Lake or mountain glass
Solar rollers, coupled on the wide windows, motorized. The view is the room; the shade is for three o’clock.
Living Room Window Treatments
Living room window treatments: keep the view, lose the glare.
The living room has the biggest glass in the house and the best view, and from three o’clock the sun is on the TV. It also loses more heat in January than any other room. The covering has to filter light without hiding the window, and insulate without looking like it. Solar and light-filtering rollers, PerfectSheer™, shutters, and honeycomb, installed by PAPABLINDS across the Greater Seattle Area.
Living room products, by what you want from the window.
| You want | First choice | Also | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The view, minus the glare | Soluna™ solar roller | PerfectSheer™ | Solar screen keeps the view; sheer softens it |
| A built-in, architectural look | Woodlore® Plus or Normandy® shutters | Bi-fold or bypass on the slider | Louvers tilt for light and privacy; the one product buyers notice |
| Warm in winter | Portrait™ honeycomb | Dual shade with a solar layer | The insulating choice for a wall of glass |
| Soft, furnished | Centerpiece™ Roman | SmartFold™ | Fabric folds, linen and cotton blends |
| The slider to the deck | SmartDrape™ | Sliding door shutters | Walk through the vanes; see sliding glass doors |
Three o’clock on the west side.
A west-facing living room in Seattle is fine until mid-afternoon and then unusable: low sun across the room, glare on every screen, and in July a room that heats for four hours. A solar roller shade in a 3 to 5 percent openness takes the glare and most of the heat and leaves the lake or the trees where they are. Lowered at three and raised at sunset, or on a schedule that does it for you.
In winter the same wall works the other way, leaking heat all night. A honeycomb shade adds the insulating layer, and a dual shade puts the solar layer and the honeycomb on the same window, one for July and one for January.
- Solar roller for the glare, view intact.
- Honeycomb or a dual shade for the winter.
- Motorized on one channel for a wall of three or more.
- Shutters where the room wants the built-in look.
© 2021 Norman®. All Rights Reserved.Living rooms around Seattle.
Divided-light windows and a bay
Shutters with bay posts, or honeycomb inside each frame. See bay windows.
Two-story window wall
Reachable shades below, motorized above, same fabric. See high windows.
Street-level living room
Top-down bottom-up honeycomb or PerfectSheer™: privacy from the sidewalk, light from above.
Options in the living room.
- Solar fabrics from 1% to 10% openness
- Dual shades: solar by day, room darkening by night
- Shutters in the same line as the bedrooms
- Motorized, several shades on one channel
- SmartDrape™ on the slider, walk-through
- Privacy at night with a solar shade alone
Living room questions.
Will a solar shade give me privacy at night?
No. With the lights on inside, a screen fabric shows the room to the street. For night privacy add a room-darkening layer in a dual shade, or choose shutters or PerfectSheer™.
Shutters or shades in the living room?
Shutters if you want the built-in look and a product that stays with the house; shades if you want the window to disappear when the weather is good. Many living rooms take shutters on the windows and SmartDrape™ on the slider.
What about the cold?
Honeycomb shades are the insulating product. On a wall of older glass they make a difference you feel from the sofa.
How do I match the living room to the rest of the house?
By color first. Norman® whites and wood tones repeat across shutters, blinds, and shade hardware, so a shutter living room and a honeycomb bedroom still read as one house.
Living room window treatments in the Seattle area
PAPABLINDS installs living room shades, blinds, and shutters in Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, and the surrounding communities. The living room sets three problems at once: the view you paid for, the glare that arrives at three in the afternoon, and the heat that leaves through the biggest glass in the house all winter. Norman® Soluna™ solar and light-filtering roller shades, PerfectSheer™ layered shades, Woodlore® Plus and Normandy® shutters, Portrait™ honeycomb, Centerpiece™ Roman, and SmartDrape™ for the slider cover the three between them.
Glare, view, and warmth
A solar roller shade in a 3 to 5 percent openness cuts the glare and most of the heat while the view stays; PerfectSheer™ does the same with a softer, furnished look and tilting vanes. For winter, a honeycomb shade or a dual shade with a honeycomb layer insulates the glass. Shutters give the room the built-in look and tilt for light and privacy, and on a wall of three or more windows motorization puts the whole wall on one remote channel.
What to have ready for the visit
- Which way the main windows face and when the glare hits.
- Whether the room has a slider or a bay, which have their own pages.
- The whites and wood tones in the room, and what is in the bedrooms, so the house matches.
Request a free in-home visit and we will bring solar, sheer, and shutter samples to the window at the time of day the glare is worst.