Redi Shade Temporary Blinds Company Profile

Redi Shade is a company specialising in temporary window blinds. They’ve recently entered the UK and Irish markets, and are also well established in the United States and Canadian markets.

The blinds that the company produces, Redi Shades, are affordable, easy to install window coverings that can be used in the home or office.  They offer a range of temporary window blinds, most of which come in two widths, 36″ and 48″.

Standard Pleated Shades

The standard shades offered by Redi are available in both paper and polyester. The Original Redi Shade, made of standard white paper, allows a certain amount of light through while still providing privacy. The Natural Redi Shade is very similar but instead of using standard paper uses quality recycled paper. These Redi blinds add a touch of colour and give a warmer light than the original version.

The Fabric Pleated Shade is made from non-woven polyester, comes in white, and also allows in a certain amount of light.

Redi Shade blinds are also available in darker materials. The room darkening pleated shade blocks out more light than the Original, Natural and Fabric shades, so is probably a better solution for a bedroom.

For complete light blocking the Redi Shade Blackout Pleated Shade blocks out 99% of light and is ideal for sleeping babies or for people who work nights and have to sleep in the daytime, for example.

If you have an arched window in your house, then the Redi Arch is designed specifically to fit windows up to 72″.

Redi Shade Easy Touch

For a more comprehensive solution, Redi shade and now offer easy touch, which comes with everything you need to size, cut and install your shades. Easy touch is available with either standard pleated shades or with cellular window shades, which have a honeycomb pleated design, designed for greater energy efficiency and insulation.

Where to Buy Redi Shades

In the UK, you can buy Redi Shade blinds from Amazon, or direct from the Redi Shade UK website.

Internationally, Redi shades can be bought from online retailers such as Amazon, all from stores such as Costco, JC Penney, and Walmart.

Safety

As a company, Redi Shade places a high emphasis on safety, with all their blinds being cord-free. This is a very important issue, as their temporary blinds are often installed in children’s bedrooms. According to the U.S. consumer product safety commission, in the last 19 years, over 300 children have died in window cord accidents. To combat this, all Redi Shades operate with simple clips instead of cords.

Redi Shades have actually been awarded the seal of approval by Parents for Window Blind SafetyTM, a nonprofit organization focused on the hazards of corded window blinds.

For more information, visit Redi Shade’s website.

Welcome to Temporary Window Blinds

Before the advent of temporary blinds, if you wanted to buy any kind of covering for your windows, you would have to pay out a fairly sizeable amount of money, whichever option you decided upon. Shutters, curtains, Venetian blinds, Roman blinds, and most other types of window coverings have never been particularly cheap. So fitting out an entire house with traditional window coverings like these has always been an expensive proposition. But now, fortunately, all of that has changed. There is a new kid on the block. Temporary paper blinds are the future! Why? Because not only are they incredibly cheap, they are also easy to install. As well as all that, they look great too!

What are Temporary Window Blinds?

You may not have come across a temporary blind before, in which case you are probably wondering exactly what it is, and what is so good about it. Donít worry, itís nothing too complicated, simply a blind made of paper (or sometimes vinyl) that can be attached very easily to a window and that can be raised or lowered as needed. Vinyl blinds tend to be more hardwearing than the paper ones, but the paper blinds offer a slightly cheaper option.

Surprisingly, considering what a simple concept and an obvious solution the temporary window blind is, it is only fairly recently that the product has actually come on to the market. But then all good inventions seem obvious after the fact!

Ease of Installation

Temporary blinds are now becoming very popular, in both their paper and vinyl form. One of the great things about them is their ease of installation. They come in standard sizes that can be cut to fit almost any shape or size of window. In fact, the only tool you need to install them is a good strong pair of scissors. There is no drilling or screwing necessary because the blinds come with an adhesive strip, which enables them to be attached easily to the frame or the glass of the window.

Light

So how effective are these temporary blinds and how do they look once installed? Well, the black vinyl version is actually very effective in shutting out light (although the blinds donít provide a complete blackout) so they are good for bedrooms for example. Whereas the white blinds allow a fair amount of light in, so these are generally used more for privacy purposes, maybe for kitchens, bathrooms or office windows. For the most translucent option, you would probably want to choose a rice paper blind. Rice paper has a unique light diffusion quality all its own.

Temporary Blinds Manufacturers and Distributors

In terms of who actually makes and sells temporary window blinds, there are now a growing number of manufacturers and distributors.

Redi Shade Temporary Blinds

In the U.S., the biggest supplier is probably Redi, the company that produces the Redi Shade product line. Redi Shades can be purchased either in their original pleated form or with honeycomb cellular pleats, which are designed to provide greater energy efficiency.

Redi Shade have also just opened a UK store and a Redi Shade Ireland store.

Blinds in a Box – A UK Newcomer

An alternative to Redi in the UK is Blinds in a Box, a relatively new company with an interesting history.

Blinds in a Box was founded just two years ago by a lady in her sixties called Simeone Salik. Mrs. Salik came up with the idea when she was looking for a temporary covering for her windows while waiting for some curtains to arrive. At the time, it was only possible to order temporary blinds from America, so Mrs. Salik along with her designer Janice Dalton, decided to make up some temporary blinds themselves. They immediately saw that what they had created could be marketed. And so the company was born.

Earlier this year, Mrs. Salik and the other directors of Blinds in a Box decided they needed some investment to grow the company, so they applied to go onto the popular UK television programme, Dragonís Den (a show where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to investors for financial backing). To their delight, they were offered £40,000 by millionaire businessmen James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne, who immediately saw the potential of the product. Since then the company has gone from strength to strength, and is now probably the leading supplier of temporary blinds in the UK.

How Much Do Temporary Blinds Cost?

Paper blinds are ridiculously cheap. Purchased singly, they can be bought for $8 to $10 (or around £5-£6 in the UK). A box of six will set you back less than $50 (£35 or so in the UK). Expect to pay a few dollars more for vinyl blinds.

You can usually buy temporary blinds online pretty easily, but theyíre also available in a lot of major stores, such as Argos or B&Q in the UK, or Walmart in the US.

Where Can Temporary Window Blinds Be Used?

Temporary window blinds can be used pretty much anywhere. In the home, in the office or in shop windows, upstairs or downstairs, in the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom or the kidsí play house!

One area where temporary blinds are becoming increasingly popular is in student accommodation facilities. If you are a student, you donít want to be spending all of your money on curtains or expensive Venetian blinds, so temporary window blinds offer a good, cheap alternative.

And despite the fact that they are called temporary window blinds, they can actually last a very long time, so many people who buy and install them are in no particular rush to replace them with something more permanent. They are very easy to clean and the vinyl blinds particularly are remarkably hard-wearing. Couple that with the fact that they can look really chic, and you realize why many people keep the blinds up for a lot longer than they originally intended to when they bought them.

So in conclusion, if you are shopping for curtains or blinds, and particularly if money is tight, take a good look at the various temporary window blinds that are on offer. Temporary blinds are without doubt the best way to cover your windows on a budget.