Blackout Shades & Blinds for Basement Windows

A basement window lets in less light than any other window in the house, yet it is often the one that has to go fully dark. Finished basements hold the rooms that need it most: a guest bedroom, a room for someone who sleeps through the day, a media corner. On a bright morning that one strip of glass high on the wall can light the whole room. This page gathers the made-to-measure blackout shades and blinds we build for exactly that opening, each one sized to your window and shipped direct.

Three ways to black out a basement window

ZeroGlow leads the page because it is built around a dark room with no drilling. It is a 25 mm blackout cellular shade held inside a slim edge-to-edge frame, and the whole frame presses into the window recess with no drilling. The lift is cordless, and you choose whether the shade travels up and down the glass or side to side, which suits a short, wide basement window. The fabric comes in six colors, White, Black, Beige, Light Gray, Dark Gray and Straw, and the frame comes in three.

Blackout cellular shades suit a basement bedroom where you want a softer fabric look, and the cordless version builds down to very small hopper windows. Blackout roller shades are the simplest profile of the three and the one to reach for on a very narrow slot window, since the manual version builds narrower than anything else here.

A design note: White or Light Gray keeps a basement room from feeling closed in by day, while Black or Dark Gray lets the window disappear in a media room.

Sizes that matter on a short, narrow opening

Basement windows test minimum sizes, and the minimum changes with how the shade operates.

ZeroGlow is built to the exact size of your opening, measured in inches or millimetres. It fits inside the recess, so it needs a window with some depth around the glass rather than glass set flush with the wall.

A cordless blackout cellular shade builds from 12 inches wide and 12 inches high, up to 94 by 94 inches. The top-down bottom-up cordless version drops to an 8 inch minimum height, which covers the shortest hopper windows. Motorized cellular needs at least 23 inches of width and stops at 79 inches high, so check the width first on a basement window.

A manual blackout roller shade on our squared cassette starts at 11 3/4 inches wide and reaches 94 1/2 inches wide and 118 inches high. Cordless needs far more width, 23 5/8 inches, and a motorized roller needs 20 1/8 inches. On a narrow slot window, manual roller is the one that fits.

Measuring and installing them yourself

Measure the opening itself, and measure every window separately. For ZeroGlow, send us the exact opening size and the frame is made to fit it. For an inside-mounted cellular shade, take 1/4 inch off the measured width so it clears the frame. If your basement frame is shallow or uneven, an outside mount often works better: add 3 7/8 inches to both width and height so the shade overlaps the opening and blocks more light at the edges.

ZeroGlow goes in with no tools. Lay the frame on a soft, flat surface and join the corners. Fit the rubber weather strip around the outside edges, which is what seals it against the opening. Then set it in the window and press the front of the frame gently until it is seated.

A roller shade mounts on two brackets with a 6 mm drill bit. Two anchor types are supplied; on a concrete or block basement wall, use the masonry one. Each bracket has four pre-drilled holes, and two screws on opposite sides hold it on a sound wall. Hook the valance onto the bracket latch, press it back until it clicks, and check that the top and rear are both engaged.

Measure each opening, choose ZeroGlow, cellular or roller, and we will make each shade to size and ship it direct to your door.