Fitting out a whole house with blinds adds up quickly, and there's a reasonable question of whether you need to spend much at all on rooms where the blind is doing a straightforward job. This guide covers the budget end of made-to-measure roller blinds - ranges where the from-price is low and the fabric is plain, solid, and functional. We haven't tried to cover every room type or every blind style here; if you need blackout, thermal performance, or something decorative, those needs point you towards different ranges and a different article.

What "budget" means in made-to-measure blinds

Ready-made blinds sold in fixed sizes (60 cm, 90 cm, 120 cm) are available from supermarkets and hardware shops for a few pounds. That's one kind of budget. The ranges in this guide are different: they're made-to-measure, cut to the exact millimetre width and drop you specify, and they're still available from under £10 for a small window.

The trade-off at this price point is straightforward. You're buying a single plain polyester fabric on a basic mechanism - no cassette housing to hide the tube, a standard chain rather than a wand, and a fabric range focused on solid colours rather than textures or prints. The fabric is functional rather than weighty; light-to-medium in feel. That's fine for a utility room, a secondary bedroom, a bathroom where you just want privacy, or any window where you're solving a problem rather than making a statement.

From-prices quoted on the retailers' sites are for the smallest available size. Pricing scales with area, so a large window in a budget range may cost more than a small window in a mid-range fabric. Check the price grid for your specific dimensions before assuming a range fits your budget.

What to look for

Colour range. At this price point you're choosing from solid colours - no patterns, no textures. The question is whether the colour you need is available. All three picks below offer a reasonable spread of neutrals alongside some stronger colours. If you're matching a specific shade closely, order samples.

Light control. None of the ranges here are described as blackout. They're standard light-filtering polyester - they'll give privacy and reduce glare but won't block the sun. If you need genuine darkness in a bedroom, you want a blackout fabric, which typically sits a step up in price. For a living room, home office, or any space where some light through the fabric is acceptable, these work well.

Fitting. All three picks are made-to-measure standard rollers, suitable for both inside-recess and face-fix installations. Measure carefully: the standard UK convention is width first, then drop. Measure the recess if fitting inside it, or the full width you want covered if fitting outside. If you're unsure, most retailers' sites explain whether to add or subtract a fitting allowance.

Mechanism. Budget rollers at this price typically come with a chain mechanism as standard. Wand operation or motorisation is available on some variants but moves the price into a different tier. Check the finish listing: motorised variants in these ranges are clearly marked as premium and priced accordingly.

Cord safety. UK regulations require blinds sold for domestic use to be cord-safe by design. If you're fitting a blind in a room used by children, look for a cordless or wand-operated option. Chain-operated rollers can be made safe with a cord cleat to keep the chain wound out of reach - the retailer should supply one.

Our picks

Best value roller
Splash

Splash

at Blinds By Post

A plain roller from Blinds By Post at one of the lowest from-prices we list.

from £6.59 in 50 colours

Read review →
Best budget palette
Bella

Bella

at Blinds By Post

A broad-colour budget roller from Blinds By Post.

from £8.90 in 99 colours

Read review →
Best from a major retailer

Roma

at 247 Blinds

A low-priced plain roller from 247 Blinds with a wide colour range.

from £7.15 in 42 colours

Read review →

Pick details

Best value roller
Splash

Splash

at Blinds By Post

A plain roller from Blinds By Post at one of the lowest from-prices we list.

from £6.59 in 50 colours

Read review →

Splash from Blinds By Post sits at one of the lowest from-prices we have found for a made-to-measure roller. The range has 44 variants across a palette of neutrals and mid-tones - Butter, Oyster, Grey Whisper, Placid, Portobello, Wave among them - plus a few stronger colours like Lipstick and Heat. That breadth is good for a budget range; you're unlikely to be completely stuck on colour.

The fabric is a plain polyester roller in the standard light-filtering class. It's the right choice when the job is simple: block the view from the street, reduce glare on a screen, give a neutral backdrop to a room. It's not the pick if you need blackout, texture, or a pattern - those needs take you into different product lines at a higher price.

The motorised variants in the Splash range are clearly marked as premium and carry a significant price increase; the standard chain-operated finishes are where the budget-friendly pricing sits. If you're comparing Splash directly with Bella (below), the main differences are a slightly lower from-price and a somewhat smaller colour palette. Both are from the same retailer; if your priority is the widest colour choice, Bella has more options. If you only need a neutral - white, cream, or grey - Splash covers all of those and the lower from-price is worth taking.

Best budget palette
Bella

Bella

at Blinds By Post

A broad-colour budget roller from Blinds By Post.

from £8.90 in 99 colours

Read review →

Bella is Blinds By Post's broader-palette entry in the same budget tier. The from-price is a little higher than Splash, but the range runs to 55 finishes across 60 variants - a notably wider selection that includes not just neutrals but some greener and bluer tones alongside the expected creams, greys, and whites. If you're furnishing multiple rooms and want flexibility to match different colour schemes without switching retailer, Bella gives you more to work with in one place.

Like Splash, the standard chain-operated finishes are the keenly priced options; motorised variants are present but priced at a premium. The fabric is the same class - plain polyester roller, light-filtering, functional rather than decorative.

The practical difference between Splash and Bella comes down to your colour requirements. If Empire or Midnight (both in Splash) covers what you need, the slightly lower from-price there is worth taking. If you're after Duck Egg, Hessian, Boujee, or Vellum - all present in Bella but not Splash - then Bella is the obvious pick without any meaningful quality trade-off. Both are available from the same retailer, so comparing them side by side before ordering is straightforward. The premium-tier motorised finishes in Bella follow the same pattern as Splash: they're on the same fabric but the mechanism cost makes them a materially different product at a materially different price.

Best from a major retailer

Roma

at 247 Blinds

A low-priced plain roller from 247 Blinds with a wide colour range.

from £7.15 in 42 colours

Read review →

Roma from 247 Blinds is this guide's pick from a major online retailer. It's a plain roller with 31 solid-colour finishes and a from-price of £7.15, making it genuinely competitive with the Blinds By Post entries above. The colour names - Athens Grey, Heritage Cream, Horizon Blue, Fuscous Grey, Tuscan Rose, Rhino Grey - suggest a range aimed at interior-matching rather than pure utility, which is useful when you need to match existing décor.

The case for Roma over the Blinds By Post picks is largely about where you prefer to shop. 247 Blinds is a well-known name in UK made-to-measure, and if you're already buying something else from them - or if you've had a good experience there before - consolidating your order makes sense. The variant count (31) is smaller than Bella's 55 but still covers the main neutral and colour families; the absence of motorised variants at all in this range keeps the pricing structure simple.

Where Roma differs from both Blinds By Post picks is in the colour palette character. The names lean more explicitly towards named interior-paint shades and specific hues - Fuscous Grey, Tuscan Rose, Heraklion - whereas Splash and Bella use more abstract colour names. Neither approach is better; it's a matter of how you prefer to match colours when ordering online without a physical sample in your hand. On this range, per-size pricing can be checked for your exact window dimensions before ordering, which makes it easier to compare directly against the other picks at your actual window size rather than relying on from-prices alone.

What we didn't include

All three picks are made-to-measure roller blinds in a plain polyester fabric. We've kept the guide to that format deliberately because rollers are the most practical option at the budget end of the market - they're straightforward to fit, work in almost any room, and the made-to-measure process keeps waste low.

Venetian blinds in aluminium can be found at similar price points, but the slat mechanism adds installation complexity and the ongoing cleaning requirement makes them a different trade-off from a fabric roller. We haven't included them here.

Ready-made off-the-shelf blinds sold in fixed standard sizes can undercut even these from-prices, but they require cutting down to fit or accepting an imprecise fit within the recess - a process that puts some buyers off and can look untidy if the fit isn't close. The ranges in this guide are all made-to-measure, which we consider a meaningful practical advantage even at a modest additional cost.

Blackout rollers exist at broadly comparable from-prices, but blackout fabric is a distinct buying decision driven by specific room requirements. If that's what you need, the trade-off analysis is different enough to warrant its own treatment rather than folding it into a general budget guide.