I bought 4 of these roman shades for my children's bedrooms. They were finicky to install, but once up they worked great as blackout shades. I have had them now for 2 years, and only 2 of the 4 are still working as they should. The problem seems to be that the roller spring eventually wears out or the mechanism loosens so that two now don't roll back up well (or at all). I am now shopping for new black out shades. They were nice looking, too bad they didn't last very long.