SmartFit® cellular in a frame
A honeycomb shade held at both rails inside a frame that grips the edge of the glass. Made for sloped windows; the cells insulate the hottest pane in the house.
Skylight Shades
Skylight shades: the window you cannot reach, on the wall you cannot ignore.
A skylight is glass in the ceiling, so gravity, heat, and reach all work against an ordinary shade. Norman® makes three products for it: SmartFit® cellular shades held in a frame on a sloped window, motorized Portrait™ honeycomb skylight shades, and Normandy® skylight shutters with solar-charged PerfectTilt™. Measured and installed by PAPABLINDS across the Greater Seattle Area.
Three ways to cover a skylight.
The shade has to stay against a sloped or overhead pane without a rail to hang from. Each product solves that differently.
Motorized honeycomb
Portrait™ honeycomb built for skylights, with integrated light guards along the edges, moved from a remote or the app. The answer for a skylight nobody can reach.
Normandy® skylight shutters
Hardwood louvers over the skylight, tilted by PerfectTilt™ G4 and recharged by its own solar panel. The built-in look, with the sun paying for the battery.
Which one for which skylight?
| The skylight | We usually show | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sloped window in a top-floor bedroom, reachable | SmartFit® cellular, room darkening | Holds flat to the slope, no cords, dark at 5 a.m. in June |
| Skylight in a vaulted living room ceiling | Motorized Portrait™ honeycomb skylight shade | Out of reach; runs on a remote, the app, or a schedule for the afternoon heat |
| Kitchen or bath skylight | Motorized honeycomb in a light-filtering fabric | Keeps the light, drops the glare and heat; polyester honeycomb fabric |
| Skylight in a room full of shutters | Normandy® skylight shutters with PerfectTilt™ | Matches the windows; solar charging means no ladder to recharge |
| Stairwell skylight | Motorized honeycomb, set on a schedule | Nobody will ever reach it; closed against the July sun, open in December |
Why the skylight is the hottest pane in the house.
Vertical windows catch the low sun for part of the day. A skylight faces the sky and takes the sun for most of it, and in a top-floor Eastside bedroom with a sloped window that means a room that will not cool down on a July evening. Honeycomb fabric puts an insulating layer of trapped air under the glass; a room-darkening cell adds the dark that a bedroom skylight needs at 5 a.m. in June.
Reach is the other half. A shade in the ceiling of a vaulted living room will be adjusted from a remote or not at all, so we quote motorization on any skylight higher than a sloped bedroom window, and put the summer schedule in the app before we leave.
- Cellular fabric for insulation on the pane that takes the most sun.
- Room darkening for bedroom skylights.
- Motorized with a schedule where the skylight is out of reach.
- Solar-charged PerfectTilt™ on skylight shutters.
© 2021 Norman®. All Rights Reserved.Skylights around Seattle.
Sloped bedroom windows
Townhouses and 1980s Eastside houses. SmartFit® cellular in room darkening, within reach.
Living room skylights
Motorized honeycomb on a schedule: closed for the afternoon in summer, open all winter for the light.
The skylight over the island
Light-filtering honeycomb, motorized, so the light stays and the heat goes.
Skylight over the tub
Light-filtering fabric for privacy and glare; motorized if it is above a tub nobody wants to stand in.
Skylight questions.
Will the shade sag on a sloped window?
Not in a SmartFit® frame: the shade is held at the top and the bottom inside a frame that grips the glass edge. The skylight honeycomb and the skylight shutter are built to sit flat as well.
How is a motorized skylight shade charged?
With the wireless charging wand and its extension pole from below, or on an adapter if the skylight well has an outlet. Skylight shutters charge themselves from the solar panel on the PerfectTilt™ motor.
Can I make a bedroom skylight dark?
Yes. Room-darkening honeycomb fabric with the light guards along the edges, or shutter louvers closed. We show both against the skylight at the visit.
Do you cover skylights in a flat roof?
A horizontal skylight is the case for the motorized honeycomb or the shutter. We measure the well and the glass at the visit and confirm the product for the mount.
Skylight shades and skylight shutters in the Seattle area
PAPABLINDS measures and installs skylight coverings in Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, and the surrounding communities. Norman® makes three products for skylights and sloped windows: SmartFit® cellular shades, held in an edge-gripping frame and made for sloped windows; motorized Portrait™ honeycomb skylight shades with integrated light guards, operated from a remote, the ShadeAuto™ app, or a schedule; and Normandy® hardwood skylight shutters with PerfectTilt™ G4, recharged by an integrated solar panel.
Heat, dark, and reach
A skylight takes more sun than any vertical window, so cellular fabric earns its place there first: the honeycomb cells trap air under the glass and keep a top-floor room from cooking in July. Room-darkening cells make a bedroom skylight dark at 5 a.m. in June. And because most skylights are out of reach, motorization with a summer schedule is the option we quote on any skylight above a sloped bedroom window.
What to have ready for the visit
- Whether the skylight is sloped and reachable or overhead and out of reach.
- The room: a bedroom wants dark, a kitchen wants light without heat.
- Whether there is an outlet in the skylight well, which decides adapter or battery.
Request a free in-home visit and we will measure the glass and the well and show a SmartFit® sample and a honeycomb fabric against your skylight.