Skylight Shades | Motorized Shades for Skylights

A sunroom with sloped glass ceiling and window walls fitted with sand-coloured Duette Honeycomb Shades, overlooking a lake

Duette^® Honeycomb Shades Fabric: Architella^® Batiste Semi-Sheer Color: Desert Sands

October 30, 2023

by Hunter Douglas

Skylights provide rooms with a brighter, more open and airy feeling beyond what standard windows can offer. See all motorized shades for skylight options.

Skylights provide rooms with a brighter, more open and airy feeling beyond what standard windows can offer. But like standard windows, harsh summer rays often stream in through skylights, overheating a space; they can also let cold air in during winter. Direct sunlight and glare pose potential snags, too (think afternoon napping or movie binging).

At Hunter Douglas, we have skylight window treatments to address those kinds of issues, from improving energy efficiency to eliminating glare. Want to make the most of your skylights? Keep the following three points in mind.

1. Fabrics Matter

If your skylights are in rooms where light control matters most—like bedrooms or media rooms—you might want to consider skylight shades with a room-darkening or blackout fabric, so natural sunlight doesn't interrupt your sleep or add glare to a TV screen. And if they're in rooms like kitchens or bathrooms, look for a fabric that stands up to heat and humidity while still letting in the daylight you want.

Also keep in mind that since skylights are often focal points of a room, you’ll want a skylight window covering that complements your space’s overall style. Plus, you’ll want to coordinate the skylight shade fabric with the fabrics of the other window coverings in the room, for a cohesive look.

White Duette Honeycomb Shades on a gabled window wall and French doors in an entryway with black sliding barn doors

Taupe cellular skylight shades mounted on tracks across a sloped ceiling

A conservatory's glass ceiling and walls fully covered with cream cellular shades, diffusing sunlight into soft shadow

2. Energy Efficiency for Skylights is Key

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a home can lose up to 30% of its heating and cooling energy through its windows. That's where cellular shades come in. The most energy-efficient window treatments available, their unique honeycomb design traps air in distinct pockets, providing a layer of insulation at the window. For skylights, Duette^® Honeycomb Shades are the cellular shade we'd point you to first.

For even greater energy efficiency, look to Duette ^® Architella^® Honeycomb Shades, a honeycomb-within-a-honeycomb that features more layers of fabric and insulating air pockets.

Kitchen with a vaulted wood ceiling where Duette Honeycomb Shades cover the skylights and windows above a mountain view at sunset

3. Movement Makes a Difference

Enhancing energy efficiency and just generally making a space more comfortable will only work if you open and close the window treatments over your skylights.

And for that, we have you covered. You can easily control Duette skylight shades with PowerView^® Automation. Convenient control is yours from a remote, an app on your smart device or even with your favorite voice assistant (when integrated with other smart-home systems).

Prefer manual control? Consider the Simplicity^™ Skylight System, which is also available on Duette shades, which is also available on Duette shades.

For skylights that sit well out of reach, SkyLift raises and lowers the shade on Duette^® and Applause^® Honeycomb Shades, with both automated and manual options.

This system operates on any slope or orientation by a handle, as opposed to a hand crank, or with a telescoping pole. What’s really great about this system is that the fabric can stack at the top, bottom, left or right side.