What Window Blinds and Shades Cost in St. Louis

Revised August 21, 2026

Imagine it’s a Saturday in Town and Country and the west-facing living room has turned into a greenhouse by two o’clock. The bedsheet you thumbtacked over the window back in June is still up there. You finally sit down to price real blinds, open three tabs, and get numbers that run from $18 a window to $900 a window. Both are real prices. Neither one tells you what your house is going to cost.

Maybe you just closed on a brick two-story off Grand, or a 1990s ranch in Mehlville, or a new build out past Weldon Spring. The window count is roughly the same in all three. The bill will not be. A blinds quote is really three prices stacked together — the product, the measuring, and the mounting — and nobody at the counter separates them for you unless you ask.

So here are the numbers as they stand right now, which of them are national averages you should adjust before you budget, and where the money quietly leaks out in older St. Louis housing.

How much do blinds typically cost?

Nationally, blinds run about $55 to $170 per window installed — roughly $40 to $120 in materials plus $15 to $50 in labor — according to Angi’s 2026 blinds installation cost guide. Angi puts a typical eight-window job at $211 to $1,343, with an average of $760. Those are national figures, not St. Louis quotes.

That range is wide because it spans two different products. A ready-made 1-inch aluminum blind off a big-box shelf and a made-to-order faux wood blind with a decorative valance are both “blinds,” and they are not remotely the same purchase. Angi’s broader 2026 window treatments cost data stretches from about $30 per window for a basic horizontal slat blind up to $600 per window for custom work in a better material.

What moves the number locally is mostly labor and access, not fabric. A metro installer working off a ladder over a stair landing in Lafayette Square prices differently than one hanging eight identical openings in a Wentzville subdivision. Ask for the labor line separately. If a quote arrives as one lump sum, you cannot tell which half of it is negotiable.

What does it cost to cover a whole house?

Budget per window, multiply, then add a contingency for the two or three odd openings every house has. Angi’s 2026 data averages $760 for about eight windows in stock-grade product. Push those same eight to custom sizing and better materials at $200 to $600 apiece and the job lands somewhere around $1,600 to $4,800.

Most St. Louis houses are not eight-window houses. A center-hall two-story in Kirkwood or Webster Groves often has 18 to 24 openings once you count the basement, the stair landing and the sunroom. At even $120 a window that is a $2,200 project. At custom pricing it is a five-figure conversation. Which is exactly why almost nobody does the whole house at once.

Phase it instead. Cover the rooms where privacy and glare actually hurt — bedrooms, the west-facing living room, the kitchen sink window — and leave the guest room and the basement on stock product or bare for a season. Splitting the order across two seasons also lets you find out whether you like living with the product before you commit to twenty of them.

Which is cheaper, blinds or shades?

Blinds are cheaper at the entry level, because a basic aluminum or vinyl slat blind is the least expensive thing on the wall. The gap closes fast, though. Cellular shades run about $70 to $350 per window installed and custom shades $250 to $2,600 per window installed, per HomeGuide’s 2026 window shades cost data — a band that overlaps mid-range blinds almost entirely.

The real cost fork is not blinds versus shades. It is stock versus custom. Stock means the unit was substantially built before it ever reached the store, in fixed widths, and you either fit it or you do not. Custom means it is manufactured to your opening. Custom is where the price roughly triples, and it is also the only road open once your window is not a standard size.

One honest wrinkle. A stock blind two inches too narrow costs you nothing in dollars and everything in daylight, because the gap down each side is exactly where the sun arrives at 6 a.m. in June. Plenty of people buy stock twice and custom once. Measure first, then decide which you are.

Why do window coverings cost more in an older St. Louis house?

Because older openings are rarely square, rarely standard, and rarely repeatable. The St. Louis, MO-IL metro has a median home age of 50 years against a national median of 43, according to Construction Coverage’s American Cities With the Oldest Homes study, updated March 23, 2026 and built on the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey. Older stock means more custom sizing.

In a brick house in Benton Park or a frame four-square in Maplewood, the same nominal window can measure a quarter inch different at the top than at the bottom. Custom blinds are cut to the narrowest of three measurements, so an out-of-square opening either gets a light gap or gets outside-mounted. Plaster over lath adds its own tax: anchors that grab fine in drywall crumble the plaster key, so the installer has to hit wood casing instead.

Then there are the shapes. A bay window in Compton Heights or Shaw is three or five separate coverings, not one, and the angled returns mean brackets set on a diagonal. Transoms over the front door, arched openings, and the tall narrow flankers beside a stair window are all custom-only. Sunrooms and enclosed porches out in Belleville and Alton bring the same problem in different packaging: extra-wide spans.

Extra width carries its own upcharge. Past roughly 72 inches most manufacturers move you to a heavier headrail, and past a certain span they will not build a single unit at all — you get two on a shared bracket, which means two lift mechanisms and two prices. A 96-inch patio slider is not two 48-inch blinds worth of money. It is more.

The old sash matters too. Original wood windows often have a shallow jamb depth, and an inside-mount blind needs a minimum depth to sit flush. Below that you are outside-mounting on the trim, which changes the look and adds material because the covering has to overlap the opening on all four sides. If the windows themselves are the actual problem and you are weighing replacement, that is a different project with different math — our guide to choosing a window company in St. Louis covers it.

Do motorized blinds cost a lot more?

Yes — figure $200 to $300 more per window than the manual version. Motorized blinds run about $300 to $1,000 per window installed nationally, per HomeGuide’s 2026 motorized blinds cost data, with motorized roller and cellular shades sitting at the affordable end of that band. Installation alone runs $50 to $250 per window depending on type and power source.

Power source is the hidden fork. Battery wands are the cheap path and add nothing to the install, but somebody has to recharge or swap them every few months, times however many windows you did. Hardwired motors mean running low-voltage cable, and in a finished century-old house that means fishing wire through plaster or opening a wall. That is the moment a blinds job stops being a blinds job.

Motorization earns its money in three places: windows you physically cannot reach, extra-wide or extra-tall units that are genuinely heavy to lift by hand, and rooms where you want the coverings on a schedule. Motorizing every window in the house because it looked good in the showroom is how a $2,500 project turns into an $8,000 one.

Unrelated, and we know it — dead outlet? Find a St. Louis electrician.

What do measuring and installation actually cost?

Labor runs $15 to $50 per window on stock product per Angi’s 2026 data, and $50 to $250 per window on shades depending on type and power source per HomeGuide’s 2026 figures. Removing and hauling off the old blinds adds another $10 to $30 per window, a line most people forget until the invoice lands.

Measuring is usually free from a dealer, and that is not charity. A free in-home measure is a sales call, and it is also insurance: when the shop measures, the shop owns the mistake, and a unit that comes back wrong gets remade at their cost. When you measure, you own it. Custom blinds are cut to your number and are not returnable, so a self-measured order that lands a half inch wide is a total loss.

Two things belong in writing before you sign: whether any measure fee is credited back against the order, and what the remake policy is when a unit arrives out of spec. Those two answers are worth more than a ten percent discount on the fabric.

Sales tax is a real line on a four-figure order, and it is charged where the seller is. Missouri’s state sales and use tax rate is 4.225 percent, with cities, counties and special districts stacking local rates on top, per the Missouri Department of Revenue. Illinois taxes window coverings as general merchandise under its own state rate, with home rule and district add-ons layered on, per the Illinois Department of Revenue. If you live in Edwardsville and are shopping a showroom in Chesterfield, ask for tax broken out before you compare quotes side by side.

Do cellular shades actually lower your energy bills?

They measurably help, and the U.S. Department of Energy has the numbers. In an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study, cellular shades saved up to 20 percent on heating energy and up to 15 percent on total heating and cooling energy compared with no shades at all, per the DOE factsheet Interior Cellular Shades Boost Home Energy Performance (DOE/EE-2519, October 2021).

Two caveats, stated plainly. That testing ran in a research house in Knoxville, Tennessee from December 2019 to May 2020 and was then modeled across 15 climate zones for a 2,380-square-foot home. It is not a measurement of your house on a January night in Ferguson. The same factsheet also notes the experiments focused on the heating season, with more research needed on cooling-season control strategies.

The mechanism still travels well to a Missouri winter. Cellular shades trap air inside the honeycomb cells and in the pocket between shade and glass, which cuts nighttime heat loss and the cold draft that pools at the floor under an old window. That same DOE factsheet reports window attachments can save about 15 percent of a household’s annual heating and cooling energy compared with vinyl blinds — and vinyl or metal blinds are roughly 60 percent of what is hanging in American homes.

Fit is the whole game. A cellular shade with a two-inch gap down each side is a decorative object. If you want the insulating effect you want a tight inside mount, and on the coldest windows you want side channels or a valance that closes off the top, both of which cost extra. To compare products on measured performance instead of showroom claims, look for a rating label from the Attachments Energy Rating Council, the nonprofit DOE points consumers toward for exactly this.

If your problem is summer solar heat rather than winter draft, coverings are not the only lever — the companion piece on home window tinting in St. Louis handles the film side of that question.

Is there a tax credit for energy efficient blinds or shades?

No, on two separate counts. Window coverings were never listed as qualifying property under the federal 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit. The IRS building envelope list covers exterior doors, windows, skylights, insulation and air sealing — not shades, blinds or other window attachments.

And 25C is gone regardless. Under Public Law 119-21, enacted July 4, 2025, the IRS states in its official FAQ that the credit will not be allowed for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025. If a salesperson tells you your shades qualify for a federal credit, that is wrong twice over.

Utility rebate programs are a separate question and they change from year to year, so check your own provider’s current residential rebate list rather than taking a showroom’s word for it. Buy cellular shades because they cut drafts and shave the heating bill, not because you are counting on a refund in April.

Are corded blinds still sold, and does cordless cost more?

Ready-made blinds sold off the shelf have had to be cordless, have inaccessible cords, or have cords no longer than 8 inches since the ANSI/WCMA A100.1-2018 standard took effect December 15, 2018, as documented in the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Federal Register rulemaking of November 28, 2022. Made-to-order custom products were the gap.

The reason is not academic. In that same rulemaking, CPSC said it was aware of 209 fatal and near-miss strangulations on window covering cords among children eight years old and younger between January 2009 and December 2021. If there is a crawler or a toddler in the house, cordless in every room they can reach is not an upgrade tier. It is the floor.

The regulatory picture is genuinely messy, and it is worth saying so. CPSC issued a federal rule extending the cordless requirements to custom window coverings, but a federal appeals court vacated that rule in September 2023 after a challenge from the Window Covering Manufacturers Association. The industry then moved to the voluntary ANSI/WCMA A100.1-2022 standard, which WCMA says took effect June 1, 2024 and eliminates free-hanging operating cords on made-to-order products. So the requirement on custom today comes from the industry standard rather than a federal regulation, and it is fair to ask a dealer to confirm in writing that what you are ordering meets it.

On price: CPSC noted that after the stock market shifted to cordless in 2018, sales of stock products actually rose even though prices in some cases doubled. Expect cordless lift to be baked into anything current rather than sold as a cheap add-on, and treat a bargain corded unit from old inventory as the tradeoff it plainly is.

Where is the most affordable place to get blinds?

Cheapest to most expensive, there are four channels: ready-made stock off a big-box shelf, cut-to-size stock trimmed in store, cut-to-size ordered online from your own measurements, and a local dealer who measures and installs. Each step up buys fit and accountability, and Angi’s 2026 spread of roughly $30 to $600 per window is essentially that ladder.

Ready-made works when your openings are standard and you can live with a gap. In-store cutting is the sweet spot for a lot of St. Louis County ranches and newer builds in O’Fallon on either side of the river, where the windows really are uniform. Ordering cut-to-size online is the cheapest route to an exact width, and the highest-risk one, because the moment you supply the measurement you own every error in it.

A local dealer costs the most per window and is the only channel that solves bays, arches, transoms, oversized sliders and out-of-square plaster openings. On those windows a dealer is often cheaper in real terms, because the alternative is buying the wrong thing twice. Mixing channels inside one house is completely normal — stock in the bedrooms, dealer on the front bay.

What this looks like from the blind shop’s side of the counter

The product is not where the money is. Fabric and hardware come from a handful of manufacturers on set dealer pricing, so a small shop in Maryland Heights and one in Belleville are quoting off very similar cost sheets. What separates them is measure-and-install — labor they control, and the one part of the sale a customer cannot do at 11 p.m. on a phone. That is why the free in-home measure exists: it is the point where a local operator can out-serve a website.

It is also where the losses live. A custom unit is cut to a number and cannot be resold, so remakes come straight out of margin. The quiet complaint in this trade is the customer who measures their own openings, orders wrong, and expects the dealer to eat it. Seasonality is lumpy too: spring and early summer move with home sales and move-ins, there is a real push before the holidays when company is coming, and January and February run thin enough that many shops lean on property managers, apartment turns and small commercial work to bridge the gap.

Homeowners here search by neighborhood and by problem, not by brand, so a complete listing with a real service area and current photos is how a shop turns up in that search at all. If you run one, you can get listed on St Louis Near Me Directory.

Frequently asked questions

How much do shades typically cost?

Cellular shades run about $70 to $350 per window installed, and custom shades $250 to $2,600 per window installed, according to HomeGuide’s 2026 window shades cost data. Ready-made shades cost a fraction of that. The spread comes down to whether the shade is built to your exact opening, the fabric opacity you choose, and whether the lift is manual or motorized.

Are shades cheaper than blinds?

Usually not at the entry level. The least expensive thing on the wall is a basic aluminum or vinyl slat blind, and shades start higher than that. From mid-range up, the two overlap almost completely, and the bigger price driver becomes stock versus custom sizing rather than the shade-or-blind decision itself.

Is it better to have blinds or shades?

Blinds win where you want to tilt slats for light and view without opening fully — kitchens, home offices, street-facing rooms. Shades win on insulation, on softness, and on wide openings where slat blinds get heavy to lift. For a cold St. Louis bedroom window in February, a tightly fitted cellular shade does more than any slat blind will.

What are the drawbacks of cellular shades?

The honeycomb cells collect dust and cannot be wiped down like a hard slat, so cleaning means a vacuum brush attachment. There is no tilt option, so it is open or closed with nothing in between. Cordless lift mechanisms wear out over years of daily use, and top-down bottom-up hardware roughly doubles the cost per window.

What are the disadvantages of blackout shades?

Light still leaks around the edges unless you add side channels, which cost extra, so an inside-mounted blackout shade is rarely truly black. Heat builds up in the pocket between the shade and the glass on a south or west exposure. And with no partial setting that keeps a view, a blackout shade makes daylight in that room an all-or-nothing choice.

How much do blinds cost generally?

As a whole project rather than a single window, Angi’s 2026 data puts a typical eight-window blinds job at $211 to $1,343, averaging $760 in stock-grade product. Custom sizing and better materials at $200 to $600 per window push those same eight openings to roughly $1,600 to $4,800 before any motorization is added.

Does Lowes cut blinds for free?

Lowe’s advertises free in-store cutting on eligible cut-to-size blinds bought there, notably its Levolor Trim+Go line, trimmed to the measurement you bring in. It will not cut blinds purchased elsewhere and does not cut at your home. Program details and eligible product lines change, so call the store before you drive out with numbers.

Does Costco sell blinds or shades?

Yes. Costco sells custom blinds, shades and shutters to members through partner programs listed under its Home & Installation Services, including an in-home measure and installation rather than an over-the-counter purchase. Because it is a custom order, treat the pricing the way you would any dealer quote and confirm the remake policy before you sign.

Should blinds be lighter or darker than the walls?

A covering slightly lighter than the wall makes a window read larger and keeps a small room from closing in. Darker reads as a deliberate frame and hides dust better. There is a cost angle too: standard white and alabaster are almost always the cheapest colorways, and specialty colors, stains and fabric upgrades carry an upcharge per window.

About the Author: The St Louis Near Me Directory Team
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.

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