Rae Top Down Bottom Up Woven vs Rae Natural Jute Woven Roller: Which Cordless Bamboo Wins for Your Window?

Two Buyers, Two Windows

Picture two people in front of the same Two Pages bamboo shade page. Mara just signed a 2-year lease in Brooklyn, the south-facing window backs onto a stoop, and her install budget is tight. Owen owns the brownstone across the street and is glazing the third floor with treatments meant to last the next decade.

Same collection, same Rae label, two completely different picks. If you are Mara, the Rae Natural Jute Woven Wood Roller Cordless at from $129.98/shade with the active CLEAR35 35% off listing label is the call. If you are Owen, the Rae Top Down Bottom Up Woven Wood Shade Cordless Series C at from $164.99/shade earns the extra dollars by handling street-facing privacy and daylight from above on the same shade.

Most head to heads stop at price. This one shouldn’t, because the lift mechanism, the fiber composition and the colorway map all push you in different directions depending on which side of the window you live on. The dimensions below are arranged the way the decision actually unfolds: first the material and build that span the entire Rae family, then three decision axes (when Top Down Bottom Up wins, when the Roller wins, when neither wins) so you can stop reading the moment your situation lands.

Material, Build & Shading Across the Rae Family

The Rae label sits inside the Two Pages woven wood family, where ramie, kenaf, bamboo, flax and jute are blended in different ratios per colorway. For the broader picture on those fibers, edge binding choices and lift mechanisms across the Two Pages woven wood tier, our complete bamboo shades guide sits one layer up from this head to head. The short version: every Rae shade in this comparison ships cordless, and every Rae shade in this comparison is made-to-order. The differences come from fiber choice and lift type.

Spec	Rae TDBU Series C	Rae Natural Jute Roller
Lift mechanism	Cordless Top Down Bottom Up (dual)	Cordless roller (single direction)
Fiber composition	Varies by color: ramie, kenaf, bamboo, flax blends	Natural jute woven wood
Weight (gsm)	350 to 1000 gsm depending on colorway	Not published as gsm, mid-weight jute weave
Shading rate	65% all colorways (Unlined)	Daylight filter (Unlined default)
Width range	20 to 94 inches	Standard window range, configurator returns final size
Length range	8 to 94 inches	Standard window range (configurator)
Headrail	Aluminum alloy, 2 in h x 1 1/2 in d	Roller tube with bracket clearance
Bracket depth	Outside 1 1/8 in d, Inside 1 5/8 in d	Outside mount: no min depth (advantage)
Mount	Inside or Outside, selectable edge binding	Inside (casing width minus 3/8 in) or Outside (add 2-4 in for light gap)
Liner options	Unlined / Privacy 50-75% (Beige White) / Blackout 96-100% (White)	Unlined default, liner options pending at configurator
Color count	15 (Series C, C01 to C15)	H series (H001 Angora, H002 Light Antler, H003 Light Gray, H012 Snowy White, etc.)
Lift safety	Cordless, safe for kids and pets	Cordless, safe for kids and pets
Promo code	EARTH20 (catalog label)	CLEAR35 (35% off active listing)
Base price	from $164.99/shade · head-to-head configurator	from $129.98/shade (CLEAR35 35% off active)

Series C: A Composition That Changes by Color

Here’s the part most spec sheets gloss over: the Series C fabric is not one fabric. C04 Gold Leaf is 100% kenaf at 780 gsm, dense and golden. C06 Smoke White is 90% ramie 10% bamboo at 1000 gsm, the heaviest hand in the family. C14 Ivory drops to 380 gsm at 90% flax 10% bamboo, the lightest reading in the lineup. The shading rate stays a flat 65% across all 15 colorways, but the hand and the texture you actually see in daylight read very differently.

Translation: a swatch from C02 Milk Tea is not a sample of C09 Ginger. Order more than one if the colorway map is the part you’re shopping. On safety, since these are made-to-order natural fiber shades and both ship cordless, the lift question is already settled in the right direction for any room with kids or pets, the Window Covering Safety Council framing on cordless-as-floor applies to both products here.

Natural Jute: One Fiber, Cooler Read

The Roller version goes the opposite direction. One natural jute fiber, woven onto a wood roller tube, on a fixed H-series palette (H001 Angora, H002 Light Antler, H003 Light Gray, H012 Snowy White and siblings). The hand reads cooler and crisper than the ramie kenaf blends in Series C, partly because jute fibers carry a more uniform grain and partly because there is no second fiber tempering the visual rhythm.

Two Pages doesn’t publish a gsm on the Roller listing, which is mildly annoying for spec sheet readers but consistent with how the woven wood roller category is sold across the industry. The visible difference is in the daylight: ramie kenaf Series C reads warm yellow at the window, natural jute Roller reads cool beige. Two completely different rooms, same Rae label.

Headrail and Bracket Profiles

Both fit inside-mount and outside-mount installs. The Roller’s outside mount is the most flexible of the two: Two Pages publishes “no minimum depth requirement” on that path, which makes it the safer call on flush windows. Series C needs at least 1 5/8 inches of inside-mount depth, slightly more than the Roller’s outside-mount path.

Decision Flowchart

When Top Down Bottom Up Wins

Here’s the deal with the Top Down Bottom Up mechanism: it earns the price gap exactly in the window types where a roller fails. Street-facing bedroom on a second floor with neighbors at eye level. Bathroom with a planter on the sill that you want to flood with morning light. Kitchen above a sink where the bottom needs to stay covered but you want the top half open to chase the afternoon sun.

In each of those rooms, you want both axes of light control in one shade. The Roller can roll halfway up but it always exposes the top, never the bottom. Series C lets you cover the lower 60% for privacy while opening the upper 40% for daylight, then reverse it later in the day. That’s the use case the dual mechanism is built for.

Owner Staying Long Term: 15 Colorways and Liner Range

If you own and you’re glazing for the long haul, the Series C colorway map matters as much as the lift mechanism. 15 colors across ramie, kenaf, bamboo and flax, with weights running from 350 gsm on the lighter neutrals up to 1000 gsm on C06 Smoke White. Different rooms in the same house can carry the same Rae signature without reading identical.

The liner range on Series C does the rest of the work. Unlined keeps the woven fiber texture visible against daylight, the daytime read most owners want in a living room. Privacy at 50-75% shading handles bathrooms and street-facing windows where evening lamps still glow soft from outside. Blackout at 96-100% shading covers media rooms and bedrooms where afternoon naps require near-total darkness.

Reading the Series C Configurator

The Series C configurator returns a quote the second you pick width, drop, colorway, liner and edge binding. A standard 30 x 36 inch unlined Series C starts at the $164.99 base. A mid 48 x 60 inch with the Privacy liner runs around the $220 mark in cart simulation. A full 72 x 72 inch with Blackout liner and edge binding lands closer to $320. Final price is always size-and-liner-dependent, the base is the floor not the ceiling.

When the Roller Wins

Real talk: most windows don’t need two axes of light control. If your window faces a backyard or sits on the third floor with no sightlines, you don’t need a top down opening, you need a clean shade that rolls up and stays out of the way. That’s where the Roller earns its place.

For a renter on a 2-year lease, the entry price matters as much as the mechanism. $129.98 base with the active CLEAR35 35% off listing label puts the Roller in a budget bracket the Series C never enters before promo. The mechanism is also the simplest in the woven wood family: one roller tube, one axis, fewer moving parts to fail when you uninstall at the end of the lease and reinstall in the next apartment.

Minimalist Room and Single-Axis Simplicity

For owners building a minimalist room, simplicity is the point, not a compromise. The H-series natural jute palette runs neutral by design: H001 Angora, H002 Light Antler, H003 Light Gray, H012 Snowy White. No warm yellow ramie, no green-tinted bamboo, no terracotta kenaf. Just cool natural jute that disappears against a white wall and gives daylight a soft filter.

The Roller mechanism rewards minimalism too. There is no top-rail position to adjust, no mid-window asymmetry to manage. Down for privacy, up for full view, half-mast for daylight. Three positions, one decision per window, then forget about it for the next decade.

H-Series Color Picks at the Configurator

The configurator handles size and color, not liner choice (the Roller defaults Unlined with liner options developing on the catalog). For wide windows, configure outside mount and add 2 to 4 inches beyond the casing width to prevent light gaps along the sides. For shallow reveals or flush windows, the outside-mount path with no minimum depth is the route that just works.

When Neither Wins (and What to Buy Instead)

Now, the honest no-go list. If you need a fabric-bodied shade with a soft fold profile (think a roman shade in linen or cotton instead of a woven wood panel), neither Rae here is the right call. Both are woven wood, both read structurally instead of softly. For fabric-bodied alternatives, the roman shades guide for fabric-bodied alternatives covers the Liz linen, Isabella cotton and Jawara linen cotton paths.

If you need motorized smart home control (Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa, SmartThings), neither shade in this comparison ships with that option. Both are cordless manual lift. The Rae family currently keeps motorized for other product lines, so a smart-home requirement pulls you out of this pair entirely and into the wider Two Pages motorized tier on a different SKU page.

One more case where neither wins: full blackout in a fabric body that drapes. If you want a sleep-grade blackout shade with the soft folds of a roman, the right call is the Liz Linen Blackout pleated tier or the Atlanta Room Divider Blackout, not a woven wood with a blackout liner stacked behind it. Both Rae shades can hit blackout shading with the right liner, but the texture remains woven wood, not draped fabric.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Verdict

Coming back to the original question: if your window faces a sidewalk, a neighbor or a balcony and you want both daylight from above and privacy below in the same shade, the Rae Top Down Bottom Up Series C at from $164.99/shade is the only mechanism in this pair that delivers both axes. The 15 colorway range across ramie, kenaf, bamboo and flax, and the three-liner choice (Unlined, Privacy, Blackout) reward the owner staying long term. If your priority is the natural jute neutral palette, a simpler single-direction lift, and the lower entry price boosted by the active CLEAR35 35% off promo, the Rae Natural Jute Woven Roller Cordless at from $129.98/shade is the call, especially for renters on a tight install budget.