Skylight and roof-window shades you can actually close

Why roof glass is a special case

A skylight or roof window does a job that a wall window cannot: it drops daylight into a stairwell, a loft, a kitchen or a low-pitched great room when there is no room for another vertical opening. It also takes more sun, more summer heat and, at Wasatch Back elevations, more ultraviolet than the wall below it. Snow glare from a nearby roof or a bare hillside can make the room harsh even when the wall shades are already down. Closing that opening is often the missing piece in an otherwise well-shaded house, from a Park City loft to a ranch kitchen in Kamas.

Access is the first constraint

Most skylights sit where you would need a ladder, or where you would rather not climb at all. A manual shade that has to be hooked and pulled from the floor is easy to leave open. The shades we install on suitable roof windows are battery-powered or rechargeable, operated by a remote or, when the product and hub allow it, by an app or a schedule. No new electrical wiring is required for that kind of motor. Hardwired roof motors and any work that means opening a ceiling or running new power are outside what we offer; those belong with an electrician or a home-technology integrator.

Heat, glare and sleep under the roof

In a bedroom or loft under a skylight, morning light can arrive hours before you want it. A blackout or room-darkening fabric, fitted as tightly as the frame allows, is the usual answer there. In living spaces where you want daylight but not a hot patch on the floor, a solar or light-filtering fabric cuts glare and takes some of the heat out of the opening while the sky is still visible. We bring samples up to the opening, or as close as we can get, because roof light is a different color and intensity than the light on a vertical view wall. See also our guide to views and glare.

Measuring a sloped opening

Skylights and roof windows are not just small wall windows turned on an angle. The frame, the well, the slope and the way the unit opens all change how a shade can mount and how much light will leak around it. Some units have very little room for a cassette. Some are out of square. Some cannot take a shade we would stand behind, because there is no safe way to measure, mount or later service the motor. If that is the case, we will say so at the visit rather than force a product onto a bad opening. When a shade will work, we measure the unit itself, not a guess from the floor, and we talk through how you will charge or reach the motor later.

How skylight shades fit the rest of the house

A roof shade should look related to the wall shades, not like a leftover. We can often match or closely coordinate fabrics and backings so the house still reads as one design from outside, which matters in neighborhoods with exterior guidelines. Motors on skylights can share a remote or a scene with the motorized rollers on the tall wall glass, as long as the systems are compatible. If you are already planning shades for a great room, it is cheaper in time, if not always in parts, to look at the roof openings in the same consultation. Start with the consultation request and mention the skylights in your notes.