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4 Best Sidelight Shades

Entryways can significantly affect the mood and feel of a home. This is especially true for guests, where this is what makes the first impression as they enter. To bring in more light and visual detailing, homeowners can add sidelights and vertical windows that flank a door. Sidelights are generally narrow, rectangular, and can be made of clear or colored glass. Because they are immediately adjacent to doorways, their needs for dressings are unique as homeowners often want the additional sunlight the sidelight windows afford but still need to cover the window for privacy. As such, when we polled the experts at Blinds & Us about the best sidelight shades, they came up with four options that combine light-loving qualities with the ability to provide reliable privacy for residents.

The front of a house with tan stucco siding and a maroon door with sidelights near Greenville, SC

4 Best Sidelight Shades

1. Mini Blinds

– With individual slats that rotate up or down, blinds are incredibly nimble when balancing light control and privacy. Depending on the room's unique needs at the time, the slats on blinds are easily adjustable to suit the requirements. And the smaller proportions of mini blinds work nicely in the often-narrow dimensions of sidelights, making these an easy and fashionable addition to accent your home’s front door.

2. Sheer Shades

Using semi-opaque materials, sheer shades provide privacy by obscuring the view but are thin enough to still let some sunlight filter through. Hunter Douglas has vertically and horizontally oriented sheer shades that work seamlessly as sidelight shades.

3. Plantation Shutters

The hard louvers of shutters are easily customizable to any number of specialty shapes for windows, including entryway windows like sidelights and transoms. Their louvers, like the slats on mini blinds, allow homeowners to easily balance their need for privacy and light control by tilting the louvers up or down. These classic window treatments are the perfect combination of classic charm and modern convenience, making them perfect for your sidelights.

4. Motorized Shades

The PowerView® system motorizes shades and adds the benefit of automation for custom window treatments. By pre-scheduling your shades to open or close during essential times of the day, you ensure that the right level of privacy is provided around the clock without worrying about remembering to open or close the shades daily.

Update your entryway with new sidelight shades from Hunter Douglas. Whether you like the durability of blinds, the light-loving nature of sheer shades, the timeless style of shutters, or the reliability of motorized shades, the team at Blinds & Us can help you design custom window treatments to suit your household needs and styles. Blinds & Us has two locations near Seneca and Greenville, South Carolina, to serve the communities of Seneca and Greenville as well as the surrounding areas of Salem, Sunset, Keowee Key, Walhalla, West Union, Central, Clemson, Pendleton, Liberty, Pickens, Townville, Westminster, Lake Keowee, Anderson, The Cliffs at Keowee Falls, The Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards, The Cliffs at Keowee Springs, The Cliffs at Lake Keowee, and The Reserve at Lake Keowee. Request a consultation to get started today!