Neolux Napa
100% PES · 120 g/m²
The lightest cloth in the range. It stacks to almost nothing at the head, which is what a small or shallow opening needs.
Dual shades
Two bands of cloth on one roll. Line them up and the window is sheer; offset them and it closes.
How a dual shade works
One shade that is two, on the same chain
- Alternating sheer and opaque bands, on a single roller
- Aligned it filters; offset by one band it dims or closes
- A dim-out band is not a blackout, and the difference is the point
A dual shade — the zebra, in most showrooms — is a single cloth woven as alternating stripes: a sheer band, then a solid one, repeating. It runs on one roller and one chain, and moving it a few centimetres slides the solid bands over the sheer ones. Lined up, you are looking through a sheer. Offset, the window is closed. It is the only shade on this site that gives a room two settings without two shades on the header.
What the solid band is decides the second setting. A plain band gives you a light filter closed and a sheer open; a dim-out band gives you a genuinely dark room closed, at a heavier weight and a fatter roll. Neither is a blackout — even a dim-out passes some light through the cloth, and the stripes never seal perfectly against each other. A room that has to be black is a blackout fabric on its own roller.
The dual shade fabrics we quote
Twelve cloths in two groups, and the group is the decision: how dark the window goes when the bands are offset. Weight runs with it — the darker the closed setting, the heavier the roll.
Light filtering
Neolux Arcadia
100% PES · 140 g/m²
A light, even weave. Closed it is a soft filter rather than a dim room, which suits a living space used in daylight.
Neolux Fiji
100% PES · 150 g/m²
A slightly firmer hand than the Arcadia at nearly the same weight, so the bands hold their line better on a wide opening.
Neolux Palau
100% PES · 154 g/m²
The middle of the filtering group and the one most often specified in it, for no reason more complicated than that it suits most rooms.
Neolux Koro
100% PES · 157 g/m²
The heaviest of the plain filtering cloths. It closes to a noticeably dimmer window than the Napa without becoming a dim-out.
Neolux Madeira
77% PES + 23% cotton · 160 g/m²
The only cloth here with a natural fibre in it. The cotton gives the solid band a matte, slightly irregular face that a pure polyester does not have.
Neolux Sheer Vision FR
30% PES + 70% PVC · 270 g/m² · fire retardant
A screen-type yarn rather than a fabric one, and the only fire-retardant cloth in the range — which is what puts it on a commercial specification.
Dim out
Neolux Eclipse Dim Out
100% PES · 180 g/m²
The lightest way into a dark closed setting. It rolls small for a dim-out, which matters where the recess is shallow.
Neolux Solitude Dim Out
100% PES · 203 g/m²
A step up in weight and in how much the closed setting actually darkens. A common bedroom answer where a full blackout is more than the room needs.
Neolux Bahia Dim Out
100% PES · 220 g/m²
Mid-weight, and it hangs flat enough that the bands stay square across a wide opening.
Neolux Mykonos Dim Out
100% PES · 242 g/m²
Heavy, with a dense solid band. Closed it is close to the darkest a dual shade gets while still being a dual shade.
Neolux Classic Dim Out
100% PES · 282 g/m²
The heaviest cloth in the range. It gives the darkest closed setting here and the largest roll, so the header has to be sized for it.
Weights and compositions are the mill’s published figures. A dim-out is not a blackout: it passes some light through the cloth and the bands do not seal against each other, so a room that has to be black takes a blackout fabric on its own roller.
What a dual shade buys you
Two settings on one roller, one chain and one header
The alternative is a screen and a blackout on a double bracket, which is two cloths, twice the hardware and a deeper recess to put them in.
A sheer view by day and a closed window at night, without changing anything out
A shallow header, because there is only ever one roll in it
A dim-out band where a bedroom wants dark but not black
A fire-retardant option, for a commercial or multifamily specification
Manual or motorised, and on a run of tall openings motorised earns its price
Questions about dual shades
Is a dual shade the same as a zebra shade?
Yes. Dual, zebra, banded and day-night are the same product under different showroom names: alternating sheer and solid bands on one roller.
Does it make the room dark?
A dim-out band gets a bedroom genuinely dark; a filtering band does not, and neither is a blackout. Light passes through the cloth and the bands do not seal edge to edge. If black is the requirement, put a blackout fabric on the opening instead.
Can people see in when the bands are aligned?
By day, no more than through any sheer — the bright side is the one you cannot see into. After dark, with the lights on, an aligned dual shade is close to transparent. Offset it and the window closes, which is the point of the product.
Is it more expensive than a plain roller?
Usually, and it is replacing two shades rather than one. Where it is worth it is an opening that needs both settings; where it is not is a window that only ever needed the glare knocked off, which is a screen.
The rest of the catalog
Everything else under Shades
One set of measurements and one quote whichever of these you land on. What changes is what the cloth does to the light — and, on the last of them, what raises it.
Screen Shades
The weave you see through: glare and heat off the glass, view intact.
Decorative Shades
Light-filtering cloths, chosen for the room rather than the elevation.
Blackout Shades
Opaque cloth, and the mount that decides whether the room goes dark.
Ripple Fold Drapery
Cloth on a track: an even wave that stacks off the glass, not on it.
Shade Accessories
Motors, remotes and hubs: what raises the cloth, and what tells it to.
Quote the dual shades with the glass
Tell us which rooms need two settings on one opening and we will price the band against the room.
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