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Today, there’s a great amount of choice and customisation available for your window coverings. Once you’ve decided on the overall type and style of window covering you would like for each room in your home, you’ll then need to select the specific details that suit you. This includes the type of fabric, colour, and mode of operation. You will also need to select an ‘opacity’ level. But what does this mean?
While your Luxaflex consultant can provide advice at every step, here’s a quick guide.
Essentially, the opacity level of your window covering is how much light it lets through. At one end of the spectrum you have sheer fabric, and at the other, room darkening.
Every Luxaflex® window covering is designed to reduce glare and filter light to some degree, but it’s important to select the level that’s right for every room of your home.
Also, keep in mind that the opacity you choose isn’t the only way to filter or block light in a space. You also have the option of adding liners and dual-roller systems to your window coverings for spaces where light control is very important – like media rooms, studies, or bedrooms.
Typically, your Luxaflex window coverings are available in the following opacity levels:
Sheer
Soft and lightweight, sheer fabric lets the most amount of light to flow into a space. While sheer fabrics have great aesthetic qualities, they provide minimal privacy and glare reduction. They are often used as part of a layered solution, especially in a bedroom or living area.
Semi-sheer
Semi-sheer fabrics let in slightly less light than sheer fabrics. The view-through is not quite as much as with a sheer, and their function is still largely aesthetic as they don’t provide a great amount of privacy or glare reduction.
Translucent
Translucent fabrics bring in just enough light to brighten up a space, but they will block your view and prevent others from seeing inside (although you may still see shadows of objects).
Room darkening
Room darkening fabrics will block almost all light from entering a room and are an ideal solution for spaces where optimal privacy is required. These fabrics will make it harder to brighten your space with natural light, unless they are partially or fully opened.
Blockout
Blockout opacity is a great solution for rooms where you require complete light control, as they block almost all incoming light.
The level of opacity you choose can differ from room to room. You may even choose to have different levels of opacity within the same room, depending on the type of covering and its orientation.
When making the decision, here are a few things to think about:
The function of your room/s
How will the level of light in a room impact how you use it? For a media room or bedroom where you want to create a dark and peaceful environment, you may want to choose blockout or room darkening opacity. Whereas for a living area, you may choose sheer or semi sheer. It all depends how much light you want to allow to flow into the space.
Privacy
This can be a very important consideration. For rooms that can be viewed from the outside, you may also want to choose window coverings with a darker opacity, so you can retain privacy during both the day and night.
Orientation
For windows that face directly into the sun, you may want to choose a heavier opacity to block light – or conversely, a lighter option, if you’re looking to create an extremely light-filled space.
If you are interested in learning more about which level of opacity is most suitable for different rooms in your home, please get in touch or drop by one of our showrooms.
