Roller blinds built for the glare bouncing off the water

Sunscreen does the daily work

On a lounge that faces the beach square-on, a fine sunscreen mesh — usually 3–5% openness — is the roller most Strand units end up drawing every afternoon. It keeps the line to the surf and the sand while cutting the glare bounced straight back up off the water. Lower percentages block more heat and glare at the cost of a softer view; most beachfront lounges land at 3–5%, though top-floor units catching the sun square-on sometimes want it lower again.

Blockout, and the double-roller answer for bedrooms

Bedrooms want the opposite problem solved — full dark, regardless of what the promenade lights are doing after sunset. A single blockout roller does that on its own. A double roller (day/night) pairs a blockout fabric with a sunscreen on the same bracket, so the room gets a filtered sea view by day and total privacy at night without swapping blinds. Blockout fabric also works as a genuine thermal layer, taking the edge off a unit that traps heat in summer and loses it fast once the wind gets up in winter.

Fitted for a south-facing coastline that still catches the sun

Strand's beachfront units mostly face south across False Bay — shaded through the middle of the day, but not at the edges of it. Cape summer pushes sunrise and sunset well south of due east and west, so that "shaded" south wall still takes direct, low sun for the first and last hour of daylight. We size sunscreen and blockout rollers for that dawn-and-dusk exposure rather than assuming a south aspect needs nothing. Chain and cord tensioners are fitted as standard on anything corded, and near a balcony door we lean towards battery motorisation and a sealed cassette rather than an open bracket — what actually survives salt spray and fine airborne sand on this frontage.