Window Treatments for Basements, Garages and Guest Rooms

Some rooms get all the attention: the living room, the kitchen, the primary suite. But every house also has spaces that just need to work: the finished basement, the garage, the laundry room, a guest room that’s used a few times a year. Bare windows or worn-out blinds in those rooms make a house feel unfinished.

These spaces don’t need the most elaborate solutions. They need window treatments that fit well, look clean and hold up. Here’s how we approach them.

Basements

Basement windows are usually small, high on the wall and sometimes shallow, often looking into a window well.

What works:

• Cellular shades fit small windows neatly and help insulate, which matters in a basement that runs cool.
• Roller shades give a clean, simple look and come in blackout fabrics for a basement media room or guest bedroom.
• Top-Down/Bottom-Up lift lets light in from the window well while giving privacy.

Designer tip: For a basement bedroom, choose a light, warm fabric color. It makes small windows feel brighter during the day, and a blackout liner or fabric still makes the room dark at night.

If you’re turning the basement into a theater, see our guide to media room window treatments.

Garages and workshops

Garage windows usually need privacy and some sun control, and that’s it. Durable roller shades or simple cellular shades keep curious eyes off your tools and car, and give the outside of the house a finished look.

Laundry and mudrooms

These rooms deal with humidity and heavy traffic. Choose materials that wipe clean and handle moisture, like EverWood® Alternative Wood Blinds or roller shades. Avoid real wood and natural woven materials in damp spaces. More in window treatments for kitchens and bathrooms.

Guest rooms

A guest room that’s rarely used still needs privacy and a way to darken it for visitors who like to sleep in. A room-darkening cellular or roller shade does both. If your guests stay often, treat it like any bedroom: see bedroom window treatments for better sleep.

Alta: a smart choice for secondary spaces

For spaces like these, we often recommend Alta Window Fashions, part of the Hunter Douglas family. Alta gives you a custom fit, quality materials and a tailored look at a smart, cost-effective level, so your secondary spaces look as finished as the rest of the home.

• Alta Cellular Shades: honeycomb shades that help insulate, in light-filtering and blackout fabrics, with cordless and Top-Down/Bottom-Up lifts.
• Alta Roller Shades: clean, tailored roller shades in light-filtering, screen and blackout fabrics.
• Alta Natural Woven Shades: handmade from natural grasses, reeds and woods, with optional liners.
• Alta Shutters: made-to-measure shutters in wood, composite and moisture-resistant polyresin.

Hunter Douglas products remain our first recommendation for the rooms you live in every day. Alta lets you finish the rest of the house without compromising on fit or quality.

Keep the outside consistent

Basement, garage and guest room windows face the street and the neighbors too. Choosing similar colors to the rest of the house keeps the outside looking tidy and intentional.

Finish the whole house at once

Many clients add their secondary spaces to the same consultation as their main rooms, so everything is measured, ordered and installed together. During a free in-home consultation, your designer can recommend the right product for each room, from the living room to the laundry room. You can also compare Hunter Douglas and Alta side by side at our showrooms.