The Shona is a made-to-measure blackout vertical blind sold by So Easy Blinds, available in 13 colours - an unusually broad palette for a functional vertical. Priced from £46.92, it suits wide window openings, patio doors, and conservatories where both light control and colour choice matter.

Who it suits

Vertical blinds earn their keep on wide spans - a patio door or a conservatory wall of glazing - where a roller or Roman would need multiple blinds to cover the same opening. The Shona's vanes slide along a top track and rotate to adjust light, which makes it well-suited to living rooms and kitchen-diners that open onto a garden. The vanes let through no significant direct light when closed, which the retailer describes as blackout; bear in mind, as with any vertical, a little light creeps at the track edges and vane overlaps, so it's useful for daytime privacy and general darkening rather than cinema-quality blackout.

Bedrooms with standard windows are a less natural fit; a roller or Roman blind typically delivers a tidier look in a smaller opening. The track-and-vane format also has a functional, slightly commercial character that suits contemporary interiors better than period or country-style rooms. For bathrooms and kitchens the fabric vanes are usable, but check the retailer's care guidance - most fabric verticals are spot-clean only rather than wipe-down.

The colours

13 colours available

Thirteen colours span most practical decorating directions. The neutrals - Cream, Ecru, Taupe, and Slate - will suit the widest range of rooms and tend to be the sensible choice for a conservatory or patio door you want to recede visually. Brick and Iron sit in the warm-grey and terracotta territory that works well against wood floors and earth-toned interiors. Moss, Teal, Midnight, and Licorice are the deeper and bolder end of the palette; Teal in particular is a confident choice for a kitchen-diner extension. Mustard, Rose, and Mauve are accent colours that suit a room already committed to that hue - strong individually, but they narrow the decorating context. There is no explicit premium pricing noted for individual colours, so the range from-price applies across the board.

Price by your dimensions

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

Starting from £46.92, the Shona sits at the accessible end of made-to-measure vertical blinds. Vertical blinds generally price by track width rather than by fabric area, so the cost climbs as your opening widens - the grid reflects the price at common made-to-measure sizes.

Fitting and operation

Vertical blinds fit to a top track that mounts either inside the recess or on the wall above the window. For most patio doors, a face-fit outside the recess is the natural choice - it gives full coverage and lets the vanes clear the door frame when drawn back. Measure the opening width generously if fitting outside; the track should overlap the frame by at least 5-7 cm each side to prevent edge-light when the blind is closed. The vanes open from a centre-split or one-side configuration depending on how the track is ordered, so confirm which suits your doorway before placing a size. Vertical vanes also have small weights at the base and a linking chain between vanes, which keeps them hanging straight and prevents swinging in a draught when a door is opened.

How it compares

Against a standard-fabric vertical blind, the Shona's blackout claim puts it a step up from light-filtering or dimout verticals that offer privacy without blocking much light. If you need genuine room-darkening at a patio door - say, a bedroom that leads to a garden - the blackout fabric is the right call over a standard or translucent vane. If light control is the sole concern and colour range matters less, other retailers carry narrower-palette blackout verticals that may suit just as well. Where the Shona earns its place is the combination of a functioning blackout fabric with a palette wide enough to match an existing colour scheme rather than defaulting to white or cream. A roller blind covers a smaller opening more neatly; a cellular or honeycomb blind offers better thermal performance if winter heat retention is the priority. For the specific problem of a wide glazed opening that needs both style and light control, the Shona vertical is a solid, practical choice.