The Roman shades are just what we were looking for! They block out light well, and they go up and down with ease. The reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is because they arrived in a beat up box, so one side of the panel is bent and does not stay down all the way. The left side (which is bent), always causes the shade to creep up and inward a little more than the other side when the shade is pulled down (tried to include pics of this, but it may be difficult to tell). 

Just FYI The color of the shade is lighter than it appears in the picture. They are a silvery gray color that does have a bit of a slightly bluish light gray look to it.