Radiance Cord Free, Roll-up Reed Shade, Natural, 72 x 72

I purchased this shade for a *south* facing sliding glass door. The door opens to a large brick patio with a pergola that has been built to cover this entire section of the patio. Because the cover/roof—or lack thereof—of the pergola is open and splotchy at best for providing shelter from the broiling desert sun I needed an added layer over the glass. This isn't always necessary but as temperatures begin to hang in the 100° marks well past sunset, just a little extra layer over the glass can add comfort to the interior temperatures and allow me to keep my sunglasses in my purse and my curtains open during the day.I'm speaking mostly to people who live in the dry, desert SW looking to use natural shades for a purpose: you like daylight coming in so in the morning you're likely to crack the blinds or open curtains while on your way to the kitchen to start the coffee. But you have that *one* window or *one* door that, come 4:00, you have to close the curtain because the deathrays of the sun are either baking the glass and the inside of that corner of you're space or you also have pavement right out there under the glass, which now makes you the cupcake in your own little Easy Bake Oven. A shade made from reed, bamboo or other natural type materials will help *absorb* the heat from that glass and restore comfort in the room. Metal blinds or some plastics will only attract and retain the heat in the same way that a cookie sheet does in the oven and only contribute to discomfort in a hot, south or west facing space. In addition to serving a purpose you get the added bonus of something that looks nice unlike your neighbors tinfoil or cut-to-fit insulation sheets they plastered all over their trouble window. Oy.There are people who have bought this shade and were then surprised and disappointed at the lack of privacy. For those who are looking for privacy you want *blinds*; If you want a diffused view out your glass for the purpose of temperature control and a bit of privacy during peak, sunny hours throughout the daytime then you want a *shade*. Think of it in terms of standing near a big oak tree - if you are standing underneath the tree in the *shade* then I can see you; if you're standing behind the trunk of that oak tree then the trunk is going to conceal you or *blind* my view of you.The matchstick shade I had in this window for years was a very lovely, dark fruit wood color but now I am going lighter on the tones in my house. My old shade would roll up with the the cords and that's all there was on the market for ages. It was also equally inexpensive as this one. Now, it seems, you're paying 3X for a roller shade with cords. Given that I never once rolled my old shade up I'm happy to have a roller shade with -zero- cords and plastic weird clip things I threw away immediately after digging out the hooks from the packaging.This was super easy to hang on my own with my girly drill. As a tip, if you find your blind seems a little lopsided once you hang it then hold the top frame and gently stretch it down. You'll want to do that a few times over the coming days because this is woven, natural materials and not manufactured to rigid behavior right out of the box. Work with it, gently; it will even out and settle in.Meanwhile, I am very happy with my purchase as it was just what I needed and expected.

Very nice except the plastic pieces break easy and can't find anywhere to replace them

These blinds are just what I was looking for! I put them up by myself. Went up in a flash (15mins), they look nice and again super easy to install and super easy to take down during super windy conditions. I mentioned the windy conditions because I I can't see these holding up well through a bad storm. They are super thin. In fact you can kind of tell by the pictures. They're a bit see-through which for some is okay, but I'm actually trying to block the view so I might get another set to hang up because it does do better blockage if you double up and they're super inexpensive so I don't see the being an issue. I had one minor flaw which one of the strings looks like it snapped or wasn't fully constructed. How it should have been easy fixed. I just took it, cut it and tied it properly and it's fine now. You can't even tell. Overall, for the price you can't beat it again. Super easy to install. I think it'll hold up at least during the summer and I did get additional hooks. The hooks that came with it were fine but I wanted something a little bit more substantial so I was able to find someone Amazon for about five bucks for six of them. I'll leave them more detail review as the season progresses to let you guys know how it holds up. For my porch is located it does get pretty windy so it ought to be interesting to see what happens. Oh one last thing. I noticed a lot of people complaining about size and measurements. My measured perfectly both of them and I ordered them separately. I ordered one and then forgot to order the other and I ordered it another time. So I might just be the luck of the draw but minor perfect size and just as described.

I bought two of these two years ago to cut the morning sun from a southeast-facing porch in New Hampshire. The house does not have AC and on hot summer mornings the porch quickly starts to heat the house too much. We had a very old split-bamboo blind that I loved, and I added two of these reed blinds to see if they would do well to extend the shade across more of the porch. They're great, so this year I bought two more to shade the whole side of the house. I roll them down in the morning and back up in the afternoon when the sun is off the porch. They cool the porch and by extension the house very significantly.They are pleasant enough to look at from outside, but the real score is that they're beautiful from the inside, very important as the view from our porch is lovely and there has to be some compensation for masking it! You can still sort of see the view through them, and I love the way the blinds split the light, and the streaky shadows they cast. At night, too, if they are rolled down they help turn the porch into a cozy extension of the living space--I strung a 24' string of warm-amber Edison-look LED bulbs along the rafters, and their light is very pretty against these blinds. My extremely opinionated extended family has had nothing but good things to say about the blinds.I hung them from large screw hooks and hung a cord from each hook that has a small loop at the end, adjusted to the right length to hold the blinds very tightly rolled out of the weather all winter. The little plastic hooks that come with the blinds are quite easy to use to adjust the blinds to different heights. I have to use a stepstool or a chair to put them up high.