One Way Shades & Blinds: See Out, Not In

People looking for one way window shades usually want something very specific: to sit by the window and still see the street, the yard or the view, without the street seeing back into the room. No fabric works like a one way mirror around the clock, but a solar screen comes close during the day, and choosing the right openness is most of the decision. Every shade here is made to the width and height you measure and shipped direct to you.

Which shades and blinds let you see out but not in

Solar shades are the daytime answer. They are roller shades made from an open screen fabric, and the openness figure tells you how much of the weave is open: 1%, 3%, 5% or 10%. A lower number blocks more light and gives more privacy, while a higher number gives a clearer view out. As a guide, our 1% screen carries a shading rating of about 80%, 3% about 70%, 5% about 60% and 10% about 50%. For a street-facing room where privacy matters most, start at 1% or 3%. For a back window where the view is the whole point, 5% or 10% keeps the outlook sharper.

The catch is the evening. A screen gives you a view out while it is brighter outside than in. Once your lamps are on after dark, that reverses, and a screen on its own will not hide a lit room. For bedrooms and rooms you mostly use at night, a light filtering roller shade is the better choice, and you can keep solar screens for the daytime rooms. Our solar samples in 1%, 3% and 5% let you test this at your own window, at midday and again at dusk, before you order.

Sizes and the limits that matter

Solar screen fabric comes on 118 inch rolls, so the fabric itself is rarely the limit. The shade system is. In our squared cassette, solar shades are built up to 94 1/2 inches wide. With a bead chain they start at 11 3/4 inches wide, motorized at 20 1/8 inches and cordless at 23 5/8 inches, because the spring or motor has to fit inside the tube. Any shade over 100 inches high, or wider than the squared cassette allows, moves to the large cassette with a heavier 43 mm tube, which reaches 118 inches wide and 120 inches high.

Motorized solar shades run from a remote, a wall switch or an app and work with Alexa, Google Home and Apple HomePod. That is useful on a tall window where you want the screen down through the brightest hours and up again for the evening view.

Measuring and installing it yourself

Measure the width and the height carefully at the opening and decide on an inside or outside mount before you order, because the same cassette bracket handles both. You will need a drill with a 6 mm (about 0.2 inch) bit. Each bracket has four pre-drilled holes: two screws on opposite sides hold it on a standard wall, and the other two are there for a weak wall, a wide shade, or a spot above a door or stairwell. Two types of wall anchor come in the box, so use the one that matches your wall rather than whichever is on top.

To hang the shade, hook the groove at the top of the valance onto the bracket latch, press it back until it clicks, and check that both the top and the rear are locked before you let go. If you ever need to take it down, press the metal washer at the back of the bracket instead of prying the valance off the front.

If privacy after dark matters as much as the daytime view, our privacy shades and blinds page compares the fabrics that hold up at night. Otherwise, order the solar samples, tape them to the glass, and pick the openness that gives you the view you want with the privacy you need.