Manual Zebra Shades in Royal Palm Beach

This project covered three windows in a Royal Palm Beach house. Each opening received a custom zebra shade with a white cassette and a manual chain control.

The photographs show the finished shades in both privacy and filtered-light positions, along with the headrail being secured during installation.

The windows vary in width and sit in different rooms, so each shade had to be fitted to its own opening while keeping the same fabric, cassette and operating style throughout the home.

Zebra shades provide two useful positions in one treatment: the sheer bands can line up to soften daylight, or the opaque bands can overlap to increase privacy without adding a second window covering.

Zebra shades (also called dual-layer or banded shades) are built from a single fabric with alternating sheer and solid horizontal bands. Rolling the fabric a few centimetres shifts the bands in or out of alignment, so the same shade moves from an open view-through position to a closed privacy position without being raised or lowered.

That makes them a practical choice where daylight changes through the day: the sheer bands soften glare while keeping the window readable, and the solid bands close the opening when privacy matters more than the view.

All three shades use manual side chains. The chain adjusts both the height of the shade and the alignment of the alternating fabric bands.

Manual chain operation keeps the mechanism simple: the shade is positioned by hand at the window and holds wherever it is set, with no power source and nothing to charge or pair.

Dark gray opaque bands alternate with white sheer bands, while the white cassette headrails and bottom rails coordinate with the window trim visible in the rooms.

The installation photograph shows the headrail being mounted above one window. The completed photographs show the cassette seated level and each fabric panel hanging square over its opening.

The finished installation gives all three windows a consistent treatment. Each shade can be moved from a bright filtered-light setting to a more private position using its side chain.