Bedroom Privacy Shades & Blinds

Bedroom privacy is usually about being seen, not about darkness. A ground floor bedroom on a street, a window that faces the neighbor's kitchen, or a room that gets dressed in by daylight all need a covering that blocks the view in without turning the room into a cave at noon. This collection brings together the shades and blinds that handle that balance best, each made to the width and height you measure and shipped direct to you. If darkness for sleep is the main goal, our blackout bedroom collection is the better starting point.

The best shades for bedroom privacy

Top down bottom up cellular shades lead this page for a reason. The shade can be lowered from the top, so daylight comes in over the upper part of the window while the lower part stays covered at bed and dresser height. You can also raise it from the bottom like a standard shade when you want the full view. Choose light filtering fabric for a bright room with privacy, or blackout for a bedroom that faces a streetlight.

Woven wood shades bring natural texture to a bedroom, and the liner sets the privacy level. With no liner a woven shade is about 50% see-through, a light filtering liner takes it to about 70%, and a blackout liner makes it fully opaque. Woven wood is also available top down bottom up, though that style cannot be combined with a movable liner.

ZeroGlow suits renters and anyone who would rather not drill a window frame. It is a blackout cellular shade inside an edge-to-edge frame that presses into the opening, with a cordless lift that moves up and down or side to side, in six fabric colors including White, Beige, Light Gray and Straw. Wood blinds round out the collection for a warm, slatted look; a sample is the easiest way to judge how much they show from outside.

Sizes and operating options

A cordless top down bottom up 38 mm cellular shade can be built from 12 to 98 inches wide and as short as 8 inches high, up to 94 inches high, which covers most bedroom windows. Standard cordless cellular reaches 94 inches wide. If you want a motorized cellular shade, it needs at least 23 inches of width and tops out at 79 inches high, so very tall windows are better served by a bead chain. Woven wood is built up to 96 inches wide on every lift system; cordless reaches 106 inches high, and clutch or motorized reaches 118. Cordless woven wood leaves no hanging chains, which is worth having in a child's or guest room.

Measuring and installing it yourself

Measure the width at the top, middle and bottom of the opening and the height on both sides, and use the smallest figure, rounded down to the nearest 1/8 inch. Give us exact numbers; the necessary deductions are made when the shade is built. For woven wood, check the frame depth: 1 5/8 inches is the minimum for an inside mount and 2 5/8 inches lets it sit flush. For an outside mounted cellular shade, add about 3 7/8 inches to both width and height so the edges overlap the frame and close the side gaps.

ZeroGlow installs by hand. Join the frame corners on a soft, flat surface, apply the rubber weather strip around the outside edges, then press the frame gently into the window opening.

When choosing, think about the hours you are most exposed. A bedroom that needs privacy while you dress in the morning suits a top down shade in light filtering fabric. One that faces a busy street at night is happier with blackout cellular, a blackout lined woven shade, or ZeroGlow.