IKEA Blinds Review: Which Lines Can Be Cut to Fit (2026)

Start with the window, not with the brand

If you are searching for IKEA blinds, you are probably not asking whether the fabric is pleasant. You are asking something narrower and far more practical: will a boxed, stocked, standard-size blind actually fit the window you are standing in front of?

That is the question this page answers. Everything below is taken from IKEA's own US product pages and its US blinds category page, read and checked in September 2026, rather than from first-hand use. Prices and stocked sizes are quoted as IKEA listed them on that date. IKEA changes both, and its range differs by country, so treat every number here as a snapshot of the US range and re-check the page before you buy.

The short version: IKEA sells a small set of blind lines in a fixed grid of stocked widths, most of them running from 23 to 48 inches. Some of those lines can be cut down to a narrower width within a stated limit. Several state plainly that they cannot be cut at all. And none of them, as listed, give you a choice of drop. Whether IKEA is right for your window comes down almost entirely to which of those three facts your opening collides with.

What the US range actually contains right now

IKEA's US blinds category in September 2026 lists roller blinds, cellular blinds, pleated shades, one Roman blind line and one Venetian blind line. No vertical blind line appears in that category. If you arrived here searching for IKEA vertical blinds, the range as listed does not include them; the nearest thing IKEA stocks is the VECKLARFLY Venetian blind, which uses horizontal aluminum slats about 1 3/8 inches wide and a tilt wand.

Similarly, the range as listed is a grid of fixed stocked sizes. No made-to-measure or built-to-order configurator appears on the category page or on any of the product pages checked. So a search for "IKEA custom blinds" is really a search for "can I force a stocked IKEA blind onto an odd window," and the honest answer is: sometimes, by cutting, within a stated limit, and only on some lines.

Here is the line-up, with each price bound to the exact size and finish the page was quoting. Prices move, and two finishes of the same line can differ by a lot, so the variant matters as much as the number.

Three more lines appear on the category page at the same check: TANDLUNDFLY, a double layered blind at about $60 for 34 x 98 1/2 in; RINGBLOMMA, a Roman blind at about $55 for white 48 x 63 in; and HORNVALLMO, a top-down bottom-up pleated shade at about $40 for white 34 x 51 1/4 in. Their individual product pages were not checked here, so their cutting behavior is left out of the table rather than guessed at. If one of those three is the line you want, read the cutting note on its own page before you commit.

The cut rule is the whole decision

This is the fact that should drive your choice, and it is the one the affiliate round-ups tend to flatten into a vague "IKEA blinds are easy to fit."

Three of IKEA's roller lines say on the page that the blind can be cut to the desired width, and all three attach the same hard limit: the top rail can be cut a maximum of 7 7/8 inches. That applies to FÖNSTERBLAD, FRIDANS and SANDVEDEL. FÖNSTERBLAD's page also spells out the method, which tells you how much of a project it is: fabric scissors for the fabric, and a metal saw for the tube and the bottom bar.

That 7 7/8 inch allowance is genuinely useful. It means the stocked grid is not really eight fixed widths but eight overlapping ranges, and between roughly 23 and 48 inches there is almost always a stocked size that can be brought down to your opening.

But the limit is one-directional and it is only about width. You cannot cut a blind wider. And nothing on any of the roller, cellular or Venetian pages checked says the drop can be shortened. FRIDANS, SANDVEDEL, TRETUR and TRIPPEVALS are all listed only at 76 3/4 inches long. FÖNSTERBLAD and VECKLARFLY are listed only at 61 inches. HOPPVALS is listed only at 64 inches. If your window is 40 inches tall, you are not buying a 40 inch blind. You are buying a 61 or 76 3/4 inch blind and living with the surplus rolled up at the top or pooling at the sill.

Then there is the other half of the range. TRETUR's page states flatly that the blind cannot be cut. So do HOPPVALS and TRIPPEVALS. VECKLARFLY's page says it is not suitable to cut. That means roughly half of IKEA's blind lines are strictly pick-from-the-grid: your window either matches a stocked width or it does not. TRETUR is the sharpest illustration, because it sits right next to FRIDANS in the catalog at a similar price and a matching 76 3/4 inch drop, and it is the one of the pair you cannot trim. Two blackout rollers, nearly interchangeable on the shelf, and completely different answers to "will it fit."

The fabric is narrower than the size on the box

Here is the detail that decides whether an IKEA roller blind works as an inside mount, and it is sitting in the specification block where almost nobody reads it.

IKEA lists two separate width figures for its roller blinds: width of roller, and width of fabric. They are not the same number. On the FRIDANS 48 inch white blind, IKEA's page lists a 46 inch fabric width on a 48 inch roller. On FÖNSTERBLAD and SANDVEDEL at 34 inches, the page lists a 32 1/2 inch fabric width on a 34 inch roller. On the TRETUR 48 inch white blind, the page lists 46 3/4 inches of fabric on a 48 inch roller.

So the advertised width is the hardware, and the fabric that actually covers your glass is roughly one and a quarter to two inches narrower, depending on the line and the size. Mount a 34 inch roller inside a 34 inch recess and you have not covered 34 inches of window; you have covered about 32 1/2, with the rest showing as light down both edges. That is not a defect. It is how roller hardware works, and custom sellers handle the same physics by making the fabric to your number and deducting for the brackets themselves. The difference is that a custom order absorbs the deduction for you, while a stocked blind hands it to you as a surprise.

This is exactly the arithmetic that trips people up, and it is worth reading the full explanation of how width deductions work before you order anything, IKEA or otherwise. It is also why the same window can need two different numbers depending on mount type, which is covered in the comparison of inside and outside mounting.

Note that these fabric figures came from the roller lines whose pages list both numbers. The cellular and Venetian pages checked did not publish a separate fabric width, so do not assume the same gap applies there.

Where IKEA is plainly the right answer

It would be easy to turn this into an argument for spending more, and for a lot of windows that would simply be wrong.

If your opening falls inside the stocked grid and you are mounting outside the recess, IKEA is very hard to beat. An outside mount does not need a precise fit; it needs enough overlap. A blackout roller at about $30 to $70, delivered in a box with two brackets, doing the same job as a $150 made-to-measure shade, is a sound purchase and the honest recommendation.

Renters should look at IKEA first, and specifically at SCHOTTIS. At about $5 for a 35 1/2 by 74 3/4 inch white pleated shade in recycled polyester, attached with an adhesive strip and no drilling, and cuttable to the desired size, it is the cheapest genuine privacy fix in any mainstream range. It is a temporary product and it looks like one, but a $5 shade you can cut with scissors and remove when you move out is the correct answer to a lot of rental windows. That logic extends further than SCHOTTIS, and the broader survey of what works in a rental without drilling covers the trade-offs.

IKEA also does two things quietly well that are worth crediting. Every line whose page states it is cordless or has the cord hidden inside the blind: the FÖNSTERBLAD, TRETUR and SANDVEDEL rollers, both cellular lines, and VECKLARFLY. That removes the looped-cord hazard around children without you paying extra for it. And the brackets are shared across lines: HOPPVALS and TRIPPEVALS use compatible fittings, and IKEA's pages also list SKOGSKLÖVER as bracket-compatible, so swapping a light-filtering cellular shade for a blackout one later does not mean drilling fresh holes. For a house full of standard windows that you expect to re-do in a few years, that is real value.

Where custom genuinely wins, and why

Custom is not a quality argument. On a $30 roller blind the fabric is fine and the mechanism is fine. Custom wins on geometry, and it wins in four specific situations.

Your opening is outside the stocked grid. The roller lines run about 23 to 48 inches. Narrower than 23 and there is nothing to cut down from. Wider than 48 and you are into two blinds side by side, with a seam of light where they meet. A made-to-measure order priced by the inch has no such edges, which is the main reason to look at made-to-measure roller shades for an awkward opening.

You need a true inside mount with no light gap. This is the fabric-width point above, turned into money. A custom seller takes your recess measurement, applies its own deduction, and cuts fabric so the covered area is what you asked for. A stocked blind cannot do that, because the fabric width was fixed in a factory before your window existed.

Your drop is unusual. Short basement windows, tall stairwell glass, anything meaningfully away from 61, 64 or 76 3/4 inches. A fixed drop is not a fit problem exactly, but a 76 3/4 inch blind on a 36 inch window looks wrong and never stops looking wrong.

You need a specific opacity or lift that the grid does not carry. IKEA gives you blackout, light-filtering and sheer. It does not give you a numbered openness factor for solar screen fabric, a dual sheer, or a motorized lift. If glare on a screen is the actual problem, the openness percentage matters more than the brand, and that is worth resolving with physical swatches. Ordering free fabric samples before committing is the cheapest way to avoid buying the wrong opacity twice. Where you want slats rather than fabric and a finish IKEA does not carry, the wider selection of custom blinds is where the real choice lives.

A five-minute way to decide

Measure the opening width at the top, middle and bottom, and the height at left, center and right. Take the smallest width and the largest height. Then work down this list.

One. Is the smallest width between 23 and 48 inches? If no, IKEA's roller and cellular lines are out and you are buying custom. Note too that the sheer SANDVEDEL is listed only up to 36 inches, so a wide window narrows you to the blackout rollers.

Two. Does that width match a stocked size exactly, or sit within 7 7/8 inches below one? If it matches exactly, any line works. If it needs trimming, you are restricted to FÖNSTERBLAD, FRIDANS or SANDVEDEL, and you are doing the cut yourself with a metal saw.

Three. Is this an inside mount? If yes, subtract the fabric gap. On the roller lines that publish both figures, fabric runs roughly one and a quarter to two inches narrower than the roller, depending on the line and the size. Decide now whether that strip of light on each side is acceptable, because it will not become acceptable later.

Four. Is your height close to the fixed drop? Excess length is tolerable at the top of the roll and ugly at the sill.

Five. Do you need something IKEA does not stock at all, such as a vertical blind, a motorized lift, or a specified screen openness? Then the decision was made for you at step one.

If you get through all five and IKEA still fits, buy the IKEA blind. That is the correct outcome for a large share of standard American windows, and no amount of comparison content should talk you out of a $30 solution that works. If step one or step three knocked you out, that is the point where paying by the inch starts earning its price. The measuring technique matters either way, and the step-by-step method for measuring a roller shade applies equally to a boxed blind and a custom order.