Panel blinds

Why architects keep asking for them

A panel blind has almost no visible mechanism: a slim track, flat fabric, a clean vertical edge. On the rebuilt rear elevations you find behind Waterkloof's older street facades — the glazed wall onto the pool, the three-metre stack door — it is the treatment that does not fight the architecture.

Stacked back, the panels take up a fraction of the glass. Drawn across, they read as one continuous plane of fabric rather than a row of blinds.

More than a window treatment

Because the track can run free of a window, panels also work as a soft room divider: closing off a study corner from an open-plan living room, or screening a dressing area, without building a wall or hanging a door.

Practical notes

• Two to five channels depending on the width — more channels mean a tighter stack.
• Sheer, light-filtering and blockout fabrics; sheers and blockouts can share one track on separate channels.
• Wand or motorised operation; motorised panels on a wide glazed wall are a genuine pleasure.
• Ceiling-fixed or top-fixed to a bulkhead, which keeps the track off the window frame entirely.

What a panel blind costs

Panel blinds run on the same track family as a vertical and are quoted the same way, per square metre installed: R1,000 to R1,600 manual and R2,500 to R3,800 motorised. Panel width, the number of tracks and a heavier fabric all move a run towards the top of its band.

A short run carries a minimum charge, since the track, the carriers and the setting out are the same job whatever the width. The written figure for your own opening follows the free measure.