Skylight Shades
Skylight Shades
A welcome addition to any house, skylights let in an abundance of natural sunlight, help maintain a connection with the outside world, and open up a living space to create the feel of a more roomy environment. But there may be times when you need to control just how much of the outside environment you want in your house. Skylight Shades, or skylight blinds to some, are specifically designed for this purpose and can be installed professionally or by a capable weekend do-it-yourselfer. This article will introduce some reasons for installing skylight shades and point out some things to consider before going ahead and making the purchase.
Skylight Shades can be used to:
- totally block incoming light to darken a room completely
- provide privacy yet still allow normal light to enter the room
- help control heat being radiated through the skylight, assisting in environmental control, thus reducing costs
- enhance the appearance of the room with complementary colors and textures
- Reduce noise
Block Incoming Light – Sounds obvious, but make sure you know what level of light you want to enter the room before you buy your skylight shades. If you want a totally blacked out room look for a more opaque blackout shade, on the other hand if you only want to diffuse the brightness and keep a high level of light in the room a more transparent shade should be chosen.
Provide Privacy – Privacy may not be on everyone’s mind when it comes to skylight shades, them being on a roof and all, but to people who live close to other buildings it can be of prime importance, especially if the neighboring structures are much higher. The blinds in this case would certainly not need to be completely opaque, but be sufficiently designed to obscure visibility while maintaining high light transference.
Control Room Temperature – An overlooked attribute, but tremendous advantage of having skylight shades installed is the ability to control room temperature simply by opening or closing the shades. The shade acts as a heat blocker greatly enhancing insulation values and allows air conditioning to be more efficient.
Enhance Aesthetics and ambiance of a room – There is an added benefit to having shades on a skylight, that is the warmth and feel they lend to the room in contrast to a stark and bare appearance of an open skylight. Shades can be plain or pleated and by choosing colors and fabrics that compliment the room’s decor, an immediate an perceptual dynamic is added and indeed the sheer elegance of installed shades results in better Feng Shui.
Reduce Noise – Although probably not the primary reason people look for skylight shades, noise reduction is an added bonus to having them installed and do significantly damper the noisy neighbors, traffic or other unwanted sounds.
There are still more attributes of skylight blinds that that may need to be considered, before a final buying decision is made. It is possible to buy ready made shades that are good to go on a standard size skylight, but in many instances the shades need to be made-to-measure, that is they have to be custom made to fit your particular application. As skylights are generally up high and can be hard to reach, the method of operation of the skylight shade should be considered. Some skylight shades are operated manually by hand or by means of a extension pole. Motorized shades can be operated by a switch on the wall or by a remote control in the form of a wall mounted wireless switch. Like anything else in a home, skylight shades will need to be cleaned from time to time. Modern materials and fabrics which are made to be anti-static do repel dust and seldom require extensive cleaning, but a quick sweep with a vacuum cleaner will maintain their fresh appearance for years to come.
Having decided on the reason to buy skylight shades and determined the most appropriate design of shade to buy, it now remains to find the best place to buy them. I will address that in another post
