Skylight blinds are an absolute necessity, at least for domestic use. Nothing can equal the beauty of skylight windows, but they have a major drawback if not covered: they could turn your room into a green house, because of the direct sun light that lasts for so many hours a day. In normal windows, thanks to their orientation, there’s full sun only for several hours a day, then as the sun moves in the sky, shadows take its place. With skylights, things are different, as these windows are exposed as long as the sun shines in the sky. Besides, if you are surrounded by taller buildings, you may need some privacy, at least at night.

Even in case of commercial buildings such as museums or art galleries, skylight blinds are also a must have, because there has to be a way to control the light filtering if you want visitors to be able to enjoy the masterpieces exposed in the halls.

Skylight Blinds Control Systems

Depending on the movement control mechanism, there are several types of skylight blinds:
Motorized skylight blinds: these are maybe the most convenient, as you don’t have to use anything else but a button on the remote control to change their position. In buildings with tall ceilings, this could be the only possible solution, because the manual systems may be too big and difficult to operate. Powell Blinds offer several interesting solutions of motorized skylight blinds. If you have skylights and you’re interested in some window covering ideas, you can check out the Velux website. Velux is a well-known skylights manufacturer and they offer a catalog with a wide range of mount types and accessories such as blinds, shades or accessory controls.

Manually operated skylight blinds: if the rooms are not that tall, skylights blinds can be operated with the help of a crank and a simple wand. Usually, the wand is removable, so you can hide it somewhere when you don’t need to use it.

Best Materials For Skylight Blinds

First of all, when thinking of skylight windows, you have to be aware that if they don’t provide an excellent thermal insulation, your energy bills will be much higher, in both winter and summer. This is why most manufacturers of skylights and roof windows suggest the usage of either low-E or low-E laminate glass, double glazed, and if possible filled with an inert gas.

Such windows come from start with a good R-value, but you can improve it even more by choosing special fabrics for your skylight blinds. The fabric or the material for skylights coverings should have good insulating properties, as well as good resistance at fading, yellowing, bending or cracking under the direct exposure to sun light. Cellular blinds and shades are excellent in this respect, so they are one of the most frequent choices. A few examples from the most popular manufacturers are: Bali Skylight Cellular Shades, available as inside or outside mount, Comfortex Skylight, available only as inside mount, Graber Skylight, which are manual and come with extra charge, optional extension poles to open and close the shade, or Hunter Douglas Skylight which come either manual or motorized for full comfort and convenience.

Hopefully, this brief overview will help you in choosing your blinds for skylights.

Not all houses have a conservatory, but if yours does, then you know how important conservatory blinds are in creating the ambiance you desire in your home and in keeping the heat away. Conservatories have those large glass roofs, that need special thermal insulation, if you don’t want to live in a real green house. Of course, the windows quality is also important, as you should choose at least double-glazed, low-E glass ones, but also their coverings can help in creating a human-friendly space inside this room. I don’t know about other manufacturers, but I’ve looked at Hilarys blinds for this type of room and I must confess they’ve become my first choice when it comes to window coverings for the conservatory.

Conservatory Roof Blinds

Hillary’s experts advise that pleated blinds suit best the conservatory roof. Their strongest point is the special blind fabrics with thermal insulating lining, to stop the heat from entering your space. If you want to know more, you could call a Hillary’s representative and ask about the sun protection factor. This factor is a measure of the sunlight protection level offered by the blinds and it takes into account the transmission of heat, the reflectance of the blind surface and the absorption of heat into the blind fabric.

Hilarys Conservatory Blinds: Perfect Playtime

The conservatory roof pleated blinds for Hillary’s come in over 100 colors and shades, from beige, yellow or orange, to blue, green or even purple. Such blinds can either be manually operated, by a simple, long, detachable wand, or again manually operated by via a crank with a winding device, or a kind of semi-motorized operating device, thanks to an electric screwdriver attached to the crank, instead of the manual winding mechanism.

The latest news form Hillary’s blinds is that they offer now remote control option for the roof blinds. This is great, but there’s no additional info on their official website, you’ll have to call and talk to one of their window treatments advisers.

Conservatory Blinds For The Sides

On the sides of your conservatory, you can let your creativity flow and imagine the most fashionable and outstanding solutions, as the sides are less exposed to direct sunlight and heat than the roof.
Many blinds companies offer great models of blinds, so you have practically an infinite choice of models, fabrics, colors and styles. For instance, at Hillary’s blinds, you can choose for your conservatory’s sides either vertical blinds, Venetian blinds, roller shades, Roman blinds or the eco-friendly, gorgeous Woodweave blinds, made of jute, bamboo or poplar wood. These natural fibers are woven together, offering quite a wide choice of styles.

Solar shades are those window treatments that let the light through, while protecting you from the glare. This helps preserving your room decorations like new for a longer time, as they are not anymore exposed directly to sun rays.

Bali solar shades are made of certified fabrics which are presented under the registered trademark GreeGuard. According to the privacy and light control provided, the fabrics for solar shades from Bali come in two options: with 10% – 14% openness and with 5%-7% openness. Both variants feature a wide range on textures and colors, and for some of them you can even order samples, to see better if they match your other decorations inside the room.

As of the lift control types, Bali offers four types of control: the continuous-loop lift system, the cordless lift system, the infrared motorization system and the radio frequency motorization system. They are all designed in such a way as to avoid strangulation hazards for children or pets. The cordless lift system is available in three variants: with clear hem grip, with standard tassels or with wood tassels.

An innovation which I like at Bali blinds is the possibility of choosing the reverse roll: instead of orientating the fabric to roll to the back, you can have it rolling to the front, therefore allowing more distance between the fabric and the window itself, thus accommodating better the window handles.

For very picky customers, Bali offers the possibility to add a cassette valance or a square-corner valance to your roller shades, which gives a touch of elegance. In case you like this idea, make sure to order the valance in the same time with the solar shades, as they can’t be ordered later on.