As working from home has become the norm for many of us, the concept of a home office has evolved. While a dedicated room with a door is still ideal, kitchens, dens and other areas of our homes are pulling double duty as workspaces.
No matter where you set up shop, when you begin your workday you want to feel good about walking into your office space each morning. A well-lit workspace is comfortable, inviting, motivating and helps you focus.
Natural light—and window treatments that help you maximize its benefits—plays a big role in creating not only a pleasing atmosphere, but a productive one.
Here’s how to put home office window shades and blinds to work for you.
While sunlight is welcome, if you’re sitting at your desk with the office window behind you, the sun’s rays can cause excessive glare on your computer screen. And that can lead to either squinting up close or stretching back to see better, neither of which is ideal.
You can significantly minimize glare and reduce eyestrain by controlling natural light with roller shades. Their clean lines and classic look make them versatile enough for any room. Designer Roller Shades, for instance, feature beautiful textures and bold prints, for aesthetic options that complement a range of styles. Designer Roller Duolite® Shades feature a light-filtering sheer and a room-darkening opaque liner on the same shade, so you can easily block glare when you need to.
You can also reduce glare, as well as maximize natural light, with shades that feature a Top-Down/Bottom-Up design option. Simply adjust shades from the top down, bottom up, or in a combination of the two.
Up to 30% of a home’s heating and cooling energy can be lost through its windows—and when you’re working, feeling too hot or too cold can interfere with your concentration. But the right window treatments can help up your comfort level.
Cellular shades have a honeycomb design which traps air at the window, creating an extra layer of insulation to keep you warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. Duette® Honeycomb Shades, which were the first cellular shade, and Duette Architella® Honeycomb Shades, which feature a honeycomb-within-a-honeycomb design, are two excellent choices for energy-efficient home office window shades. These shades not only provide superior insulation; they’re also available in a variety of fabric colors and textures and can accommodate many specialty-shaped windows.
While a workspace with a view and lots of natural light is definitely a mood-booster, activity outside your windows, like dog-walkers or your kids playing in the yard, can be distracting. The solution? Sheer fabrics.
Silhouette® Window Shadings, for example, feature soft, adjustable, S-shaped vanes that appear to be floating between two sheer fabrics. Easily tilt the vanes to obscure your view to the outdoors (or conversely, for daytime privacy), while still enjoying the beauty of filtered light.
If you have large windows or sliding-glass doors in your workspace, Luminette® Privacy Sheers are a good option, with rotating fabric vanes that give you 180 degrees of light control.
When you’re in the middle of a videoconference you don’t want to have to excuse yourself to lower the shades or blinds when the sun’s rays start washing out your screen. That’s where the convenience of automated control comes in. With automated shades or blinds, you can adjust them without getting out of your chair.
Consider adding smarts to your home office window treatments with PowerView Automation. PowerView enables you to control shades and blinds with a remote, an app, or your voice (when integrated with a compatible smart-home system). You can even set your shades or blinds to automatically adjust according to a schedule you create—like close every afternoon when the sun’s rays are at its highest.
Have an arched, angled or circular window? Or maybe your home office has bow, corner or bay windows? No matter what your office window design, you can find a window-treatment solution that reduces glare, helps you stay comfortable, minimizes distractions and that you can easily adjust.
For a variety of specialty-shaped window coverings for unique windows, look to Hunter Douglas. You’ll find beautiful solutions for even the most challenging design.
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