A Roman blind includes a panel having a plurality of battens attached thereto. Each of the battens includes a rear slot, with at least one control band extending along a rear surface of the panel. Raising a lower end of the at least one control band causes the blind to be raised and lowering a lower end of the at least one control band causes the blind to be lowered. One or more band guides are mounted in the rear slot of one or more of the battens. The one or more band guides mounted in the rear slot of a batten that is not a lowermost batten is/are mounted for slidable movement within the rear slot so that the one or more band guides float in the rear slot. The position of the band guides is self-adjusting. Manufacturing of the blind is consequently less complex.

A covering for an architectural opening has a dual cord operating system. The covering may include a head rail, blind panels depending from the head rail, and an operating system. The operating system may include a housing connected to the head rail, a first drive assembly rotatably mounted within the housing and operable to move the blind panels between an extended configuration and a retracted configuration, and a second drive assembly rotatably mounted within the housing and operable to move the blind panels between a closed configuration and an open configuration.

A system for biasing or encouraging a sheet of material to gather in one direction when one edge of the sheet of material is moved toward an opposite edge of the sheet of material is provided. A plurality of strips of material may extend along a face of the sheet of material and may be laminated to the face of the sheet of material. The plurality of strips of material may overlap each other and may define stiffened regions extending along the overlapped interface between the plurality of strips of material. When the covering is moved from an extended position to a retracted position, the sheet of material may gather in loops of material that may have apexes defined at or adjacent the overlapped interfaces of the plurality of strips of material.

An attachment member for coupling a shade material of an architectural covering to a rail member. The attachment member may include a first portion arranged to perform a first function affecting the shade material in a first manner, and a second portion arranged to perform a second function affecting the shade material in a second manner. The first portion may be arranged to couple the shade material to the rail member, such as coupling the shade material within the rail member. The second portion may be arranged to affect a portion of the shade material with respect to the rail member, such as affecting a portion of the shade material external to the rail member.

A Roman shade includes a shade unit which includes more than two shade parts, and a tubular portion is formed on the top of the shade. The more than two shade parts are connected to each other by a first weight unit located between any two of adjacent shade parts of the more than two shade parts. A slot is defined through each of the more than two shade parts except for the lowest shade part of the shade unit. A second weight unit is connected to the lower end of the shade unit so as to maintain the shade unit to be flat and fully expanded. The second weight unit has a tongue which extends through one of the slots to maintain the shade unit in a folded status when folding the shade unit.

A covering for an architectural covering is provided. The covering may include a rotatable outer tube, a rotatable inner tube, a shade attached to the outer tube, and an operating element secured to the inner tube. The outer tube may define an elongated slot extending along a length of the outer tube and opening to an interior of the outer tube. The inner tube may be received within the outer tube. The shade may be retractable to and extendable from the outer tube. The operating element may extend through the elongated slot and may be retractable onto and extendable from the inner tube. The inner tube may rotate relative the outer tube to open and close the shade once the support sheet is in a fully extended position.

A retractable cover for architectural openings having collapsible vanes includes a support structure in the form of a sheet of material, monofilaments, tapes, ribbons, cords, or the like, supporting an upper edge of a plurality of vertically spaced, horizontally extending vanes with the lower edges of the vanes in most embodiments of the invention being connected to operating elements adapted to raise the lower edges of each vane toward the upper edges to define openings or gaps between the vanes through which vision and light can pass in an open condition of the covering. Variations of the covering do not require movement of a lower edge of a vane relative to an upper edge but simply movement of some vanes relative to other vanes. The vanes can be made of materials having different flexibilities and where more rigid materials are used, creased fold lines can be established for desired operability.

A blind cord guide seat includes a connection seat fixed under a blind rail and a cord restriction seat connected under the connection seat. The cord restriction seat includes a fixing section and a latch section. An outer face of each of the fixing section and the latch section is formed with a belt guide channel. The top end of the fixing section is formed with threaded holes for connecting with the connection seat by screws. When assembled with a cord winding device, an external force is applied to the latch section to outward bias the latch section to provide an opening for placing the cord winding device through the opening into the cord restriction seat. An iron-made hook bracket and a latch body are securely disposed at the upper end of the latch section for securely latching the latch section with the connection seat.

A window covering includes a headrail and a covering material positioned under the headrail. The covering material includes a slat assembly. The headrail includes a traverse board and a pressure-dispersion structure, wherein the pressure-dispersion structure is positioned at the traverse board, and protrudes from a bottom surface of the traverse board. On a side of the pressure-dispersion structure facing the slat assembly, a pressure-dispersion area is formed corresponding to a topmost slat of the slat assembly which is closest to the headrail. When the covering material is raised and eventually contacts the headrail, the topmost slat can be controlled to contact at least part of the pressure-dispersion area, whereby to disperse a pressure applied to the slats.

A lighted architectural-structure covering is disclosed. In one example of an embodiment, an architectural-structure covering includes a light source arranged and configured to illuminate at least a portion of the architectural-structure covering. The architectural-structure covering may include first and second coverings. The light source is arranged and configured to direct light onto the second covering, which is arranged and configured to reflect, redistribute, etc. the received light toward the interior space of the room in which the architectural-structure covering is located. Thus arranged, the architectural-structure covering may be used to create, for example, diffused-lighting effects.