Living Room Shades & Blinds

The living room is usually the room with the biggest windows and the longest hours. It takes the low afternoon sun that washes out a TV screen, it faces the street after dark, and whatever hangs there is the window treatment you look at most. The right answer often differs from one window to the next, so this page gathers the made to measure shades that suit a living room and the size rules that decide which one fits.

Which shades and blinds suit a living room

Light filtering roller shades are the plain, practical choice: a flat fabric that softens daylight and keeps the room bright at midday. Blackout roller shades use fabrics rated at 100 percent blackout, which is the pick if the living room is also where you watch films in daylight. Solar shades are for the window that throws glare across the room. Solar fabric comes in 1, 3 and 5 percent openness, and the lower the number, the more light it holds back.

Light filtering roman shades give the window a softer, tailored fabric face and are built on the same cassette hardware as our rollers. Woven wood shades bring natural texture in bamboo, jute and ramie weaves, in three fold styles: Waterfall, Flat Fold and Hobbled. Unlined, the weave is roughly 50 percent see-through, so add a light filtering or blackout liner if the shade has to give privacy at night.

Sizes for wide and tall living room windows

Width is where living room windows test a shade. Light filtering roller fabric reaches 98 3/8 inches wide on our 3 1/2 inch squared cassette and 96 inches on the slimmer 2 15/16 inch cassettes. Blackout runs narrower, to 94 1/2 and 86 inches on the same hardware, because the heavier goods are milled on narrower rolls. If a fabric roll is narrower than the system maximum, the fabric width sets the limit instead, and a couple of our fabrics stop at about 90 inches.

Any roller shade taller than 100 inches moves to the large cassette and a thicker 43 mm tube, which reaches 118 inches wide and 120 inches high. For a pair of windows, the slimmer cassettes can carry two shades on one headrail, either operating separately or driven together by one clutch or motor. The shared drive version is not available cordless.

Woven wood tops out at 96 inches wide on every lift system. A wider opening takes several shades on one headrail, up to 118 inches in total, though a single common valance still stops at 96 inches. Cordless woven wood reaches 106 inches high, while clutch, wand and motorized versions reach 118.

Motorization suits the window you cannot reach behind the sofa. Smart control works by remote, wall switch or app, with Alexa, Google Home and Apple Home, and a solar charger is available for high windows. A motorized roller needs 8 to 10 inches more minimum width than a manual one.

Measuring and installing it yourself

Roller and roman shades hang from the same cassette bracket. You need a 6 mm drill bit, the screw holes are spaced 1.1 inches apart, and two kinds of expansion anchor come in the box so you can match one to your wall. Two screws on opposite sides hold each bracket on a sound wall, and the extra pre-drilled holes are there for a wide or heavy shade. Hook the valance groove onto the bracket latch and press back until it clicks, then check that both the top and the rear have locked before you let go.

For woven wood, measure the width at the top, middle and bottom of the opening and use the smallest, rounded down to the nearest 1/8 inch. Measure the height on both sides the same way. An inside mount needs at least 1 5/8 inches of frame depth, and 2 5/8 inches to sit flush. Give us the exact numbers, because the factory takes its own 1/4 inch deduction.

Every shade here is made to measure and shipped direct, with a limited lifetime warranty against defects in materials and workmanship. Motors and controls carry their own five-year warranty.