Shades for a Home Office

Create a calm, productive space with stylish, functional window treatments

As working from home has become the norm for many people, 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. 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. You can even find roller shades that 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.

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. 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.

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.

Automation 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.