Cellular Honeycomb Blinds

01

Trapped air, real insulation

The pleated fabric forms hexagonal air cells in profile, and that trapped air is a genuine thermal buffer on the glass — in both directions. Single cells help a mild room; double cells do serious work in the rooms that struggle most, which in Kenilworth Upper's older stock is very often the roof-conversion or the room over an unheated garage. The claim stays qualitative — comfort and a lower heating and cooling load, not an invented percentage.

02

Top-down, bottom-up

Lower the blind from the top for privacy from the street or a neighbour's upstairs window while still letting sky light in above, or raise it from the bottom for the reverse. It's a genuinely useful option on Kenilworth Upper's close-set street-facing rooms, and it holds its shape on the angled dormer and gable windows common in loft conversions here.

03

Where it earns its keep

Blockout cells give a nursery or nap-time bedroom real darkness with the thermal bonus built in, and the cell structure absorbs sound too — a genuine plus on a street-facing room. It's also the honest answer for "the room above the garage is always freezing," a line we hear often enough in this suburb's renovated Victorian stock to know it's not an exaggeration.

• Light-filtering or blockout cell fabrics, single or double cell
• Cordless or motorised operation; slim stack when raised
• Shaped and skylight versions for gable and dormer windows

What it costs

What a cellular blind costs in Kenilworth Upper

A honeycomb blind takes more material and more work to build than a single sheet, and it is priced to match: R1,500 to R2,800 per square metre installed hand-operated, single-cell fabrics low in that band and the double-cell or blockout-lined cloths near the top of it. Motorised, the band moves to R3,000–R4,800 a square metre. In a draughty old room the insulating cell is the whole reason to choose one, and it is worth paying for the double cell there.

Take these as guide bands rather than a quote. A small window carries a minimum charge, because the hardware and the fitting time barely reduce with the opening, and in an old house the awkward little windows are often the slowest ones. Every window gets its own figure after the free measure, in writing.