An Outdoor Room You Can Use In February
Custom outdoor blinds for Brisbane patios, decks and alfresco areas — Ziptrak, café and awning styles, made to measure and fitted by the third generation of a family business trading since 1978.
Why Lusso, Brisbane
Brisbane Storms Decide What You Should Buy
An outdoor blind is a sail. That is the whole engineering problem, and it is why the quote that looks cheapest is usually the one that has skimped on the track, the fixings or the substrate it is bolted to. We would rather talk you out of a wider single span than come back after the first November storm.
The range
Local conditions
Storms Inland, Salt On The Coast
Brisbane sits far enough off the water that salt corrosion is a smaller problem than it is at Mermaid Beach — and far enough inland that the summer storm line is a bigger one. Brisbane's summer brings short, violent southerly storms that arrive faster than anyone gets home to roll a blind up. That is an argument for a tracked blind you can leave down, or a motor with a wind sensor, rather than for a cheaper rope-and-pulley.
The second thing is the housing stock. Brisbane's inner suburbs are full of timber Queenslanders with deep verandahs, and a verandah is already a shading device — it just does not stop the rain coming in sideways or the western sun at four. That is a different brief from enclosing a slab-on-ground alfresco in a newer estate, and it needs a different blind. We ask which one you have before we quote.
The third is what you are fixing into. Chamferboard, VJ lining and hundred-year-old hardwood all behave differently under load, and none of them behave like a modern rendered blockwork wall. This is the part nobody puts on a website, and it is the part that decides whether the blind is still there in five years.
The detail that matters
An outdoor blind is a sail bolted to your house
Indoors, the fabric is the decision. Outdoors it is the track, the fixings and what they are fixed into — and that is the part no quote itemises until you ask.
A blind held only at the top and bottom will billow, and once it billows the bottom bar starts swinging. Side tracks hold the fabric along its full height and let you span far wider openings safely. If the budget will not stretch to tracks, the honest answer is a narrower blind, not a wider one held on with rope.
Mesh keeps the breeze and the view and stops most of the sun. Clear PVC keeps the rain out and turns the space into a room, but it also turns it into a greenhouse on a still February afternoon. Most Brisbane patios end up with a mix — PVC on the weather side, mesh on the others — and that is usually the right answer rather than a fudge.
Chamferboard, VJ lining, rendered blockwork and hundred-year-old hardwood all take load differently, and an outdoor blind puts real load into them. We check the substrate at the measure and specify the fixing to suit it. It is the least glamorous line on the quote and the one that decides whether the blind is still there in five years. Indoors the equivalent question is far simpler — see roller blinds.
Brisbane clients
Still Working After The Storm
Outdoor blinds are the product we get called back to, so the reviews worth reading are the ones about what happened afterwards rather than what happened on fit day.
Very happy with all my Lusso blinds. We have had them 14 years and not a problem at all. When we recently had to repair our outdoor blind, they were swift and very efficient in fixing and it is working perfectly again. Would highly recommend this company for all your window covering needs.
Leanne
Best Blind Company ever. They made my blinds and gave great after service when the huge wind storms came to my place in Tweed a while back. They didn’t think twice about coming to check the blinds and make sure everything…
Judith
very prompt and professional response to my blind repair requirements. will use again
Ben
Where they go
What we'd actually specify
Tracked blinds on the weather side, mesh on the rest. Enclosing all four sides sounds appealing and produces a room nobody sits in between December and March.
QuoteCheck the fixing substrate first. Century-old hardwood is excellent and century-old chamferboard is not, and they often sit a metre apart on the same verandah.
QuoteSpan is the constraint. A pergola rafter that flexes will pull a track out of alignment, and the blind gets blamed for it.
QuoteBody corporate approval before anything else. Most Brisbane towers specify the external colour and some prohibit fixing into the slab edge entirely.
QuoteClear PVC on the wind side buys you trading days in winter. Budget for cleaning — PVC in a commercial setting needs it far more often than a domestic patio does.
QuoteHow it works
Three steps, quote in 48 hours
We come to you anywhere on the Gold Coast. 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. Aspect is not a formality — it decides the specification.
Itemised component by component, so you can see where the money actually goes. Valid for 30 days.
Nothing starts until you are 100% comfortable with the selections. We fit them and we come back if they need us.
Where we work
Brisbane
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
Span and track type drive the price far more than fabric does. A tracked blind across a wide alfresco opening costs several times what a small café blind on a balcony costs, because the hardware is carrying real wind load. We will not quote before we have measured and seen what the blind fixes into. You get an itemised quote within 24 to 48 hours, valid for 30 days.
A properly tracked blind, fixed into sound substrate, will. A blind held only top and bottom on a wide span is the one that ends up on the lawn. If you are regularly away when storms come through, that is an argument for a tracked blind you can safely leave down rather than for a cheaper option you have to remember to raise.
A tracked blind runs in a channel down both sides, so it seals the edges and handles wind. Café blinds are typically clear PVC held with straps or turn buttons, which is cheaper and fine on a sheltered opening but not on an exposed one. Many patios end up with both, on different sides.
Mesh keeps the breeze and the view and cuts most of the sun. Clear PVC keeps the rain out and makes the space usable in winter, at the cost of airflow — on a still summer afternoon a fully enclosed PVC patio gets uncomfortable quickly. Most people are best served by a mix.
Yes, but it is specified when the blind is made rather than added afterwards, because the tube and brackets are built around the motor. It appears as its own line on the quote. We can rarely retrofit a motor to a blind that was not designed for one.
We work from Byron Bay to Brisbane, which covers the inner suburbs, the northside and the bayside, and we travel nationwide for larger projects. If you are on the Gold Coast, see our outdoor blinds Gold Coast page, or call (07) 5528 4006 and we will tell you straight away.
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.
