Zebra shades on adjacent windows with the bands offset for a view through

Lic# 1134061

San Diego County · Made to Measure

Zebra Shades in San Diego

One shade with two settings — a clear view through, or a soft wall of fabric. Measured, made and installed by us.

Call (619) 770-8300 Free In-Home Consultation All San Diego Services

Made in USA · Factory Direct · No Middleman

The basics

What a zebra shade actually is.

One piece of fabric on one roller, woven in alternating horizontal bands — a sheer band, then an opaque band, repeating down the whole drop. The fabric is a continuous loop, so as the shade turns, the two layers slide past each other.

Line the opaque bands up with each other and you get a near-solid panel. Offset them by half a band and the sheer stripes open up and you can see straight out. It is the same shade in both positions; nothing is added or taken away. People also call them dual shades, banded shades or day-and-night shades.

Three positions

What the chain actually does.

Bands alignedOpaque sitting over opaque. The closest this shade gets to closed — a flat, even panel with a little light coming through the weave. Good for glare and for daytime privacy.

Bands offsetThe sheer stripes open. You see out in bands, daylight comes in, and the room stays connected to the outside. This is the position people buy the shade for.

Rolled upThe whole thing wraps onto the tube and sits in the cassette. Clear glass, nothing in the way.

A zebra shade drawn across a wide living-room window — The same shade, the same window — all that changes is where the bands sit.

Worth knowing first

What a zebra shade will not do.

It is not a blackout shade. Even with the bands aligned, light passes through the opaque fabric itself and sits in thin lines where the bands meet. In a bedroom where you want genuine darkness, this is the wrong product on its own.

The opaque bands can be specified in a room-darkening fabric, which gets you a long way. For true darkness we would put a separate blackout roller behind it, or use a blackout roller instead.

The common mistake. Assuming aligned bands means private after dark. Once it is black outside and lit inside, the sheer bands read almost like open glass from the street. Zebra shades give you daytime privacy and a view; they do not give you night-time privacy on their own.

Choosing

The bands decide everything.

Two choices do most of the work: how open the sheer band is, and how opaque the solid band is. A tight sheer band keeps more privacy when offset but gives you less view. A light solid band bounces heat back but hazes the view when aligned, the same way a white solar fabric does.

Band heightNarrow bands read as a texture from across the room. Wide bands read as stripes and feel more architectural. On a tall window, wide bands usually look right; on a small one they can look heavy.

ColourSame rule as a solar shade — a darker fabric gives you a better view out and less glare, a lighter one bounces more heat but hazes the view. Dark for seeing out, light for bouncing heat.

Close view of a zebra shade with the sheer and solid bands offset

Band height

Up close, it is just two fabrics passing each other.

This is the offset position at eye level. The sheer band carries the view and the solid band carries the privacy, and the ratio between them is set on the day we measure — not afterwards.

Narrow bands read as texture. Wide bands read as stripes.

The details installers argue about

Where a zebra shade looks made rather than bought.

A cassette, not a bare roll

The fabric loop on a zebra shade is thicker than a plain roller and the roll is visibly chunkier. A cassette closes the top, hides the roll and cuts the light gap above the shade. On this product we specify one almost every time.

Roll direction

Standard roll puts the fabric closer to the glass and leaves the bracket visible. Reverse roll pushes the fabric forward over the sill. On a window with a deep reveal the wrong choice costs you an inch of view and a stripe of light.

Width, squareness and the gap

An inside mount on an out-of-square opening is where light gaps appear down one side. We measure at three heights and three widths and build to the tightest, then decide inside or outside mount from the numbers rather than from habit.

Free In-Home Consultation

See the bands against your own glass.

We bring the samples to you. Band height and colour look completely different at your own window than they do on a screen.

Call (619) 770-8300 Book a Consultation

Recent work

Zebra shades we have made and hung

Measured, made and installed by our own crew.

Zebra shade with the bands offset, daylight through the sheer stripes — Bands offset, with the view open.

Zebra shades on two adjacent windows with greenery outside — Two windows set to match across a corner.

Zebra shade across a living-room window above a seating area — A long run kept level across the whole opening.

Dual roller shade lowered beside a lamp in a warmly lit room — Lowered for the evening, with the lamp on.

Add a motor

These can open themselves too.

A zebra shade motorizes the same way a plain roller does — a tube motor inside the roll, powered by a rechargeable battery, a plug or a hardwired run. The difference is that on this shade the motor is also setting the band alignment, so the stop positions matter more. We program an open, a view position and a closed position, and the whole room moves to the same one.

We are a certified Somfy dealer and we program and service what we install.

Certified Somfy DealerFive year motor warranty

Motorized Shades in San Diego

An installer fitting a shade above a wide window — Setting the stops on install day.

The process

How a Zebra Shade Order Runs

Free consultation

We bring samples to your house and hold them against your own glass. Band height and colour look completely different at the window than they do in a photograph. Prefer to see them first? Our San Diego showroom is open by appointment.

Precise measurement

Three widths, three heights, and a decision on inside or outside mount, cassette and roll direction based on what the opening actually is.

Made in Miramar

Cut, assembled and checked at our workshop on Silverton Avenue. Shades for one job are cut from the same fabric run so the bands match room to room.

Installed by the same crew

The people who measured come back and fit them, set the stops, and take the packaging away with them.

Service Area

Zebra Shades Across San Diego County

La JollaDel MarCarmel ValleyRancho Santa FeEncinitasCarlsbadCoronadoPoint LomaPowayScripps RanchMira MesaChula VistaEscondidoOceanside

For the trade

Working with designers and builders.

Zebra shades get specified for the look and then judged on the detail. Cassette, roll direction and band height are the three that decide whether a run of them reads as one piece of work.

Specified as a set

Tell us the openings and we will come back with a band height and a fabric that works across all of them, rather than one window at a time.

One run of fabric across the job

Shades for a job are cut from the same run, so the bands line up and the colour matches from room to room.

One crew, start to finish

The people who measure the openings make the shades and come back to install them. There is no sub-contractor in the middle.

Questions

Zebra Shades, Answered

Are they private at night?

Not on their own. With the bands aligned you get good daytime privacy, but after dark, with lights on inside, the sheer bands read close to open glass from outside. If the window faces a street or a neighbour and you use the room at night, we would pair it with drapery or put a blackout roller behind it.

Can you get them in blackout?

Not truly. The opaque bands can be a room-darkening fabric, which gets a bedroom dim and comfortable, but light still comes through the fabric and sits in thin lines where the bands meet. For a room that has to go properly dark, a blackout roller is the right product.

How are they different from a solar shade?

A solar shade is one fabric with a fixed openness — you choose how much view and glare control you want once, and that is what you get at every height. A zebra shade lets you switch between two states with the same shade. If the window has one job, a solar shade usually does it better and cheaper. If you want the room to change through the day, the zebra earns its keep.

Do they work on sliding doors?

Yes, within a sensible width. Past a certain width we would normally split a door into two shades rather than build one very wide one, because a wide zebra roll gets heavy and the bands are harder to keep aligned across the whole span. We work that out at the measure.

Can they be motorized?

Yes. Battery, plug-in or hardwired, with a remote, a wall switch, the app or your voice. We program a view position as well as open and closed, so the band alignment is repeatable.

Do I need a cassette?

Almost always, on this product. The fabric loop makes a thicker roll than a plain roller shade, and a cassette hides it and closes the light gap at the top. We will tell you if an opening is one of the few where it is not needed.