To install a roller blind, you fix two brackets to the wall or inside the window recess, clip the blind's tube into them, and attach the chain's child-safety device. The blind itself takes minutes. The part that decides whether it actually works, blocking light, giving privacy, sitting flat, is the measuring and the choice between fitting it inside the recess or on the wall in front of it.
The single biggest installation choice is whether the blind sits inside the window recess (reveal fit) or on the wall and architrave in front of the opening (face fit). Reveal fit is the default for around 90% of windows where there's room, because it looks neat and tucked-in. Face fit is the right call when you want maximum darkness or privacy, or when the recess is too shallow or obstructed to take a blind.
The trade-off is light. A reveal-fitted blind always leaves small gaps down each side, because the blind has to be a touch narrower than the recess to operate. In a bedroom, those side gaps let in dawn light. A face-fitted blind, fixed wider than the opening and over the architrave, covers those gaps and cuts direct light far more effectively.
The fit type drives how the blind is measured, so it's worth settling before anything else. For a full breakdown, see how to measure roller blinds.
The usual reason a roller blind fails isn't a botched install, it's a measuring mistake made before ordering. A made-to-measure blind can't be resized once it's cut, so this is the step to get right first.
The mistakes fall into two groups. The first is simple clerical slips, adding or dropping 100mm, swapping width and height, or mixing centimetres and millimetres. The second, and trickier, is missing an obstruction: sliding door handles, window mullions, bulkheads above the opening, or skirting and tiles that protrude at the bottom and catch the bottom rail.
The surface behind the bracket, timber, brick, or gyprock (plasterboard), needs a different fixing approach, and getting this wrong is how brackets pull loose. Timber and brick hold screws well in most spots. Gyprock is the catch: it won't hold a screw reliably on its own, so the blind has to be measured to land its fixings on the solid timber studs or noggins behind the plasterboard, or use appropriate wall anchors.
A single roller blind runs to about 3,200mm wide, limited by fabric width. For wider spans, a big sliding door, say, splitting the opening into multiple blinds beats forcing one oversized blind. Be wary of claims of a single 4-metre roller: that's usually "railroaded" fabric run sideways against the weave, which tends to shadow and curl. Any roller over roughly 2 metres naturally tries to bow in the centre, which is why bottom-rail weight matters on wide blinds.
Bay windows are a compromise for rollers, because a roller is a flat panel, a bay forces a trade-off between corner gaps and end gaps, so light control and privacy suffer. Plantation shutters, a curtain on a bent track, or honeycomb blinds usually serve a bay better than rollers. In a rear-facing lounge or sunroom where light control matters less, rollers on a bay are far less of an issue. Our guide on are roller blinds right for bay windows covers this in full.
Once the measuring and fit-type decisions are made, the physical install is the easy part. You mount the two brackets, a control side, where the chain or motor sits, and a non-control (pin) side, level and at the right spacing for the blind. The tube clips in: locate the pin end first, push gently towards its spring, then seat the control side. Finally, attach the chain's child-safety device to the wall and tension it. That safety device isn't optional, it keeps the chain secured and out of reach, and it keeps the chain tensioned so the blind runs smoothly.
If the fabric hangs unevenly once it's up, stop and check the brackets are level rather than forcing the blind to operate. A blind that won't sit straight is almost always telling you the brackets aren't level or aren't the right distance apart.
Fitting a roller blind is quick; the decisions that make it work happen before you drill, fit type, size, and fabric.
Reveal fit (inside the recess) is the neat default; face fit (on the wall over the opening) blocks far more light and is best for bedrooms.
Most blinds disappoint because of a measuring mistake, see the measuring guide before you order.
The surface you fix into matters: gyprock especially needs fixings landed on solid studs, not just the plasterboard.
A single roller maxes out around 3,200mm; wider spans should be split rather than stretched.If you'd rather have someone measure every window, check what you're fixing into, and handle the install so it all sits flat and does its job, that's exactly what we're here for. Book your free measure and quote and we'll take care of it from start to finish.
Inside the recess (reveal fit) suits most windows and gives the neatest, built-in look, it's the default for around 90% of windows with enough depth. Outside, on the wall over the opening (face fit), is better when you want maximum darkness or privacy, because it covers the side light gaps a reveal fit always leaves. Bedrooms usually benefit from face fitting.
A reveal-fitted blind has to sit slightly narrower than the recess to operate, so it always leaves small side gaps. To cut that light, face-fit the blind on the wall over the opening so it overlaps the sides, and consider a pelmet to hide the roll. No roller is perfectly blockout, but face fitting blocks direct light far better than reveal fitting.
Yes, but you can't just screw into the plasterboard and trust it to hold. Locate the solid timber studs or noggins behind the gyprock and position your brackets to fix into them, or use wall anchors rated for the load.
Locate the pin (non-control) end into its bracket first, push gently towards its spring, then seat the control side. Once both ends are in, attach and tension the chain's child-safety device to the wall. If the fabric hangs unevenly, the brackets aren't level, fix that rather than forcing the blind.
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