7 ft. wide blinds for Lanai sections
 

Help! I went to Lowes and found out the inexpensive bamboo outdoor roll up shades only come in 6 ft. and 8 ft. widths. My screened lanai has two 7 ft. wide sections. We are going to eventually enclose the lanai in a year so I do not want to invest in expensive shades but we do have a western exposure on our lanai and no privacy in the rear of our home, so blinds are our temporary solution. Does anyone have any ideas as to what to do?

We have the same problem. we put up curtain rods and I put up panels. they can be opened or closed. Everyone loves the look.

Can't Lowes trim the bamboo shades to 7 ft? If I remember they trimmed some blinds for me a while ago.

Z

I was thinking the same thing. We need shade for an hour or so on the lanai and I am still NOT convinced that screens that you can see through will keep the sun off of you. What are those screens called? Cooleroos! They aren't cheap either. I am still trying to think how to do it without spending a bundle. We are still possibly thinking about enclosing the lanai.

I bought the inexpensive bamboo blinds and cut them myself. It takes a little measuring and a good scissors.

I was in the exact situation as the OP. We are also going to expand our lanai, so I didn't want a big investment, but we put a hot tub in and I wanted some privacy. Lowe's will not cut the blinds for you, nor will HD. You could maybe find a 3 ft and a 4 ft, if you don't mind the "look" being a bit off. That's what we did with the plastic mini-blinds from Walmart. They are very cheap, and they will work for a while until we expand and I do something custom.

I also considered doing rods and curtains, as mentioned. I love the look, but I tried it on one side, and the breeze was a bit much, or if we had the ceiling fan on, they billowed out. You can tie them back to avoid that, but then when you untie to have the privacy....we didn't have a solution for that.

Exactly what I was going to say. They should be able to trim them.

Well my husband balked at the idea of curtains but I thought it might look kinda chic. So, I finally ordered the inexpensive bamboo roll up shades from Lowes today in 6 ft. and 8 ft. lengths and we will work with it. Nothing is perfect in this life!

We bought the plastic roll-ups and they lasted about a year which sounds great for what you are looking for. By the end of the year we took them down. Pieces were missing from the ends which broke off during the wind storms. We replaced them with cooleraroos which just happened to fit our openings perfectly. They are brown and do a fine job of keeping the sun filtered on our lanai. They also look very finished and stylish. We tie them down with matching tie-downs we bought at Sparrs. We get lots of compliments on them and have had them over a year already and they look great.

Try select blinds.com
They have solar shades with free shipping ,buy 3 get 1 free and 30% off, they are a good company and will help with size.