which don't.
