The Alaya Jewel Rigid Vertical Blinds at So Easy Blinds put the important word in the middle of the name: rigid. Where an ordinary vertical hangs strips of weighted cloth, this range hangs solid louvres that hold their shape on their own - no bottom weights, no connecting chains, nothing to swing loose or snap. It comes in 29 finishes from £60.05, made to measure in a standard track-mounted fitting.

Who it suits

The vertical format is the natural dressing for wide glass: louvres tilt to control the light, draw to one side to clear the opening, and a track spans a patio door more gracefully than any roller could. The rigid louvre then plays to the rooms where cloth struggles. A solid, wipeable louvre shrugs off the condensation and splashes of a kitchen, bathroom or utility room, and because there is no fabric to sag and no weights to work free, the blind keeps its lines year after year. The usual failure points of a fabric vertical - the snapped bottom chain, the lost weight, the one louvre that curls - are absent here by design, which makes the range a sensible pick for a busy household or a hard-working home office.

The honest trade-off is character. A solid louvre carries a crisper, harder look than cloth, and it answers a draught or a flung-open door with a light tap rather than a soft swish. A living room or bedroom that wants textile warmth at the window may prefer a fabric vertical or a roman; and as with any vertical, light will find the joins between louvres, so this is not the range for a room that must go properly dark.

The colours

29 colours available

The names read like a stonemason's sample book. The Kuta series - Gesso, Haze, Luna and Selene - plays four variations on pale stone, and the Haze suffix recurs across Amari, Carerra and Perlato, promising soft, misted mineral surfaces rather than flat paint shades. Niro Storm holds down the dark end, Tosca Jade brings a green with some depth to it, and the plain-spoken trio of Mineral, Warmth and Whisper covers the quiet neutrals most rooms actually order. It is a palette pitched at stone, plaster and marble effects rather than brights, which suits the format: a wall of louvres in a mottled mineral finish reads as texture, not stripes. As ever with surface effects, a screen tells you little - mottling that looks subtle in a thumbnail can read stronger across a full patio-door span, so order samples and judge the finish in the room's own light.

Price by your dimensions

Enter your window size. We round up to the next standard size, which matches how the retailer actually quotes you.

No price movement in our checks since 3 Jun.

Verticals are priced by width and drop, and width does most of the work - every extra centimetre of span is another louvre on the track. The from-price buys the smallest window the range is made for, so treat it as a starting point and read the table above at your own measurements. With a single standard fitting there is no format choice to weigh; the measurements make the price.

How it compares

Against a fabric vertical, the trade is resilience for softness: the rigid louvre drops the weights and chains that fail first on a cloth blind and wipes clean where fabric wants a careful sponge, while the cloth version moves more quietly and lends a room more warmth. Against a venetian, the vertical wins on span - a patio door or a wide picture window justifies the track where a venetian would grow heavy and awkward. The range is a So Easy Blinds exclusive among the retailers we track, so there is no second shop cutting the same louvres to price it against. That is the usual trade-off with an exclusive: no cross-shopping, but in return a specification - solid louvres in this many mineral finishes - that the identikit vertical catalogues do not carry.

A note on care

Easy upkeep is the point of the format, so the routine is short. Run the vacuum's soft brush or a dry cloth down each louvre every few weeks so dust never beds in, and lift marks with a damp cloth and a little mild detergent - no soaking, no scrubbing, and nothing needs taking down to be laundered. Tilt the louvres fully open before drawing the blind so they travel without clashing, and check now and then that the track runs freely rather than forcing a stiff wand. If one louvre ever meets a real accident, verticals have a quiet virtue: a single louvre can usually be replaced on its own rather than condemning the whole blind.