Beach House Shades & Blinds

A beach house gets more light than almost any other home. Sun comes in once from the sky and again off the water and the sand, the best rooms are built around wide view windows and sliders to the deck, and the air is damp and salty for much of the year. Most people want two things from the window coverings: cut the glare without losing the view of the ocean, and make the bedrooms dark enough to sleep past sunrise. Beach house shades and blinds have to do both while standing up to the climate. Every shade here is made to the width and height you measure and shipped direct to you.

Shades and blinds that work at the beach

Solar shades are the starting point for the main living space. They are screens rated by openness: 1% blocks about 80% of the light, 3% about 70%, 5% about 60% and 10% about 50%. The tighter screens take the worst of the reflected afternoon glare off a west-facing deck while you still see the horizon.

Blackout roller shades handle the bedrooms and bunk rooms, where early sun is the problem. Light filtering roller shades soften the light in a kitchen or dining area while keeping the room bright. Zebra shades suit a room that has to switch between view and privacy several times a day: alternating sheer and solid bands slide past each other, so you can open the view without raising the shade.

All four are built on our roller systems, and the fabrics are polyester, with the solar screens a polyester and PVC blend, so they handle damp air far better than natural fibers. That is the reason woven wood is not on this page: natural fibers are not suited to humid rooms, and a beach house is humid in most rooms. For a coastal look, choose fabrics in sand, pearl, stone and white, and match the cassette to the trim; cassettes come in white, beige, grey and black.

Widths, openness and sliders

Fabric type sets the width a single shade can reach. On our CB-235 squared cassette, light filtering reaches 98 3/8 inches wide and blackout and solar reach 94 1/2 inches, because the heavier goods are milled on narrower rolls. Solar screens are woven on 118 inch rolls, so for the widest glass ask about our large cassette: any shade over 100 inches high moves to the 43 mm tube on the large cassette, which reaches 118 inches wide and 120 inches high.

For a slider to the deck, two shades can share one headrail on our CB-268 and CB-269 cassettes. Run them as separate shades so each side opens on its own, or on a middle mechanism where one clutch or motor drives both in step. Cordless is not available on the middle mechanism. If a sill is deep or a handle sticks out, a reverse roll hangs the fabric off the front of the tube to clear it.

Measuring and installing them yourself

Measure each window and slider separately, and label them by room. For an inside mount, measure the width at the top, middle and bottom of the opening and use the smallest figure, then measure the height on both sides and use the smaller. Send us the exact numbers; the factory applies its own deductions for the tube, fabric and bottom bar.

The cassette hangs on two brackets. Drill with a 0.2 inch (6 mm) bit, set the screws at 1.1 inch spacing, and use the anchor that matches your wall, since drywall and masonry anchors both come in the box. Each bracket has four pre-drilled holes; use all four on a wide slider shade. Hook the valance groove onto the bracket latch, press it back until it clicks, and check that the top and rear are both locked before you let go.

If you prefer louvers to fabric, our plantation shutters for coastal homes are made for the same climate. For shades, order a few solar samples, hold them to the glass at the brightest time of day, and pick the openness that keeps your view.