Ex-lite at Blinds By Post is a vertical blind range with its working clothes on: 12 colourways from £12.20, sold in two make-ups by name - the standard Ex-lite and the Ex-lite 127mm, which cuts the louvres wider. The name reads like a cloth built to be light and economical, and the shade card agrees: Snow, Canvas, Slate, Anthracite and, most tellingly, Healthcare Blue, a colour named for the buildings that buy it. This is a range with contract roots, and that is a recommendation rather than a warning - the qualities a waiting room demands of a blind are the ones a busy household benefits from too.
Who it suits
The obvious audience is anyone dressing a workplace: offices, practices, studios and the home office that has to look presentable on video calls. Verticals remain the default for that job because they cover wide glass economically, tilt to kill screen glare without darkening the room, and draw back fully when the light is wanted. The 127mm make-up earns its place on larger expanses - wider louvres mean fewer of them across the same opening, a bolder rhythm, less edge-to-edge fussiness and fewer slats to dust. Most ranges never offer the choice, so having it on the same name is genuinely useful. None of this excludes homes: the chart's plain neutrals sit as comfortably behind a sofa as behind a reception desk, and the pricing makes the range a sound answer for big patio doors. Check the listing for the opacity of your chosen shade before bedroom use.
The colours
12 colours available
The twelve shades read like a specifier's chart, and that is meant kindly. The light end covers Snow, Cream, Bisque and Canvas - four practical whites and off-whites - before the greys take over with Light Grey, Slate and Anthracite. Black and Navy supply the dark anchors, and then there is Healthcare Blue, the shade that gives the range's history away: nobody names a colour for a sector unless that sector has been buying it for years. There are no reds, no patterns and no surprises, which is precisely the point. Order a sample or two all the same - institutional neutrals shift like any others between daylight and strip lighting.
Price by your dimensions
Enter your window size. We round up to the next standard size, which matches how the retailer actually quotes you.
Price down 6% since 11 Aug. (our checks since 6 Jun)
Ex-lite sits at the accessible end of the shop's vertical pricing, which fits a range built for covering glass by the metre. As with any vertical, the bill scales with width and drop, and a patio door costs more than the headline figure suggests, so price your own measurements in the table above. If you are weighing the regular louvre against the 127mm, price both make-ups at your size rather than assuming; the two are listed separately under their own names.
How it compares
Within Blinds By Post's vertical offering, Ex-lite is the plain option beside the shop's more decorative charts - the range you specify when the window should recede rather than contribute. Against a roller in the same room, a vertical tilts as well as draws, which matters wherever screens face the glass, and it spans widths a single roller cannot. The name also travels: Ex-lite appears at Vertical Blinds Direct and at Wilsons Blinds as well, and the same window is priced independently by each shop, with the gaps moving as sizes change. Our Ex-lite comparison puts the three side by side at your measurements - for a range this workmanlike, the shop matters more than the badge, and the check takes a minute.
A note on care
A working vertical is designed to be kept working. Dust the louvres with a soft brush or a low-suction vacuum, top to bottom, and wipe marks promptly with a damp cloth rather than soaking the fabric. Keep the headrail track clear and the louvres will glide for years. The habit that matters most in a busy room: a damaged or stained louvre can usually be replaced on its own, so one scuffed slat by the photocopier or the dog basket never means renewing the whole blind.
Likely the same fabric, at other retailers
Ex Lite vertical blinds are sold under the same name by more than one UK retailer, and the price scales identically across window sizes - a strong sign it is the same fabric from the same supplier:
- Blinds By Post this page from £12.20
- Vertical Blinds Direct from £69.50
- Wilsons Blinds from £69.50
- New Blinds from £77.35
We match these on the shared name and an identical price curve, not an independent inspection, so treat it as likely the same fabric rather than confirmed - and check the specification and colour at each retailer before buying.