Transom Window Shades & Blinds

A transom is the short pane above a door or above another window. It is usually wider than it is tall, it is always out of arm's reach, and it is normally the piece of glass people leave bare for years because nothing off the shelf fits it. Two things decide what you can put on it: how short the opening is, since some of our systems carry a minimum height, and how you intend to reach it once it is up. Everything here is made to the size you measure and ships direct to you.

Which shades and blinds fit a transom

Cellular shades are the first pick. They are the only product here with a documented minimum height, and it is a low one: 12 inches on every cell size and every control, dropping to 8 inches on the cordless top down bottom up and day and night builds at 38 mm and 45 mm. That covers most transoms outright. Light filtering cellular is the general purpose choice and blackout cellular the one for a transom above a bedroom door.

Roller shades are the other fit, and the shallow cassette keeps the hardware from dominating an opening that is only a foot or so tall. Light filtering roller for daylight, blackout roller where the transom is leaking light into a room you want dark. Solar shades suit a transom over an entry door or on a west elevation, since sunscreen fabrics are sold by openness: our screens run at 1, 3, 5 and 10 percent, blocking roughly 80, 70, 60 and 50 percent of light while leaving you the view through them. Woven wood is the one to rule out here. Every woven wood operating system carries an 18 inch minimum height, so a standard transom sits below what we can build.

Width minimums and reaching the shade

Transoms are short but they are rarely narrow, so width minimums are usually easy to clear. Manual clutch loop roller starts at 11 3/4 inches and cordless cellular at 12 inches. The figure worth checking is the motorized one, because a transom you cannot reach is the classic case for a motor. Motorized roller needs about 20 1/2 inches of width, and motorized cellular needs 23 inches at 38 mm and 45 mm, dropping to 16 inches at 25 mm.

For the motor itself, our base RF433 motor can be solar powered, which is the sensible answer for glass above a door that you would rather not take down twice a year to charge. Lithium motors otherwise want a six hour charge every six months even when they sit unused. On Apple devices choose the Matter motor, which talks to HomePod directly. Zigbee reaches five specific Echo devices without a hub, and everything else needs an RF hub.

Measuring and installing above a door

Measure the width at top, centre and bottom and use the smallest figure, rounded down to the nearest 1/8 inch, then measure the height on both sides and do the same. Give us the exact opening, because the factory applies the 1/4 inch width deduction. On a transom the mount choice usually settles itself. If the frame is shallow, or the transom sits tight under a ceiling or a crown, mount outside and add about 3 7/8 inches to width and height so the shade overlaps the opening and closes the light gap.

Fitting needs a 6 mm drill bit, and the brackets mark at 1.1 inch screw spacing. Two anchor types ship in the box, so match the anchor to your wall rather than using whichever is on top. Two screws on opposite sides hold a normal shade, but each bracket has four pre-drilled holes and an install above a door should use all four. Hook the valance groove onto the bracket latch, press back until it clicks, and confirm top and rear have locked.

Order samples before you commit, since a transom is usually seen against bright sky and a fabric reads lighter there than it does in your hand. Everything here carries a limited lifetime warranty against defects in materials and workmanship, with motors and controls covered for five years.