Redi Shade No Tools Original Arch Light Blocking Pleated Fabric Shade White, 72" W x 36" H

Our last two houses have had these half moon windows. And each time these windows faced due East and/or West. We needed light filtered thru them and this product is perfect. Great easy to follow instructions. They lasted approx 7 years. I have to state, we never touched them once we had installed them. And this past summer when we had the windows replaced, they were taken down and, yes, they fell apart. WELL, what would you expect after 7 years of direct sunlight? They are a great value and we loved the fact that they filtered out the direct sunlight. And so easy to install.

I bought this to replace a presumably, 20-year-old version of a similar shade. The old one was dingy and dusty, and we wanted one that would block more light and insulate the window because the window it’s in gets a ton of light during the day and the room gets very warm. And frankly we need all of our windows replaced as well. So this shade is sort of reflective on one side, so we have that facing outward to repel sun rays and it seems to be working really well especially in tandem with the blackout curtain. We got to keep the room nice and cool. It was pretty easy to install. I was able to cut it to size just with the box cutter very easily. Our original purchase did not come with the little plastic thingy that you need in the center of the arch. It just was not included in the box. But after speaking with Amazon customer support, they just sent me a second one so it all worked out. I really only needed the little plastic piece but they were unable to send me just the little plastic piece so now I have a back up shade. We tried to use the existing plastic piece that we had from the old shade, but it was too thin. But it all worked out!

This was easy to install. Looks good, but I don’t know about durability. It’s made of a fibered sort of paper that is not going to be something that you can wash. Maybe run a vacuum attachment over it now and then. It also attaches to the window frame with double sided tape, so wash your window first because once installed, it’s not coming down, although I suppose one could buy more double sided tape and redo that. I had wanted to do a half round curtain rod with fabric, but couldn’t find one to fit…and this one solves the problem quickly and easily for now.

I recently moved to a new office which has a nice arched window, but unfortunately at certain times of the day the sun shines through the top of the arch and creates a disturbing glare in my face when I'm at the desk. I ordered this shade to diffuse the direct light through the top. The window is not a perfect arch though. The height is a bit more than half the width, so a simple straight cut as described in the directions wouldn't be suitable. The instructions for imperfect arches suggest fanning out the shade and then tracing the window outline on to the shade and cutting along the outline. That seems like it would be finicky though, especially since my window is quite large. Instead I measured for the top and bottom lengths and marked both on the folded-up shade as seen in picture #1. Then I made two angled cuts from the first mark to the second (picture #2). The middle of the folded shade corresponds to the top of the window in my case so I wanted that part to be longer, but probably you could make a V-shaped cut instead of a point if your window is opposite. Fanning out the shade then gives a smooth transition in length between the sides of the arch and the top. The final result is shown in picture #3. This method is likely easier than the trace-and-cut suggested by the directions, but the arch needs to be fairly close to a semicircle. In my case the required deviation in heights was less than 5%, and I'd guess it might be OK up to about 10%. Regarding the shade itself, I'd say it's quite nice, especially considering the low cost. The fabric looks good, the fan is very even, and overall fit with a careful cut is excellent. The light diffusion is perfect; I can now sit at the desk and work comfortably without the sun hitting me in the face. I can't say yet about the durability of the shade, but I don't expect a problem. And even if it needed to be replaced after a few years, it was cheap.

For my previous house, I had purchased arch window shades for $100+ for each window. This time, I decided to try these out first. They were simple to install. There’s wiggle room if you cut them correctly. Remember to sharpen your knife before you start. I did 3 windows. Pics are from the first window I did. First window required me to cut the shade 3x, 2nd window, I had to cut it 2x, and the last one only required 1 cut. For me, it was better to be safe than sorry. Anyway, my arch wasn’t a “perfect arch size.” The window pictures displayed size was 67 1/2 x 33. So doubling the height would’ve only gotten me to 66” and the directions want you to take of 1/4”. In regards to the measurements, I cut it to 65 3/4. Make sure you center the plastic stand in the center. I used some clear shipping tape to keep it steady. From there I fanned it out and it was a perfect fit (remember I cut it 3x on my first try.) Here comes the wiggle room. I stretched it out to reach the end of the arch before actually taping it down and did the same for the other side. Keep in mind that the length was 67 1/2 but I had to trim it to 65 3/4 to fit the height. Voila!! Perfect arch! Make sure you clean the sill very well to ensure adhesion. Also, please note that one side is white (a bit shiny like it’s laminated) and the other side is like a fabric gray color. It looks a bit ombré because it’s so dense at the base. It appears to be quite sturdy and should last for a good long while. It actually looks better in person. I promise! ; )

Hrm... I have used a LOT of redi shade blinds over the years because I grew up largely above the Snow Belt, but now I'm down in the Sunny South(tm)...and like all dark dank creatures best left in their lairs, I'd just as soon not have all that bleeping brightness shining down on *me*. This one was just a tad disappointing, which hasn't happened before with a Redi Shade product. First of all, the measurement instructions on the website are one step shy of accurate. While they will get to to the "right length" shade for your window, they will *not* show you that your home was built by the low-bid guys and so your arch doesn't have a perfect radius. Learn from my fail, kiddos. BEFORE you take off any wax strip backing and expose any glue, unfan your entire blind and be sure it's not "catching" or "snagging" anywhere on the edges. Fixing this after the fact is a huge pain the cloaca. Secondly..."light blocking" (to my admittedly addled alien Reptoid mind currently suffering aftershocks from the evil bright burning day-moon that bathes this round wet rock in its horrid sticky radiation) means "will not allow visible light to pass through it." I'm already giving it a free pass for those shades beyond red and violet you limited talking monkeys cannot see...but seriously...it's NOT opaque. Granted, I'm pitting this poor thing up against Texas Sunlight From A Window Facing South. I suppose I should just be pleased it didn't combust. But it's NOT light blocking. It's light filtering. Close enough...it's keeping the glare off my TV...but I am left wondering if I received the correct product. My cheap black *paper* blinds are 100% opaque. Tape the edges of those buggers down and NO light gets into the room. This...not so much. Yes, yes it's a lighter color, but it's also a thicker "fabric" material and significantly more expensive than the black paper ones...so...there's that. And lastly, I'm a wee tad miffed that it would appear I could have made my black blinds that work just fine in all other applications into an "arch window blind" had I simply been allowed to purchase a second strip of glue for the other edge of the blind, and the little plastic thingie that holds the center of the semi-circle in place. I'd be significantly less miffed if these just came in black. --- Things I can't blame on the manufacturer, but that you might need to know: The strip of glue runs down the middle of the edge of the blind, leaving 1/4 inch of not-sticky space on both sides of the edge. Bear this in mind if you're trying to cram it into a space that's thinner than their recommended width of window ledge. You'll need some other sort of adhesive (I highly recommend 3M Command poster strips) to help secure your blinds in that case (only in that case..if used as directed, the original glue is fine). It doesn't hurt to secure the little plastic doodad holding the middle either. Once the included glue strip is down, it's *down* -- re-positioning the blinds afterwards is NOT recommended (by the maker or by me).

Extremely happy with this purchase. The shade looks nice, adds privacy and tones down direct sunlight without leaving the room dark. Most importantly, installation was easy. The rest of my review compares installation of this shade to a much more expensive department store shade. This shade replaces two failed shades from a mall anchor store that cost 75 bucks a pop and look identical. The expensive shades disintegrated in the sun after only 15 months. Stupidly, I bought a second identical one to replace the first. Again, after just over a year the shades began to tear leaving my window looking like someone had cut a pie slice out of the covering. Admittedly, when I opened this package the shade seemed chintzy. Instead of a plastic strut across the bottom edge, I found flimsy cardboard with two sided tape. It took less than a minute to cut the shade to size with a utility knife. I had to use a band saw on the more expensive shades, so plus one for the Redi Shade. Installation is where this shade won me over. The expensive shades couldn't support their own weight which meant "fat guy on a ladder" yoga poses while I attempted to both hold the shade and drill and mount the support tabs. The Redi Shade fabric is light and the length is perfect to "spring" the shade into place under tension. The more expensive shades that I bought were inexplicably long which meant almost no tension, and as a result, they required plastic tabs for support. The flimsy cardboard that I mentioned is partly responsible for easy installation. The shade with the plastic channels had to be snapped into place prior to sticking the base to the sill, which was difficult to do while holding the shade up. The plastic center mount has no channels so you only have to drop the cardboard end into place and press firmly. Tip: Find the center of your window opening and make a small pencil mark. Center the plastic piece on the mark. To install, peel the double sided tape paper where the two ends meet in the center. You can peel the paper back while pressing the shade into place. I can't speak for longevity. The sun could certainly destroy this fabric like it did on my other shades, but ease of trimming and installation have won me over. Couldn't be happier.

I got this for a toddler room where the ambient light was a bit too much for napping, and the window style was such that the top half-moon window couldn't be covered by the larger curtain below (which we've done in other rooms). Options for light blocking half-moon windows are slim - basically just this item. That said, it appears to be a thick paper folded accordion-style, with adhesive strips on both sides and a semicircle plastic piece just to keep the bottom in place and make for a better form. I was initially concerned about the semi-circle not being perfect (e.g. top-bottom measurement (radius)should be exactly half the width (diameter)) only to realize that the measurements most people seem to be making are of the window casing (trim), not the window itself. In my case it was perfect @ 27" diameter and 13.5" radius. I cut the unit @ 27" as directed and had to re-trim it a couple times to get it to fit. While the bottom of the unit can be adhered to the window frame, the top just sits through friction, so it has to be a tight fit. In the end I wound up not even using the adhesive strip, it just sits in place. The paper material is SUPER easy to cut with a sharp utility knife - in fact I'd say it's almost carvable , and it's a good thing too because I had to make 3 ~ 1/8" trims off the unit after the initial cut, so if it didn't cut easy, you'd never get a flat cut after the first one. There is plenty left over if I wanted to do the second window in our house (just for the heck of it, as I said it's already covered with a standard shade) but I lack the center plastic piece; I'll make due somehow. All the above said, it works for what it is, but doesn't block out much light and is, IMHO, a rather expensive piece of paper.