East-facing, June sunrise
Room-darkening honeycomb with side channels, or a roller with LightGuard 360™. Motorized if the bed is under the window.
Bedroom Window Treatments
Bedroom window treatments for a room that is dark when you say so.
Seattle sunrise is before 5:30 a.m. for two months of the year, and a streetlight is up all night. A bedroom window needs a fabric that stops the light and a mount that stops it at the edges. Room-darkening honeycomb, roller, and Roman shades, DayNite™ shutters, and motorized schedules, installed by PAPABLINDS across the Greater Seattle Area.
Four ways to make a bedroom dark.
Room darkening is the fabric; blackout is the fabric plus the edges. Each option handles the edges differently.
| Option | How dark | The edges | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portrait™ honeycomb, room darkening | Dark | Optional side channels close the light gaps | The bedroom is also cold: the cells insulate |
| Soluna™ roller, room darkening | Dark | LightGuard 360™ channels along the frame | You want the cleanest look and a shade that disappears by day |
| Centerpiece™ Roman, blackout lining | Dark | Outside mount overlaps the frame | The bedroom is furnished with fabric and you want the shade to be part of it |
| DayNite™ shutters | Dark, day or night | A shade inside the shutter frame | You want shutters in the bedroom and dark at the same time |
Where the light gets around any shade, and how the mount fixes it, is on the blackout shades page.
Dark is half the job. The other half is warm and quiet.
Most Seattle bedrooms are on the cold side of the house or under the roof, and the window is where the heat leaves. A room-darkening honeycomb shade adds an insulating layer of trapped air, which is why it is the bedroom shade we recommend first: dark and warm in one product, cordless, and silent when it moves.
Noise matters too. A cordless shade makes none; a motorized one is quiet enough that the other person stays asleep, and a schedule lowers the shades at dusk and raises them at the alarm, not at sunrise.
- Room-darkening honeycomb with side channels: dark, warm, cordless.
- Roller with LightGuard 360™ for the cleanest look.
- Motorized with a schedule for shift workers and late sleepers.
- Top-down bottom-up where the neighbor is close and the window faces the street.
© 2021 Norman®. All Rights Reserved.Bedrooms we see most.
Streetlight and headlights
Blackout fabric plus an outside mount, so the light from below does not slip in at the sill.
Sleeping at noon
The darkest build: room-darkening honeycomb with channels or DayNite™ shutters, on a schedule that closes before you get home.
Used a few nights a year
A room-darkening roller, cordless, in the same white as the rest of the house.
What we check in a bedroom.
- Which way the window faces and what is outside it: sunrise, a streetlight, a neighbor.
- Frame depth for an inside mount with side channels, or wall space for an outside mount.
- Whether the bed or a headboard blocks the window, which decides cordless versus motorized.
- How cold the room is in January, since honeycomb answers that and a roller does not.
- The whites or wood tones in the room, so the shade matches the trim and the furniture.
Bedroom questions.
Blackout or room darkening?
Room darkening is the fabric: it stops the light through the shade. Blackout is that fabric plus side channels or an outside mount that stops the light around it. For a bedroom that must be dark, plan both.
Will I still get light in the morning if I want it?
Yes. A light-filtering fabric on a second shade, a dual shade, or a top-down bottom-up honeycomb gives you daylight without giving up the dark at night.
Can I have shutters and a dark bedroom?
Yes: DayNite™ puts a room-darkening shade inside the shutter frame on Woodlore® Plus and Normandy® shutters. Louvers by day, dark by night.
Are motorized shades quiet enough for a bedroom?
Yes. Norman® Smart Motorization runs quietly, and a schedule means the shade moves at the time you set, not when you fumble for a remote.
Bedroom window treatments in the Seattle area
PAPABLINDS installs bedroom shades, blinds, and shutters in Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, and the surrounding communities, and in a bedroom the order of priorities is dark, then warm, then quiet. The products are Norman® Portrait™ honeycomb shades in room-darkening fabrics with optional side channels, Soluna™ roller shades with LightGuard 360™ channels, Centerpiece™ Roman shades with blackout lining, and Woodlore® Plus or Normandy® shutters with the DayNite™ room-darkening shade built in. All of them are cordless; all of them can be motorized.
Why the mount matters as much as the fabric
A room-darkening fabric stops the light through the shade, but a plain inside mount leaves a line of light along both edges, which is all it takes to wake a light sleeper in June. Side channels on honeycomb and roller shades, or an outside mount that overlaps the frame, close those edges. We measure for both at the visit and tell you which one your window needs.
What to have ready for the visit
- Which way the bedroom faces and whether a streetlight or a neighbor is the problem.
- Whether anyone sleeps during the day.
- Whether the bed is under the window, which usually means a motorized shade.
Request a free in-home visit and we will hold a room-darkening sample against the window with the lights off.