Hear from Our Customers
Your patio becomes usable again. Not just tolerable for twenty minutes before everyone retreats inside, but actually comfortable enough to sit, eat, and relax without sweating through your shirt.
Your energy bill drops. Exterior roller shades stop heat before it hits your windows, which means your AC isn’t fighting a losing battle all afternoon. Fort Worth homeowners regularly see cooling cost reductions around 15% after installation.
Your furniture stops fading. UV rays don’t just make your porch unbearable, they destroy anything you leave out there. Outdoor shade blinds with 96% UV resistance keep your cushions, rugs, and even indoor furniture near windows from bleaching out every summer.
You get privacy without losing your view. Tinted roller shades let you see out while blocking the view in. No more feeling like you’re on display every time you step onto your covered patio.
And you’re not dealing with bugs. Retractable outdoor shades create a barrier that keeps flies, mosquitoes, and birds out of your space without turning it into a cave.
A Plus Shutters & Shades started as a construction company serving Arlington and Fort Worth over ten years ago. We know how homes are built here, what the climate does to materials, and what actually holds up.
We’re not a franchise following a script. We’re local, we stock Texas-made products, and our installers have done this enough times to handle the weird angles, the older homes, and the custom requests without making it a production.
Fort Worth gets hot differently than other places. The afternoon sun sits on west-facing patios for hours. The heat doesn’t let up until October. We size and install exterior window blinds based on that reality, not a national average.
You schedule a consultation and we come to you. We measure your space, talk about how you use it, and figure out what type of outdoor patio blind makes sense. Motorized, manual, blackout, or tinted—it depends on your setup and what you’re trying to solve.
We don’t push products. If a roller shade isn’t the right fit, we’ll tell you. If your patio needs something else entirely, we’ll say that too.
Once you approve the quote, we order your custom shades. These aren’t off-the-shelf. They’re built to your exact measurements using materials designed for Texas weather—aluminum powder-coated frames, UV-resistant fabric, and hardware that won’t corrode or seize up after one summer.
Installation usually takes a few hours depending on how many openings we’re covering. Our team handles the mounting, ensures everything operates smoothly, and walks you through how to use and maintain your new shades. If you went with motorized options, we’ll sync them with your phone or smart home system before we leave.
You’re covered by our workmanship warranty. If something’s not right, we come back and fix it.
Ready to get started?
Every exterior roller shade we install is custom-measured for your space. We’re not trimming down a standard size and hoping it fits. You get shades built specifically for your patio, porch, or pergola.
You choose the fabric. Blackout roller shades if you want total sun blockage and temperature control. Tinted outdoor shade blinds if you want to keep the view while cutting glare and heat. We’ll show you samples and explain what works best for west-facing exposure, which is brutal in Fort Worth.
Motorization is available on every system. Somfy motors integrate with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings, so you can control your shades with your voice or phone. You can also set schedules—lower them automatically when the afternoon sun hits, raise them when it cools off.
The frames are powder-coated aluminum. They won’t rust, warp, or need repainting. The fabric is rated for high UV resistance and designed to handle wind, rain, and the temperature swings we get between July and January.
Installation includes mounting, operation testing, and a walkthrough. If you’re adding shades to multiple openings, we coordinate the install so everything gets done in one trip. You’re not waiting around for follow-up appointments.
Exterior roller shades can cut your cooling costs by around 15%, sometimes more depending on how much sun your home takes. The key difference is that they block heat before it reaches your windows, which is way more effective than interior blinds.
When sun hits a window, the glass heats up and radiates that warmth into your home. Your AC has to work harder to compensate, especially during those long stretches of triple-digit days Fort Worth gets every summer. Outdoor roller shades stop that heat outside, so your interior stays cooler without your system running constantly.
The savings add up fast. A lot of homeowners calculate that their shades pay for themselves within three summers just from the reduction in energy bills. That’s not even counting the comfort factor or the fact that your AC unit isn’t getting beaten up as hard, which can extend its lifespan.
Blackout roller shades block everything—light, heat, and visibility. They’re the right call if you want maximum temperature control and total privacy. When they’re down, your patio is shaded completely, which can drop the temperature by up to 30 degrees compared to full sun exposure.
Tinted outdoor shade blinds let some light through while still blocking the majority of UV rays and heat. You can see out, but people can’t see in. They’re popular for patios where you want to keep the view and some natural light without turning the space into an oven.
Most Fort Worth homeowners go with tinted shades because they still want to enjoy the outdoors, just without the brutal sun and lack of privacy. But if your patio faces directly west and gets hammered every afternoon, blackout might make more sense. We’ll walk you through both options when we come out so you can see the fabric samples and decide what fits your space better.
It’s possible, but it’s easier and cheaper to install motorization from the start. Retrofitting motors into existing manual shades usually means replacing parts of the system, which can cost almost as much as starting with motorized in the first place.
If you’re on the fence about motorization, think about how often you’ll actually use the shades. If you’re going to be raising and lowering them daily based on the sun or weather, motors make life a lot easier. You can set schedules, control them from inside the house, or integrate them with your smart home system.
Manual operation works fine if you’re only adjusting them occasionally or if you’re trying to keep the upfront cost down. The shades function the same either way—motorization is purely about convenience. Just know that adding it later isn’t a simple flip of a switch.
They’re built for it. The frames are powder-coated aluminum, which won’t rust or corrode even with our humidity and sudden storms. The fabric is UV-resistant and designed to handle high heat without breaking down or fading.
Wind is usually the bigger concern. Most outdoor patio blinds are rated for wind speeds up to around 30-40 mph when they’re deployed. If a storm’s coming through with stronger gusts, you’ll want to retract them. Motorized systems make that easy—you can raise them from your phone even if you’re not home.
We’ve installed thousands of these across Fort Worth and the surrounding area over the past decade. The systems that fail are usually the cheap ones people buy online and try to install themselves. Quality materials and proper installation make all the difference when you’re dealing with Texas summers and the occasional hailstorm.
Yes, but it takes custom work. Older homes in Fort Worth weren’t always built with covered patios or standard opening sizes, so off-the-shelf solutions don’t fit. That’s why we measure and build every system to your exact specs.
If your patio has angled supports, irregular spacing, or non-standard dimensions, we account for that in the design. The shades are fabricated to fit your space, not the other way around. We’ve handled everything from 1950s bungalows with narrow porches to new builds with massive outdoor living areas.
The installation process is the same regardless of your home’s age. We mount the hardware securely to your existing structure, make sure the shades operate smoothly, and test everything before we leave. If there’s a structural issue that needs addressing first, we’ll tell you upfront—we’ve got a decade of construction experience, so we know what to look for.
From consultation to installation, you’re usually looking at two to three weeks. That includes the time it takes to measure your space, fabricate the custom shades, and schedule the install.
The actual installation is quick—a few hours for most patios, longer if you’re covering multiple openings or adding motorization to several shades. We don’t drag it out over multiple days. We show up, mount everything, test the operation, and walk you through how to use and maintain your new outdoor roller shades.
If you’re in a rush, let us know during the consultation. We can sometimes expedite orders depending on the time of year and what we’ve got in the queue. Spring and early summer are our busiest seasons since that’s when Fort Worth homeowners realize they can’t use their patios anymore, so booking earlier in the year usually means faster turnaround.
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