Conservatory Guide: Maximise Light and Privacy With Blinds and Shutters

Exploring window treatments for conservatories can differ slightly from shopping for standard coverings. While standard windows tend to be rectangular and vertical, conservatories and orangeries often include windows of different shapes, sizes, and angles.

In this guide, we’ll explore a variety of conservatory window coverings in detail, helping you consider every aspect of your conservatory.

When you’ve finished reading, you’ll have a better idea of the products available – and which one will help you tie together beautiful design and unrivalled practicality.

Quick Answer: Many types of blinds, such as honeycomb, Venetian, Roman, wooden, fabric, and vertical, offer excellent light control and privacy in conservatories – as do plantation shutters. If you’d like your window coverings to work equally well on a conservatory roof, you should narrow your choice to conservatory shutters or blinds.

Table of contents

Blinds and shutters for conservatory spaces: what to consider first
Control light with Venetian blinds
Adopt rustic tones with honeycomb blinds
Consider shutters for a long-term investment
Choose Roman blinds to accent any conservatory
Embrace modern styles with fabric blinds
Choose earthy colours to evoke natural tones
Think about the benefits of smart technology for your conservatory
Bring warmth and texture with wooden coverings
Contemplate thermal conservatory blinds
Vertical blinds provide a contemporary aesthetic
Try roller blinds for an attractive finish
Solutions for bi-fold conservatory doors
Explore conservatory roof blinds or shutters overhead
Conservatory window coverings

Blinds and shutters for conservatory spaces: what to consider first

Whether you’ve moved into a home with a conservatory or recently had one added, these beautiful rooms can be tricky to control light, temperature, and heat effectively. This is because they’re made primarily of glass and uPVC, which offer minimal insulation.

Without window coverings, these spaces can become impractical during cold winters or warm summers – so they can get closed off for at least six months of the year.

Conservatory blinds or window shutters can transform an often under-loved space in your home, making it practical all year round, whatever the weather. These solutions can work better than conservatory curtains, helping to maintain temperature control. According to The BBSA, plantation shutters and zipped roller blinds can reduce heat loss from 28% – 33%.

Investing in the right covering for your conservatory can bring a whole new feel to your house, offering more living space or the chance to convert your conservatory into an additional practical room.

You might decide your conservatory is the perfect place for an early morning coffee or an evening drink. Or, you may consider it ideal for dining, working from home, letting children play, or dedicating to a hobby. Ultimately, these window dressings are the first step in making that transformation.

Control light with Venetian blinds

Venetian blinds are an excellent choice for conservatory windows owing to their versatility, functionality, and timeless good looks. The slatted design of Venetian window blinds makes them perfect for both light control and privacy.

When fully closed, they reduce the sun’s rays significantly and if you decide to tilt them slightly, you can defuse the light to your liking. This also means increasing your conservatory privacy too, ideal if your home can be easily overlooked.

If neighbouring properties face onto your home, the slats can be adjusted for privacy without shutting out all of the light. This can be ideal if putting your feet up and nodding off in the sunshine is on your Sunday to-do list!

Greater control of the angle of the slats in each of your conservatory windows allows you to follow the sun across the sky, shutting out the harsh glare while still being able to enjoy the view from your other windows.

These blinds are available with a practical and child-safe SmartLift (cordless) option, featuring an integrated mechanism that allows you to simply lift the blinds to open them or pull them down to the windowsill to close. The tensioned system ensures they stay in place, making them a fantastic option for families and pet owners. With no free-hanging cords, they provide a safer and tidier window solution while letting sunlight flood in. Venetian blinds come in a wide range of colours and finishes, so that you can choose a tone that works perfectly with the plans and styles you have for your conservatory.

Adopt rustic tones with honeycomb blinds

In conservatories, honeycomb blinds offer a slightly softer and more rustic look compared to slatted window dressings.

Created using a unique cellular honeycomb manufacturing method, honeycomb blinds offer a gorgeous fabric look when closed but collapse into a very neat and minimal stack when fully open.

For optimum light control, honeycomb blinds work a little differently than slatted blinds. Rather than being angled to let the appropriate amount of light into your room, honeycomb blinds can be partially lowered to reduce the light.

They rely more on the colour you choose to control light levels and you can opt for sheer, light filtering, or room darkening fabric options to achieve your desired brightness. Darker tones offer a room-darkening effect similar to blackout blinds when closed, while lighter tones gently filter sunlight, creating a warm glow when the sun is high in the sky.

These coverings are often referred to as ‘thermal blinds’, another significant benefit if you choose to fit them in a conservatory. Their honeycomb structure means they add an insulating layer to your space. On warm days, this keeps your conservatory cool, by blocking out the sun’s rays – but on chilly days, it keeps warmth locked in.

Consider shutters for a long-term investment

Shutters are an attractive, durable, and versatile solution for conservatories and orangeries, providing unmatched light, temperature, and privacy control compared to other window coverings. In particular, plantation shutters are a popular choice for conservatories.

Made from either hardwood or robust high-grade ABS, shutters can be custom-made to fit virtually any size or shape of window – making them ideal for conservatories. The sleek wooden character of the shutters adds a level of opulence to your space.

While sunshine isn’t guaranteed in the UK, shutters can ensure even cold winter days don’t detract from enjoying spending time in your conservatory. Shutters are engineered to be ‘thermodynamic’, meaning they effectively reflect heat, keeping warm air inside your home when the temperature drops and ensuring your home is cool on stuffy summer days.

Unlike most blinds and curtains, shutters don’t rely on gravity; their frames fit on the window, making them a fantastic option for conservatory roofs. With shutters, it’s easier to control light and privacy from all angles.

Choose Roman blinds to accent any conservatory

The conservatory blind ideas we’ve covered so far all feature sharp, clean lines, but this look isn’t for everyone. For a softer or more traditional look, fabric Roman blinds can be a wise solution.

Roman blinds aren’t as well suited to blocking light completely as night blinds, but the fabric does a beautiful job of filtering the natural light entering your space. By combining this diffused light with the rich fabric, it adds a wonderful texture to the room.

These blinds offer a huge range of colour options, with white and pale tones working especially well with exposed brickwork. Meanwhile, you can opt to be bolder and pick up on lively tones from statement furniture or even plants.

Roman blinds come in two finishes: stacked or cascading. Stacked blinds create a neater, concertina-style fold, taking up less window space when open—ideal for smaller windows. Cascading blinds, on the other hand, create a subtle waterfall effect, elegantly dressing the window.

As Roman blinds gather at the top of your windows, they’re never completely open, but this can add to a relaxed atmosphere. Drop your Roman shades completely, and they’ll do a great job of reducing the sun’s glare and keeping the temperature down.

Roman blinds are perfectly suited to windows, and French doors making it easy to get consistency from your soft window dressings.

Embrace modern styles with fabric blinds

When asked to think of modern, dynamic spaces, conservatories don’t tend to feature in most people’s top answers. However, this is your chance to make an exciting multi-use space with ultra-modern blinds.

Some fabric blind designs feature a two-tone look, including horizontal lines of alternating material that can either let the light in or create a cosy glow. The sheer and opaque vanes can be adjusted to suit your privacy needs perfectly.

In terms of benefits, fabric blinds are extremely versatile. They can easily match conservatory styles, regardless of your design and preferences.

When you want light to flood in, you can lift them completely to allow them to stack discreetly at the top of the window.

While not as insulating as some of the options on this list, fabric blinds reduce the glare from the sun and create a more comfortable space, especially when it’s cold outside.

Choose earthy colours to evoke natural tones

The majority of conservatories feature large glass windows as a main focal point, offering a view over your outside space. As a result, many interior design themes focus on pale, neutral colours to avoid distraction from your outside view.

If your conservatory currently encompasses neutral tones, wicker, and pale fabrics, then these colours should be reflected in your blinds or shutters.

When choosing your coverings, earthy shades like mineral, sand, terra, or desert work especially well as they are attractive without drawing too much attention.

Conservatory window dressings don’t have to stand out and can instead protect your privacy and control light while gently blending into a relaxed design.

Think about the benefits of smart technology for your conservatory

As conservatories have a lot of windows, a common concern will be having to manually control your blinds or shutters to adjust sunlight. This is where remote control, voice control, or automation comes in.

Different shutter and blind providers offer various remote-control options, with some operating with a stand-alone remote that can be used to adjust slats, lift and lower blinds, or even programme daily routines.

Benefit from connecting to the smart technology you have in your home or on your mobile device, extending to Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or the Apple Home App to control privacy and light.

Combining your shutters with your home’s other smart features can enhance security and improve energy consumption.

If you’re not at home, simply use your device to close your blinds to make it less obvious that you’re not in, or drop your conservatory blinds to stop heat escaping as your heating comes on.

Bring warmth and texture with wooden coverings

Looking for a solution that stands out a little more without being too bold? Warm natural wooden blinds and shutters are a beautiful addition to your home. Wood can be painted but you’ll also be able to choose from a range of natural wood tones, often including:

Dark wood: Black walnut, dark mahogany, new ebony, and wenge.
Medium wood: Cherry, red oak, and teak tones.
Light wood: French oak, oak mantel, taupe, and limed white.

Meanwhile, wood composite shutters and faux wood blinds deliver an almost identical look to real wood and offer an even tougher finish, ideal for busy family homes. Wood and wood composite offers maximum light control and privacy when adjusting your slats accordingly.

Contemplate thermal conservatory blinds

To ensure the temperature inside your conservatory is always under control, consider thermal blinds – a type of honeycomb blind.

When closed, the honeycomb structure of hexagonal cells creates air pockets that act as a barrier, reducing heat transfer between the window and the room. As the structure expands, it works with a thermal insulator on the window-facing side of the blind to effectively block heat from entering or leaving your home.

This can be a great solution if your conservatory is often too cool or too warm to use. Windows and doors are responsible for a lot of the heat lost in a room – so thermal honeycomb blinds will help lock the heat in.

Of course, increasingly hot summer months due to climate change can make a conservatory impractical. Thermal blinds can help stop the sun’s hot rays from warming your space as well.

Thermal honeycomb blinds have all the benefits of standard honeycomb blinds too so you can benefit from improved energy efficiency as well as enhanced privacy and control over the sunlight.

Vertical blinds provide a contemporary aesthetic

If you like the clean lines of Venetian blinds and shutters, but they don’t suit your conservatory perfectly, you might decide to explore vertical blinds.

While vertical blinds don’t provide quite the same level of insulation for a conservatory, they’re excellent at controlling light and privacy. Like Venetian blinds and shutters, a vertical blind can be adjusted to carefully shade the sun and prevent anyone from seeing into your space from certain angles.

This style of blind is created using long vanes of fabric that are then discreetly weighted so they hang perfectly in front of windows and doors. With a huge range of fabric colours available, take time to find the ideal match for your interior style.

Vertical blinds are suspended from a neat track system that allows them to be opened and closed like curtains and you can choose whether you want your blinds to stack to the left, the right, or both sides. This makes them perfect for use with any doors used to access your conservatory.

Try roller blinds for an attractive finish

Roller blinds are known for their simple and highly effective design. One large sheet of fabric rolls over an internal tube that mounts neatly at the top of your window. Roll the blind down if you require less light and more privacy and roll the blind back up when you want more light.

There are many off-the-shelf roller blinds available, making them extremely cost-effective. However, if you’re looking for a truly elegant way to control light and privacy, with the neatest and most consistent fit, made-to-measure roller blinds are hard to beat.

As well as being made specifically for your windows, roller blinds can be created with an almost endless range of colours and patterns. With the option for custom digital printing, you can personalise them with a stunning holiday snap, a business logo, or any design of your choice—the possibilities are endless!

If you do decide on a pattern, a professional blind installer will be able to make sure your patterns align when your roller blinds are fully closed.

Solutions for bi-fold conservatory doors

If you have bi-fold doors in your conservatory, there are several window covers available:

Honeycomb blinds: Fitted to each panel of your door, these blinds fit close to the glass, meaning they won’t get in the way as your doors fold back.
Roller blinds: Can be installed in front of doors with a top fix, allowing them to open and close from the ceiling and retract neatly into a cassette. Alternatively, they can be recessed into the ceiling during the build stage for a seamless look.
Vertical blinds: Vertical blinds can be opened fully, meaning they’re out of the way when it’s time to light the fresh air in.
Bi-fold shutters: These shutters consist of multiple panels that are either hinged together or free-floating, sliding smoothly across a track to complement the style and aesthetics of your conservatory.

Explore conservatory roof blinds or shutters overhead

Solutions for roof windows can be used to maximise light and warmth in conservatories.

If you’ve got glass panels making up your roof, you may find that even exceptional privacy, light control, and temperature control from the blinds on your windows are ineffective when the sun is high in the sky, or neighbours glance out of their upstairs windows.

There are window dressing options that work just as well on high, angled windows as they do on standard windows:

Shutters: Since shutters are enclosed within their frame, they can be mounted on ceiling window frames with ease. All ceiling shutters come with a lock, keeping them securely in place and preventing them from swinging open. While it’s important to ensure the structure can support the weight, shutters are often surprisingly lightweight, making this rarely an issue.
Honeycomb blinds: Honeycomb blinds offer various installation styles, including the integrated SmartFrame, which ensures the blind sits snugly within a frame channel. Other options use cords and rails to keep the blind tensioned, allowing you to choose the style that best suits your space. This versatility makes them ideal for skylights or conservatory roofs, providing an effective way to block or filter sunlight when the sun is high.

Both shutters and honeycomb blinds can be controlled either by remote or by connecting to smart devices in your home, so you never have to worry about stretching to adjust them as the day progresses!

Conservatory window coverings

With a world of options available, window coverings can transform your conservatory into a practical space.

The best fit, whether you’re looking at shutters or blinds, will depend on your preferences, along with the light, privacy, and insulation features of each style.

Shutters are hard to fault as conservatory window dressings, fitting perfectly within the recess for a sealed finish. Venetian blinds offer a versatile slatted design, allowing you to control light direction, but they won’t provide the same sealed finish at the window edges as shutters. Honeycomb blinds offer similar benefits while adding insulation. If you prefer a softer, textile look, Roman, vertical, and modern fabric blinds are also excellent choices.

Examine how much sun your conservatory gets, and from here, decide whether it’s overlooked and where from, and then consider the changing temperature in your space throughout the year.

With all this information, you can pick conservatory window coverings that work perfectly around your unique requirements.

Get in touch with our team to book your free consultation.