Ideas for Interesting Window Treatments – Part II – Skylights and Sidelights

There are often many types of windows in a home.  My previous article offered ideas for window treatments for standard window types, such as patio doors and other typical sizes.  This article will offer ideas for two of the other window types that you may have in your home:  skylights and sidelights (windows beside a door).

Starting with skylights, here are some window treatments options for you to consider.  First, I would highly recommend cellular shades.   You probably already know, but cell shades add insulation to your window.  They come in single, double and triple cell, the latter offering the greatest amount of insulation.  That said, cell shades are attractive and come in a wide variety of colors to compliment almost any décor.  Also, cell shades can be purchased with a motorized function which is especially useful for skylights which are often out of reach.  If you want a slightly less expensive option consider pleated shades which essentially look the same as cell shades but do not have the excellent insulating properties.  Both cellular and pleated shades come in a variety of light-filtering options from sheer to room darkening so you can choose how much light you want to be filtered.  Lastly, both of these shades come specially designed to work with skylights and come with side tracks that hold the shade in place but allow it to open and close.

Next up are sidelights.  Now not every home has sidelight but for those that do, choosing the right sidelight window treatment can really make a difference as it can make the entry way in your home really beautiful and functional.  Sidelight shades need to be available in narrow widths, that is why there aren’t more choices.  That said, there are slightly more choices for sidelights than skylights including, woven wood shades (also known as bamboo shades), cellular shades and sheer shades.  Woven woods come in a huge variety of materials and weaves.  The material choices include bamboo, grasses, rope, reeds, matchsticks, and wood planks.  These materials are often woven together in different combinations and range in appearance from casual to elegant but all with a bent towards a more natural-look.   Woven woods can also be purchased with optional liners for additional room-darkening and privacy.  Sheer shades are a versatile and elegant choice for sidelights.  They are versatile because they are like two shades in one combining the functionality of a blind with the soft light filtering of shades.  Sheer shades for sidelights have horizontal blinds (fabric vanes) with two sheer fabric facings over the fabric vanes.   When the vanes are open the sheer fabric offers soft light-filtering and when closed offer privacy and light dimming.   Cellular shades, as mentioned before, are attractive, come in a wide variety of colors and offer good insulation which is important for almost any home.  For the sheer variety of fabric and other material combinations, I would recommend looking into woven woods but, they may not compliment every décor, whereas, cellular shades and sheer shades have more universal appeal.

If you are looking for window treatment ideas for sidelights or skylight shades, I hope this helped.  Look for the next article in my series which will deal with window treatments for French doors and oversized windows. – David Brooks