Best Skylight Shades & Skylight Blinds

Duette^® Honeycomb Shades Fabric: Architella^® Batiste Semi-Sheer Color: Desert Sands

Skylights provide rooms with a brighter, more open and airy feeling beyond what standard windows can offer. But like standard windows, harsh summer rays often stream in through skylights, overheating a space; they can also let cold air in during winter. Direct sunlight and glare pose potential snags, too (think afternoon napping or movie binging).

At Hunter Douglas, we have skylight window treatments to address those kinds of issues, from improving energy efficiency to eliminating glare. Want to make the most of your skylights? Keep the following four points in mind.

1. Fabrics Matter

If your skylights are in areas where you get a lot of sun—especially bedrooms or media rooms—you might want to consider skylight shades with a room-darkening or blackout fabric, so natural sunlight doesn’t interrupt your sleep or add glare to a TV screen. And if they're in rooms like kitchens that don't require complete darkness, choose a fabric that will bring in natural light while still blocking harsh rays. Remember, though, that skylights are often focal points of a room, so you'll want a skylight window covering that complements your space’s overall style, rather than detracting from its décor.

From selecting materials and colors to expert measurement and installation, our window-treatment specialists can help you create the perfect window treatments for your home. Find a specialist near you to get started today.

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Applause honeycomb shades with skylights in the kitchen

2. Energy Efficiency is Key

Up to 30% of a home’s heating and cooling energy can be lost through its windows. That’s where cellular shades come in. The most energy-efficient window treatments available, their unique honeycomb design traps air in pockets, providing a layer of insulation at the window.

Duette^® Honeycomb Shades, the original cellular shade, are available in an array of colors, textures and pleat sizes, and can accommodate the specialty shape of a skylight.

For even greater energy efficiency, look to Duette Architella^® Honeycomb Shades, a honeycomb-within-a-honeycomb that features more layers of fabric and insulating air pockets. Considering how much sun might be coming through your skylights, Duette Architella shades can be a very worthwhile investment.

3. You Can Block UV Rays

If you’re looking for an aesthetic alternative to honeycomb shades, vertical blinds might suit your taste. Vertical blinds for skylights come in a wide range of colors and textures to fit any décor, from traditional to contemporary.

Somner^® Custom Vertical Blinds, for instance, are available with a variety of design options in fabric, vinyl and aluminum. A really nice feature is that they offer 75% UV protection, which can help prevent your furnishings from fading.

Vertical Solutions^® Vertical Blinds are also an excellent choice for skylights and come in numerous styles in fabric and vinyl. Like Somner vertical blinds, Vertical Solutions blinds offer 75% UV protection and help reduce outside noise.

4. Movement Makes a Difference

Enhancing energy efficiency, blocking UV rays and just generally making a space more comfortable will only work if you open and close the window treatments over your skylights.

Hunter Douglas cellular honeycomb shades are available with a Skylift™ skylight system that lets you control your shades either manually with a hand crank or telescoping pole for hard-to-reach windows.

Or, you can opt for the Simplicity™ skylight system. This system operates manually on any slope or orientation by a handle, as opposed to a hand crank, or with a telescoping pole. What’s really great about this system is that the fabric can stack at the top, bottom, left or right side. If you have extra-large windows, no problem. By mounting your shades side by side, you can cover expanses more than 48 square feet.

Somner and Vertical Solutions vertical blinds work a little differently. Both of these types of skylight blinds operate via a cord and chain. Use the chain to tilt the slats and a cord to traverse them.

Looking for motorized skylight shades? We have you covered. You can also operate our cellular honeycomb shades automatically with the PowerView^® Automation system. Convenient control is yours from a remote, an app on your smart device or even with your voice (when integrated with other smart-home systems).

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From selecting materials and colors to expert measurement and installation, our window treatment specialists can help you create the perfect window treatments for your home. Find a specialist near you to get started today.

Find a specialist