Blackout Pleated Blinds: Compared Across UK Retailers

50 blackout pleated blinds, £50-£365 for a standard window (around 700×1200 mm). Enter your exact window below - each price updates to your size, and we move you to the right size band if you go outside this one.

Blackout fabric is woven tightly or given a coated backing so daylight cannot pass through the material itself. The catch is that a blind is not a sealed box: light still leaks in around the edges, where the fabric has to sit a little narrower than the recess to move freely, and along the top of the roll or stack. Even a good blackout fabric in an ordinary recess leaves a visible glow around the edges, so it is honest to think of it as deep shade rather than total darkness.

Where that edge light matters most - nurseries, shift workers sleeping in the day, media rooms, bright south-facing bedrooms - the answer is to seal the sides. Look for side channels or blackout tracks, a framed style such as perfect-fit or a roof blind held in channels, or a face-fixed blind cut to overlap the reveal. One real limit: slatted and louvred blinds (venetian, vertical) and layered day-and-night blinds cannot truly black out, because the slat tilts, cord holes and sheer bands always pass some light however dark the fabric. For genuine darkness, rollers, lined romans, channelled pleated and roof blinds get closest.

Two things help when you are choosing. The darkness comes from the coating or the tight weave, not the shade, so a pale blackout fabric blocks just as well as a dark one - pick the colour you want and let the cloth do the work. And blackout is really about light rather than warmth or noise, though a dense fabric does take a little of the chill and the echo out of a room as a welcome side benefit. If a blind is sold as a blackout venetian or a blackout vertical, read that as the darkest the style manages, not a promise of a dark room.

If a properly dark room is the goal, two fittings make the biggest difference: choosing a face fit cut to overlap the opening by a good margin on every side, or adding side channels that the fabric runs inside. Both close down the edge gap an ordinary recess blind leaves, and they matter far more to the result than the grade of fabric on its own. Measure for that overlap before you order, because a blackout blind cut to the bare opening will always leave the thin line of light at the edges you were trying to be rid of.

A pleated blind is a concertina of crisply folded fabric that gathers flat as it raises, giving a slim, neat profile that suits windows where bulk would get in the way. Cellular or honeycomb versions take this further: the pleats form rows of air-trapping cells that add a layer of insulation, helping keep heat in through winter and out in summer. Many pleated blinds also offer a top-down, bottom-up action, so you can drop the top for light while keeping the lower half private.

Fabrics span light-filtering to blackout, often with a reflective backing that bounces heat and glare. Like other flat blinds the cells and edges let some light slip past, so a blackout pleated really needs side channels to come close to full darkness. Their slimness makes them a common choice for skylights and conservatories as well as ordinary windows. Care is gentle - a dust or a careful vacuum - and a sharp fold left compressed can set, so handle them kindly. On price they sit in the mid-range, with cellular versions costing a little more than plain ones.

The top-down, bottom-up action is the pleated blind's party trick: lower the top for daylight while the bottom stays up for privacy, or do the reverse. Raised, the whole blind gathers into a stack barely deeper than a few folds, which is part of why pleated blinds are such a favourite for skylights, conservatory roofs and slim door panels where a bulkier blind would intrude.

Colour:

50 of 50 ranges shown.

Celeste Pleated

at 247 Blinds

from £50.00 in 5 colours

Celeste Pleated

Blackout Pleated

Gaia Pleated

Skylar Pleated

Eclipse Pleated

Cosima Petal Pleated

Maxshade Complete Thermal Pleated

Maven Blue Cordless Honeycomb Pleated

Maxshade Complete Harissa Thermal Pleated

Quickstick Tradechoice Pleated

Hamburg Jet Honeycomb Pleated

Stanton Pleated

Tradechoice Pleated

Click2shade Complete Thermal Pleated

Maxshade Complete Frost Thermal Pleated

Thermocell Pleated

Free Hanging Vexia Honeycomb Pleated

Tensioned Pleated

Luna Thermal Honeycomb Pleated

Double Sided Ecocell Pleated

Thermal Pleated

Tribeca Pleated

Thermocell Easy Click Honeycomb Pleated

Cosibloc Thermal Honeycomb Pleated

Thermocell Easy Stick Honeycomb Pleated

Fittoframe Pleated

Aquacell Pleated

Soho Pleated

Blenheim Pleated

Berlin Jet Pleated

Double Sided Ecocell Easy Click Honeycomb Pleated

Double Sided Ecocell Easy Stick Honeycomb Pleated

Berlin Jet Easy Click Honeycomb Pleated

Berlin Jet Easy Stick Honeycomb Pleated

Aquacell Camel Easy Click Honeycomb Pleated

Aquacell Camel Easy Stick Honeycomb Pleated

Aquacell Easy Click Honeycomb Pleated

Aquacell Easy Stick Honeycomb Pleated

Blenheim Rogue Cellular Freehanging Pleated

Festival Esp Pleated

Kimora Cumulus Pleated

Addison Pleated

Blenheim Cellular Pleated

Festival Esp Pleated

Astral Frost Pleated

Tropez Mulberry Pleated

Shot Silk Esp Portobello Pleated

Shot Silk Esp Portobello Pleated

Primitivo Pleated

Totalshade Complete Thermal Pleated