A Guide to Skylight Blinds

Skylights and Lantern roofs are growing in popularity over recent years as people take advantage of the beautiful natural light from the outdoors. This can effectively make any regular room into a more bright and conservatory-like area with similar advantages and disadvantages that we are here to help guide you through with our guide to skylight blinds. The new natural light can give an increased glare and impact the temperature of the room. E.g. too hot in the summer, too much heat escaping in the winter. However, we have a simple solution for you: skylight blinds. The two options for skylight blinds are horizontal or individual roof blinds. Whichever you choose for your lantern roof or skylight, blinds can help in a variety of ways.

A Guide to Lantern Roof & Skylight Blinds: Horizontally

First, to help you differentiate between the two, we will discuss each type in this skylight blinds guide. Horizontal blinds are often applied to lantern roofs and skylights for shading. They consist of two or three blinds that run along the bottom of the lantern’s rails in a horizontal sheet. Some people opt for just one singular blind.

Since there are fewer blinds, this option is often cheaper and therefore more popular in some cases. It is chosen for other reasons too, such as its clean and neat finish when extended. This is especially the case if we can cover the area with a single-blind; as in the photo above.   When we fit these styles of blinds; we can create blinds that look like a natural part of the extension. In this case, we were able to match the colour of the rails and components to the colour of the lantern roof or skylight frame. This provides customers with an integrated look. Additionally, during colder months another advantage to these horizontal blinds is they aid in the heating process of the room. The fitted blind at the bottom lowers the air volume of the room which limits the room size you have to heat.  

A Guide to Lantern Roof & Skylight Blinds: Individually-Fitted

 

This style of blind is what we typically fit in the roofs of orangeries, but is also a valid option for a lantern roof in an extension. It involves fitting a blind next to each pane of glass in the lantern roof using an individual blind layout.

The main benefit of this is that it gives you more control over the shading in the room. You can extend blinds over a specific part of the lantern roof, letting light come in through the rest, and adjust it to your preference. With our puresolo™ Remote Control system, you can even adjust each blind individually.

Another benefit of this individual fitting is that you keep the large and open feeling a lantern roof provides, even while the blinds are extended. This style might be preferable if you installed a skylight to make your room feel larger or extended.

  Another skylight option to consider is how you would like to guide them which includes:

• Manually retracting them–  with our easy-to-use retractable pole, you can slot it in and guide the skylight blind down manually.
• Remote Control Blinds -Our motorised blinds system is designed to cope with more than a few blinds a single control box can operate up to 36 blinds making it perfect for individual roof blinds.
• Battery Operated Blinds– Simply press the up or down arrow on a wall-mounted switch or handheld device.
• Somfy^® TaHoma Smart Home app – Our app for your smartphone or a smart device such as an Amazon Echo or Google Home.

 

Which method is the best?

Both ways of fitting blinds to a lantern roof are viable methods of reducing glare and improving insulation. Ultimately, a lot of it comes down to personal preference; a lot of people are just looking for the simple look of horizontal blinds. Comparatively, others may prefer the control of individual roof blinds.

If either of these interests you,  please be aware that sky and lantern roofs can sometimes have odd shapes in them, such as blinds with obtuse angles. Thus some companies lack the expertise to cater to this. We at Specialist Blinds are happy to assure your blinds fit neatly into these shapes so there are no unsightly gaps.

So, if you have a lantern roof or skylight in your extension or orangery, contact a member of our sales team so they can guide you through the options available, and see what would work best for you!