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Exploring conservatory window coverings is slightly different from shopping for standard window coverings. While standard windows tend to be rectangular and vertical, conservatories and orangeries often include windows of different shapes and angles.
In this guide, we’ll look in-depth at what a diverse range of window coverings can bring to a conservatory. We’ll help you think about the windows that make up the sides of your conservatory and the windows that let the sunlight in from above.
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: Pleated blinds, Venetian Blinds, wooden blinds, Roman blinds, fabric blinds and vertical blinds all 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 pleated blinds.
Opt for Classic Venetian Blinds
Pleated Blinds offer a Rustic Effect
Think about Shutters for a Luxurious Feeling
Choose Roman Blinds to Accent Any Conservatory
Make your Conservatory More Modern with Fabric Blinds
Select Earth Tones to Create a Natural Feel
Add Smart Technology to your Conservatory
Introduce Warmth and Texture with Wooden Blinds
Think About the Benefits of Thermal Conservatory Blinds
Vertical Blinds offer a Modern Look
Fit Roller Blinds for a Sleek Finish
Cater for Your Bi-fold Conservatory Doors
Explore Conservatory Roof Blinds or Shutters Over
Conservatory Window Coverings: Conclusion
Conservatory Window Coverings: What to Consider First
Whether you’ve moved into a home with a conservatory or had one added, these beautiful rooms can frequently fall out of favour. More often than not, this is down to light and heat control.
Since they’re made primarily of glass, getting temperature control in a conservatory or orangery can be challenging. This can mean they’re impractical spaces during winter or warm summers – so time and again, they’ll get closed off for at least six months of the year.
If you’re tired of having a conservatory that’s just a home for a clothes airer, perfect conservatory blinds or shutters can transform an often under-loved space in your home – making it practical all year round.
Investing in the right shutters or blinds 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 a lazy evening drink. Then again, you may consider it ideal for dining, working from home, letting children play, or dedicating to a hobby. Whichever’s right for you, window dressings are the first step in making that transformation.
Opt for Classic 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.
Completely 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 being able to make your conservatory private too – ideal if your home is overlooked.
If neighbouring properties look onto your home, slats can be adjusted for privacy without shutting out all of the light. Ideal if putting your feet up and nodding off in the sunshine is on your Sunday to-do list!
Being able to control the angle of the slats in each of your conservatory windows is perfect because it allows you to follow the sun across the sky too, shutting out the harsh glare while still being able to enjoy the view from your other windows.
Of course, if you decide you’d like to enjoy the view completely unadulterated, the easy child-safe cord control means they can be lifted completely – letting the sunlight flood in.
Most retailers of Venetian blinds will offer a range of colours and finishes too – so you choose a tone that works perfectly with the plans you have for your room.
Pleated Blinds offer a Rustic Effect
Pleated blinds in a conservatory space offer a slightly softer and more rustic look compared to slatted window dressings.
Created using a unique honeycomb manufacture method, pleated blinds offer a gorgeous fabric look when closed – but collapse into a very neat and minimal stack when fully open.
When it comes to light control, pleated blinds work a little differently than slatted blinds. Rather than being angled to let the appropriate amount of light into your room, pleated blinds can be partially lowered to reduce the light.
Pleated blinds rely more on the colour you choose to control light levels. Choose a dark tone, and you’ll get the effect of room-darkening blackout blinds when they’re closed. However, if you opt for a lighter tone, your new blinds will gently filter the light coming into your home – giving a warm glow when the sun is high in the sky.
Pleated blinds are often referred to as ‘thermal blinds’ – which is another big 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 – but on chilly days, it helps to keep the warmth locked in.
Think about Shutters for a Luxurious Feeling
Shutters are a fantastic, versatile solution for conservatories and orangeries, providing unmatched light, temperature and privacy control compared to other window coverings.
Made from either hardwood or robust high-grade ABS, shutters can be made-to-measure to fit virtually any size or shape of window – making them ideal for all conservatory shapes and sizes.
The luxurious wood feel of the shutters adds a level of opulence to a conservatory. Combined with sunshine, you could easily imagine your conservatory windows and bespoke shutters looking out over the Mediterranean or a French vineyard!
Of course, sunshine isn’t guaranteed in the UK – but shutters can help ensure even cold winter days don’t detract from the joy of a conservatory. Shutters are engineered to be ‘thermodynamic’, meaning they effectively reflect heat. This means that warm air is kept inside your home when the temperature drops – and your home is cool on stuffy summer days.
Unlike most blinds and curtains, shutters don’t rely on gravity to operate – since they have their frame that fits to the window frame. This makes them a fantastic option for conservatory roofs, too – letting you 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.
If you’d like a softer or more traditional look when you fit conservatory blinds, fabric Roman blinds are an excellent choice.
Roman blinds aren’t especially well suited to blocking light completely like night blinds – but the fabric does a beautiful job of filtering the natural light entering your space.
Combine this diffused light with the rich fabric, adding a wonderful texture to the room.
Of course, Roman blinds offer a huge range of colour options. If you’ve got some exposed brick, white and pale tones work especially well.
That said, there are plenty of vibrant colour options too, if you’d like to be bolder and pick up on lively tones from statement furniture or even plants.
Roman blinds gather at the top of your windows – so they’re never completely open – but this again adds 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, French doors and patio doors – making it easy to get consistency from your soft window dressings.
Make your Conservatory More Modern with Fabric Blinds
When asked to think of modern, dynamic spaces, conservatories don’t tend to feature in most people’s top answers.
Despite this, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from creating an exciting multi-use space with ultra-modern blinds.
Some fabric blind designs feature a two-tone look – 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 too.
Fabric blinds are extremely versatile – looking just as at home in a relaxing feet-up conservatory as they do in a conservatory that’s become a home office or yoga space.
Naturally, when the time’s right to let the light flood in, you can lift them completely, letting them stack discreetly at the top of the window.
Although not as insulating as some of the options on this list, fabric blinds will still help to reduce the glare from the sun and make your conservatory a little more comfortable when it’s especially cold outside.
Select Earth Tones to Create a Natural Feel
Most conservatories rely on large glass windows as a main focal point – offering a view over your outside space.
This leads many conservatory interior design themes to focus on pale neutral colours that don’t detract from your outside view.
If neutral tones, wicker, and pale fabrics are the cornerstone of your conservatory idea, then these colours can be reflected in your blinds or shutters.
When selecting blinds, earthy shades like Mineral, Sand, Terra, or Desert work especially well. If you’re exploring shutters, colours like Crisp Linen, Pearl, Sea Mist or Aura White are beautiful without drawing too much attention.
Window dressings don’t have to be about ‘wow factor’. They can protect your privacy and control light while gently blending into a relaxed design.
Add Smart Technology to your Conservatory
By their very nature, conservatories have a lot of windows. If you don’t like the idea of working your way around your blinds or shutters constantly adjusting for the sunlight, don’t panic – remote control, voice control, or automation can remove this effort.
Different shutters and blinds come with different remote control options. Some operate with a stand-alone remote that can be used to adjust slats, lift and lower blinds, or even program daily routines.
Other blinds and shutters can be connected to smart technology you have in your home or on your mobile device.
This means being able to control privacy and light by simply asking your Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or Apple Home App to adjust your blinds to your liking. If voice control isn’t your thing – then you can use a handy app.
By connecting to your home’s other smart features, you can enhance security and improve energy consumption too.
If you’re not at home – simply use your device to close your blinds and make it less obvious you’re not in – or drop your conservatory blinds to stop heat escaping as your heating comes on.
Introduce Warmth and Texture with Wooden Blinds
We’ve touched already on the use of neutral tones in a conservatory – but if you’d like something that stands out a little more without being too bold, warm natural wood blinds are a beautiful addition to your space.
If you’re considering wood, Venetian blinds are the stand-out choice. Wood can be painted but you’ll also be able to choose from a range of natural wood tones too, 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, Limed White.
Of course, faux-wooden blinds deliver an almost identical look to real wood and offer an even tougher finish – ideal for busy family homes.
Like other Venetian blinds, wood and faux wood offers excellent levels of light control and privacy – just adjust your slats accordingly!
Think About the Benefits of Thermal Conservatory Blinds
We talked a little already about how temperature plays a significant role in deciding how practical your conservatory is. If you’d like to make sure the temperature inside your conservatory is always under control, thermal blinds are a superb choice.
Thermal blinds are a type of pleated honeycomb blind. When closed, the honeycomb structure expands and – combined with a thermal coating on the window-facing side of the blind, creates an effective way of blocking heat entering or leaving your home.
This makes thermal blinds an excellent choice 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 pleated blinds will help lock the heat in.
Of course, increasingly hot summer months make a conservatory impractical too – so if you’d like to stop the sun’s hot rays warming your space, thermal blinds can help with that too.
Thermal honeycomb blinds have all the benefits of standard pleated blinds too – so you get improved energy efficiency as well as enhanced privacy and control over the sunlight.
Vertical Blinds offer a Modern Look
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 helping you control both light and privacy. Like Venetians 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, you’ll almost certainly be able to find a perfect match for your interior style.
Vertical blinds are suspended from a neat track system that allows them to be opened and closed like curtains too – 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.
Fit Roller Blinds for a Sleek Finish
Roller blinds are a simple and highly effective design. One large sheet of fabric rolls over an internal tube that mounts neatly at the top of your window. If you need less light and privacy, you roll the blind down. If you want more light – roll the blind back up.
There are lots of off-the-shelf roller blinds available – making them a cost-effective option. However, if you’d like a genuinely elegant way of controlling light and privacy, made-to-measure roller blinds are tough to beat.
As well as being made specifically for your windows – ensuring the perfect dimensions – rollers blinds can be created with an almost endless range of colours and patterns. You may even decide to add a unique touch with jewelled embellishments.
If you do decide on a pattern, a professional installer working with bespoke products will even be able to make sure your patterns align when your roller blinds are fully closed.
Cater for Your Bi-fold Conservatory Doors
If you have bi-fold doors in your conservatory, you might look at this list and wonder which options will work around your folding door mechanisms. Don’t worry, though – there is a range of suitable blinds:
- Pleated blinds: Fitted to each panel of your door, a pleated blind will fit close to the glass, meaning they won’t get in the way as your doors fold back.
- Roller blinds: As long as individual blinds are used for each door, roller blinds will generally fit snugly against the door – meaning opening and closing aren’t compromised.
- Vertical blinds: Vertical blinds are a good option for folding doors as they can be opened fully – meaning they’re out of the way when it’s time to light the fresh air in.
Of course, the same style can be replicated for your windows, meaning a consistent look through your entire conservatory.
Explore Conservatory Roof Blinds or Shutters Overhead
While we’ve explored window coverings for conservatories, we’ve touched only briefly on the roof windows that are so often used to maximise light and warmth in these rooms.
Suppose you’ve got glass panels making up your roof. In that case, you may find that even exceptional privacy, light control and temperature control from the blinds on your windows is ineffective when the sun is high in the sky, or neighbours glance out of their upstairs windows.
Don’t panic, though – 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 in their frame, they can usually be mounted on the frames of ceiling windows. You’ll need to ensure that the windows can hold the weight – but since shutters are often surprisingly lightweight, this is rarely a problem.
- Pleated blinds: Pleated blinds can be ‘trapped’ in discreet rails that can be mounted at any angle. This means they can be used effectively on skylights or a conservatory roof – providing a beautiful way to shut out or filter the light when the sun is high.
And remember – both shutters and pleated 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: Conclusion
As you can see, there’s a world of options if you want to use window coverings to transform your conservatory into a practical space.
The right choice for your space will depend on the style you like the look of, along with the light, privacy, and insulation pros and cons that each style offers.
Shutters, Pleated blinds and Venetian blinds are hard to fault as conservatory window dressings – but Roman blinds, vertical blinds and modern fabric blinds offer almost all the same benefits if you prefer their style.
Look at how much sun your conservatory gets, 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.
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