What is the Best Way to Cover Skylights?

Skylight shades and blinds give you the flexibility to cover skylights without having to remove them altogether to prevent unwanted heat, light, or cold.

Skylight windows on your home's roof are a great way to let in more natural light to dark rooms such as bathrooms, kitchens, or attic spaces. However, given their location and the time of the year (especially hot summers), they can overheat the room when they catch the sun's high-angled glare. They can also let in the undesirable cold during winter.

What's more, although skylights normally don't require covering, the right window covering can provide you with light control, enhanced aesthetic appeal, privacy, and make your home more energy-efficient.

However, covering a skylight or roof window is tricky because of its design and location. Thus, it would help if you found an effective way to block your skylights without limiting their functionality or adversely affecting your interior décor. Read on to learn how skylight shades and blinds can help.

How to Block Out a Skylight

There are several ways of blocking out your skylight, each with their pros and cons. They include:

Skylight Shades and Blinds: They offer both functional and aesthetic design to help you cover your skylights and still maintain or increase the room's interior décor. They come in several types such as thermal blinds, motorized skylight shades, pleated shades, cellular shades, Venetian blinds, and retractable blinds.

What is the Best Way to Cover Skylights?

Skylight blinds and shades are among the best ways to cover skylight (roof) windows. When selecting the right shades or blinds, you should consider the following:

• The direction they will face (south, north, east or west)
• The style of the blinds (tubular, ventilating or fixed)
• The function of your window. Is it sealed for viewing pleasure, or does it close and open?

Many homeowners prefer cellular or honeycomb styles for their indoor skylight coverings. They are available in blackout fabrics and light-filtering. They are also energy-efficient and come custom built to fit your skylights, block light when needed and trap unwanted cold or hot air.

As one of the popular window treatment styles, you can also easily match custom-made cellular shades for indoor skylights with other window coverings in the room to give a cohesive, streamlined look.

What's more, since it is not easy to access skylights without a ladder or a telescoping pole, many people are opting for motorized skylight shades. These retractable skylight treatment options use a motor to close and open the blinds using a remote control for your convenience.

Skylight Shade Fabrics

The window coverings industry has made significant, innovative advancements resulting in great options, hues, and styles available for fabric choices. If you wish to find the best fabric for your skylights, it's best to consider the décor, dynamics, and requirements specific to the areas where you have installed them. Suitable fabrics include:

Honeycomb or cellular: They create air pockets in between their layers to provide insulation from outside heat.

Synthetic: These are aluminum or PVC fabrics that can withstand prolonged exposure to the sun's light and heat and the moisture inside the room. They are not susceptible to warping or cracking under extreme heat and moisture conditions, making them perfect for bathroom skylights.

Better Insulation: Lighter fabrics in your skylight shades reflect heat better. Going for a dual or triple-layered material further improves the heat insulation capability.

A lot hinges upon your choice of fabric for skylight blinds and shades, so pick one that serves your purpose well.

Importance of Skylight Blinds

While skylights have several great advantages, they also have some downsides that need balancing out. To do this, you need suitable Skylight shades or blinds that are specifically adapted to skylight windows. Skylight blinds are essential because:

• They keep your interiors cold during summers. More solar heat during summer is uncomfortable, which is why many people opt to use blinds to block out the heat should temperatures start rising too much.
• They control natural light seeping through the skylight and into your home. While natural light is great for brightening dark rooms, it is not necessary all the time, especially when you want to watch a movie or go to sleep during the day. Blinds can darken the room whenever you want.
• Improving the décor. Barren skylight windows can be a bummer in a room filled with carefully selected and tasteful interiors. Blinds can complete the décor and add an element of style to it if you wish. To do this, pick a material that is aesthetically pleasing and functional to complement the décor.

The Bottom Line

There are many options for skylight shades, blinds, and other coverings available in the market. They give you the flexibility to cover skylights without having to remove them completely.

While skylights let in natural light into dark rooms and spaces, sometimes they are a nuisance. Maybe they create too much heat inside during summer, keep you or a baby from napping or let in too much cold air during winter months.

Budget Blinds offers custom blinds solutions and has numerous local window covering design experts across North America. We remain dedicated to providing style and service for every budget and take our customers' safety and well-being as a top priority.

Contact us today to schedule a free consultation or talk to our local experts for a detailed conversation or match your ideas with ours.