Living on Lake Conroe comes with an incredible benefit: the view. In this lakefront home, expansive windows across the back of the house bring the water and surrounding landscape into the living spaces. But all that glass also brings an abundance of Texas sunlight.
The homeowners wanted to protect their wood floors and interiors from prolonged sun exposure without losing the natural light and lake views they love. The solution was a whole-home installation of Hunter Douglas Designer Roller Shades with motorization, customized to balance the view, filtered light and solar protection throughout the day.
Protecting a Lakefront Home From Sunlight
With the entire back of the home facing Lake Conroe, sunlight enters through a substantial amount of glass. Protecting the wood flooring was an important consideration when choosing the window treatments, but the homeowners didn’t want to permanently cover the windows or sacrifice the bright, open feeling of the home.
Roller shades offered a streamlined solution. When raised, they provide an open view of the lake with minimal visual interruption. When lowered, the shades filter the sunlight entering the home, helping protect interior surfaces while creating a more comfortable environment.
Light-Filtering Designer Roller Shades Throughout the Home
For a consistent look from room to room, the homeowners selected Designer Roller Shades in a White Pearl fabric with a 0.5% openness factor. The tightly woven fabric provides substantial solar protection while still allowing softly filtered light to enter when the shades are lowered.
The light fabric was also an important design choice. Rather than making the lake-facing rooms feel closed off, the shades create a soft glow across the interior and coordinate with the home’s light, airy finishes.
Using the same custom window shades throughout the home also creates continuity across the many windows and doors, particularly when viewed from the outdoor living areas.
Motorized Shades That Work With the Homeowners’ Schedule
Motorization made it possible to balance two priorities that might otherwise compete: enjoying the lake views and protecting the home’s interior.
The shades are programmed to be raised when the homeowners are home, opening the rooms to Lake Conroe. When they’re away, the shades can lower automatically to help protect the wood floors and other interior finishes from extended sun exposure.
With motorized shades, the homeowners can also control individual shades when one area needs additional glare or light control, or operate multiple shades together as a group. Instead of walking from window to window across the house, the window coverings can respond together to the way the homeowners use the space.
Roller Shades for Windows and French Doors
The lake-facing side of this home includes more than traditional windows. Designer Roller Shades were customized for windows as well as French doors, allowing the same fabric and streamlined style to continue across different openings.
This consistency is particularly noticeable in a home with large expanses of glass. Rather than introducing different window treatments from one area to the next, the roller shades create a cohesive appearance while allowing each shade to operate independently when needed.
It’s a good example of why custom window treatments are especially valuable for homes with a combination of large windows and doors: the product, fabric, dimensions and operating system can all be planned as one complete solution.
Designed Around the Lake Conroe View
For this home, choosing window treatments wasn’t about covering the view—it was about having greater control over when the windows are open to it. The combination of low-openness Designer Roller Shades and motorization gives the homeowners the flexibility to enjoy Lake Conroe while they’re home and add solar protection when they’re away.
Lakefront homes and other properties with expansive windows can have very different light-control needs depending on window orientation, interior finishes and how each space is used. Our designers can help determine the right fabric, opacity, operating system and window treatment for those individual needs.
Visit our Woodlands/Conroe showroom to explore Hunter Douglas window treatments and motorization in person, or contact Creative Blinds to schedule a consultation for your home.