Sunroom Window Treatments: Keep the View, Lose the Heat

A sunroom is often the best room in the house nine months of the year. The other three, it’s too hot by noon, too bright to read and too cold on January mornings. The right window treatments make it the room everyone wants to be in, every season.

The challenge is that the whole point of a sunroom is the view. So the goal isn’t to cover the glass. It’s to control heat, glare and fading while keeping as much of the outdoors as possible.

What a sunroom needs

• Heat control on summer afternoons, especially on south- and west-facing glass.
• Glare control so you can read, work or see a screen.
• Fade protection for floors, rugs and furniture.
• Warmth in winter, when walls of glass let heat escape.
• Easy operation, because a sunroom often has many windows.

Great choices for sunrooms

Sheer shadings

Pirouette® Window Shadings and Silhouette® Window Shadings are some of the most beautiful sunroom choices. Soft fabric vanes tilt to control light, and Silhouette’s sheer facings filter UV rays while you still see outside. In this sunroom, white Pirouette shades cover an entire wall of windows.

Solar screen shades

Designer Screen Shades cut glare and heat while keeping the view, which is exactly what a sunroom needs. Choose a tighter weave for more glare control or a more open one to keep more of the view.

Cellular shades

If comfort is your main problem, cellular shades are hard to beat. The honeycomb cells trap air at the glass, which helps keep heat out in summer and in during winter. See cellular shades and energy efficiency. Top-Down/Bottom-Up lift lets you lower the top for sky views while shading the lower glass.

Woven wood shades

Woven wood shades bring natural, relaxed texture that suits a sunroom’s indoor-outdoor feel. Add a liner if you need more privacy or shade.

Designer tip: In a sunroom, use the same color and fabric on every window. With this much glass, a consistent look keeps the room calm and keeps the outside of the house looking tidy.

Let automation handle the sun

A sunroom with a dozen windows is a lot of shades to adjust. PowerView® Automation can lower every shade with one tap, or on a schedule during the hottest hours, then raise them again in the evening. That also protects your furniture from fading while you’re away. See how to protect floors and furniture from sun fading.

Angled and specialty windows

Many sunrooms have angled windows, transoms or arches. Some products can be made for specialty shapes, and sometimes the best answer is to leave the upper windows open and shade the ones below. Our guide to arched and specialty-shaped windows walks through the options.

Taking it outside

If your outdoor living space is a screened porch, patio or pergola, motorized outdoor screens add shade, privacy and protection from bugs, and roll away when you want the open air. See them on a backyard pergola.

Enjoy your sunroom all year

Sunrooms are some of our favorite rooms to design. During a free in-home consultation, your designer will look at which windows get the most sun and bring screen, sheer and cellular samples to compare in your own light.