VELUX Blinds: The Complete UK Guide (2026) — Genuine vs Compatible

Blinds are where VELUX ownership gets quietly expensive — genuine blinds run £100+ per window, and a loft conversion has three or four windows. The good news: the compatible-blind market is mature, legitimate, and 40–70% cheaper for the everyday blind types. This guide covers every type, when genuine is actually worth it, and how to buy the right size first time.

First: find your window code (everything depends on it)

Open the window and look at the data plate on the frame edge behind the sash. It shows the window type and size — something like GGL MK06 or GGU CK04. Blinds are sold by that code, not by measurements. With it, every listing — genuine or compatible — tells you instantly whether it fits. Without it, you’re guessing between a dozen near-identical sizes. (Very old window? The code still works — blind makers cover discontinued codes going back decades, and our size chart decoder translates any generation of code, same as replacement windows do.)

The blind types, and which room wants which

Two of these solve the two loft-conversion complaints that matter most. Bedrooms need blackout — roof windows face the open sky, and an unshaded loft is daylight-bright at 4:30am in June; browse genuine blackout blinds or the compatible equivalents below. Overheating needs exterior shading — an anti-heat awning or shutter intercepts sunlight before the pane, and VELUX quotes rooms up to 5°C cooler with exterior shading, per its blinds documentation. An interior blind alone traps much of that heat in the room with you.

All genuine blinds come manual, electric or solar; the powered versions pair with INTEGRA windows and VELUX ACTIVE for automated shading.

Genuine vs compatible: the honest comparison

Buy genuine when: you’re automating (electric/solar blinds integrating with INTEGRA windows and the app — compatibles can’t), you need the exterior anti-heat products (no meaningful compatible market), you want the water-resistant venetians for a bathroom, or the 3-year blind guarantee matters to you.

Buy compatible when: it’s a manual blackout, roller or pleated blind for a normal room — which is most blinds in most homes. Established UK compatible brands include Itzala (made specifically for VELUX windows, typically ~40% cheaper, available on Amazon), Bloc Blinds (made-to-measure, also fits Fakro and RoofLITE), and specialist retailers like Blinds 2go whose own-brand skylight blinds claim up to 70% off genuine RRP. The broader compatible market starts around £30 per window.

Quality reality check: a £35 compatible blackout blind darkens a room to roughly the same degree as a £110 genuine one — the differences are in fabric feel, side-rail light bleed (genuine seals marginally better), and how smoothly the rail runs after five years (most running faults are fixable either way). In a guest room, nobody will ever know. In your own bedroom, some people care.

Fitting: genuinely a five-minute job

Every VELUX window ships with pre-fitted brackets at the top corners of the sash — genuine blinds and good compatibles click straight onto them, no drilling or tools, per VELUX’s own “smart click-on” system. Side rails press onto the frame. If a compatible blind’s listing doesn’t mention the click-on brackets and your exact size code, that’s the tell to shop elsewhere.

The maths for a typical loft

Three windows, blackout throughout: genuine ~£330+; compatible ~£105. The £225 saved buys most of an exterior awning for the south-facing window — which is the upgrade that actually changes how the room feels in July. Spend where the sun is, save where it isn’t. And if you’re still choosing the windows themselves, the blind ecosystem question is one genuine point in VELUX’s favour over the cheaper window brands — compatible blinds cover VELUX codes far better than anyone else’s.