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The sun is low in the sky—and sometimes it doesn’t show its face for weeks at a time. The air is cold. The trees are bare. And you’re stuck inside because the roads are icy and there’s a storm warning.
Winter can feel dreary.
One way to elevate your winter mood is through light—particularly natural light. And the key to maximizing the natural light in your home is choosing the right window treatments. The right blinds, shades, and drapery can deliver light when you need it and in just the right amount.
The Subtle Glow of Sheer Fabrics
One way to bring a bit of natural luminosity into your living space is using sheer fabrics in your window treatments. Sheer fabrics have a special way of holding the light and presenting an everchanging array of moods. In direct sunlight, sheer fabrics create shadows and interesting patterns. Late in the day, they capture the remaining light and give off a subtle glow. During the winter, this characteristic is an outstanding way to harness the mood-altering effects of light.
Cellular shades, roller shades, and drapery all come in a variety of sheer fabrics. Cellular shades made with sheer fabrics have a delicate feel and can be combined with room-darkening drapery to provide the full range of light control and privacy. As a bonus, cellular shades have a honey-comb design that traps air and provides excellent insulation against winter’s cold.
Sheer drapery—perhaps the most classic use of sheer fabric—is wonderfully sculptural. Paired with a room-darkening drapery, sheer drapery looks classic and sophisticated. Few interior design elements are as beautiful as a delicate sheer fabric.
Easy Opening (and Closing) Rollers
Shades that are mounted on rollers are among the easiest, most convenient of all window treatments. They raise or lower in one simple move. You simply lift the shade and you have the maximum amount of natural light streaming through your window (and because of the simple, unobtrusive roller design, the retracted window treatment blocks virtually none of the daylight). Pull the shade down and you have instant light control and privacy. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.
Roller shades come in a vast variety of room-darkening and blackout fabrics—choose from countless colors, textures, and patterns for every décor.
Solar shades are also set on a roller. They’re a great choice for windows that get an abundance of sun and maybe even some glare—something that can be a problem in the winter, particularly in locations with snow cover. A solar shade can block that headache-inducing glare while still allowing you to see outdoors.
Solar shades are often used alone on a window—a great option for living rooms, dining rooms, and kitchens. But solar shades can also be paired with drapery to create a combination that provides every level of privacy and light control.
Controlling the Light With Sheer Shades and Zebra Shades
Sheer shades are two layers of sheer fabric with fabric vanes between them—they filter the light beautifully and are an excellent choice for living rooms and dining rooms. Zebra shades, also known as layered shades, are available in sheer fabrics with their unique banded design to produce a window treatment that provides filtered light while still offering some level of privacy.
Zebra shades are now available with the Ultralite lift system, the smoothest cordless lift system available today. Ultralite lift allows the exact placement of the shade with the lightest touch.
Motorization for Maximizing Every Ray of Light
It is very common for people to just leave their window treatments shut during the winter. There are a number of reasons for this, but the biggest reason is that it takes time. But that’s not good—we need light! Natural light helps to keep our internal clocks working properly. Natural light improves our mood and helps us get better sleep when it’s time to go to bed at night.
Motorized blinds and shades will ensure that you get as much natural light as possible. Graber’s motorized shade technology lets you program your shades to open and close at specified times. That means you can have your shades open when the sun is shining so you get as much light at possible. And then when the sun goes, down, the shades will shut automatically to provide privacy and to protect your sleep when the sun comes up the next morning.
All this can be accomplished with your phone or tablet and can be changed and adjusted with a few taps of a screen. It’s an incredibly easy-to-use system that will turn your home into a winter light-gathering machine. Once you’ve experienced the convenience of motorized shades, you’ll never want to go back.
This winter, upgrade your window treatments and start using light to fight the winter blues and to improve your mood.
