Rooms With Light From Two Sides
Roller shades in Berkley, MA have a slightly harder job than in a tightly packed town. Berkley is small and the lots are generous, so the capes, ranches and newer colonials off Padelford Street and Myricks Street sit with space around them. That space means most rooms have windows on two walls, often at a corner, and the sun reaches each wall at a different time of day. Out at the edge of town, the houses near Assonet Bay add the water to the picture.
In a room lit from one side, one shade does one job. In a room lit from two sides, the treatment has to cope with morning sun on one wall and afternoon sun on the other, light crossing the room at angles, and glare that lands on a television or a desk from a direction you might not expect. Choosing well means looking at each wall on its own and then at the room as a whole.
- Planned wall by wall for corner rooms
- Solar screen, light filtering and blackout options
- Measured at the house and installed by our own team
Shades That Suit a Berkley Corner Room
The sunny wall
A solar screen on the wall that takes the strongest sun, softening glare while the yard stays visible.
The quieter wall
A light filtering cloth on the wall that needs privacy more than glare control.
Bedrooms
Blackout cloth on both walls of a corner bedroom, so light does not sneak in from the second side.
By the bay
Screens for rooms near Assonet Bay, keeping the water in sight through the afternoon glare.
Motorised shades
Shades on two walls that raise and lower from a remote or a wall switch, handy in a room with many windows.
Sliding doors
A slider on one wall of a family room is often better with a vertical blind, and we will say so.
Planning Roller Shades in Berkley, MA
The secret to a two-sided room is to stop thinking about “the window treatment” and start thinking about each wall. Once you know what each wall’s windows face and when the sun reaches them, the fabric for each wall is usually obvious. Then the colour ties them together.
Following the sun round a corner
Take a living room with windows facing east and south. In the morning, the east windows bring low, bright light straight across the room. By midday the sun has moved to the south wall, higher in the sky, and by late afternoon it may be coming in low through the south windows at an angle. A room facing south and west has the reverse: a gentle morning, then the hardest light of the day from the west in the late afternoon.
Because the strongest light shifts from one wall to the other, the room benefits from shades that can be lowered independently. You drop the shade on the wall the sun is hitting and leave the other wall open to keep the room bright. A roller shade does this simply: each window has its own shade, each one raised and lowered on its own.
Different fabric, same colour
It is quite common for the two walls of a corner room to need different fabrics. The west wall, with its hard afternoon light, may want a solar screen. The north wall, which never sees direct sun, may want a light filtering cloth for evening privacy and nothing more. Putting a screen on the north wall would darken the room for no benefit, and putting a light cloth on the west wall would leave the glare unchecked.
The way to make two fabrics look like one plan is to keep them in the same colour family. A screen and a cloth in matching soft greys, or matching warm whites, read as a set when you stand in the room, even though one is a woven screen and the other a solid fabric. We bring screen and cloth samples in matching tones, so you can see them together on the two walls.
Glare on a screen from the second side
The most common complaint in a two-sided room is glare on a television or a computer. People often shade the wall behind the screen and forget that the glare is coming from the side window, landing across the room at an angle. During the measuring visit, we look at where the television, desk or reading chair sits and which window is causing the trouble at the times you use the room.
A solar screen on the offending window is usually the answer. It takes the edge off the light so the picture is clear, while you can still see out. Openness is the choice to make. A more open weave keeps more of the view and lets more daylight in. A tighter weave controls more glare and gives more privacy. For a room with a television, people tend to choose a slightly tighter weave on the window that causes the glare and a more open one elsewhere.
Corner bedrooms
A bedroom with windows on two walls is harder to darken than one with a single window, because light can arrive from both sides. Blackout cloth on every window is the starting point. If darkness really matters, an outside mount on each window, set slightly wider than the glass, cuts the thin lines of light at the edges. We check the wall space around each window to see what is possible, since a corner leaves less room on one side.
Ready to Get Started? Book Your Free Quote
Call the Swansea store for a free quote, or come and see the samples in person.
Capes, Ranches and Newer Colonials
The three kinds of house in Berkley handle two-sided light in different ways.
Capes
A cape’s ground floor usually has a living room and a dining room or kitchen, each with windows on two walls at the corners of the house. Upstairs, the bedrooms sit under the roof, with a gable window at one end and a dormer on the front or back. That combination means each upstairs bedroom often has two very different windows: a standard gable window and a smaller dormer set into the slope.
For the dormer, the compact roll of a roller shade fits into the narrow space at the top of the opening and leaves the most glass clear when raised. For the gable window, a standard shade in the same fabric matches it. Blackout cloth on both is the usual choice for bedrooms.
Ranches
A ranch spreads its rooms along one floor, so the living room may run from the front of the house to the back, with windows at both ends and sometimes on a side wall too. A room like that sees the sun from more than one direction for most of the day. Light filtering cloth on the street side keeps the room private, and a screen on the side that takes the afternoon sun keeps the glare down. Keeping the colour the same across all of them stops a long room from looking busy.
The bedrooms in a ranch are on the ground floor, close to the yard, so privacy matters as much as darkness. Blackout cloth does both.
Newer colonials
The newer colonials off Padelford and Myricks Street often have larger, more open rooms, with a family room that opens to the kitchen and windows on two or three walls. Here, the shades need to work as a group. Setting every shade to stop at the same height when lowered partway keeps a large room calm, and choosing the fabric wall by wall handles the light.
Upstairs, the main bedroom often has windows on two walls as well. Blackout cloth, possibly with outside mounts, is the answer where the room faces the morning sun.
A newer colonial’s front elevation is usually symmetrical, with matching windows either side of the door. Shades in one colour, set to the same height, keep that symmetry intact from the street. Behind them, the rooms can still take whichever fabric suits their light, because from outside the shades look alike.
Near Assonet Bay
At the edge of town, the houses near Assonet Bay add water to the mix. A room facing the bay picks up reflected light off the water as well as direct sun, so glare can reach further into the room than in a house inland. A solar screen is usually right for the bay-facing windows. It keeps the water in sight through the weave while taking the glare down to a comfortable level.
A darker screen usually gives a clearer view out, and a lighter one blends with pale trim. Because these rooms often have a second wall facing the road or the yard, the same corner-room thinking applies: screen on the bay side, a light filtering cloth on the other, both in one colour family.
Solar screens give little privacy after dark, once lamps are on inside. For a bay-facing room used in the evening, drapes that draw across or a second shade behind the screen gives you privacy at night. Roller shades in Berkley, MA near the water are often planned with that second layer in mind from the start.
From Your Call to the Finished Room
Nobody is left wondering what happens next: the store checks in at each stage and sees the job through.
- Phone, or fill in the form, naming the rooms that have windows on two walls and the ones that trouble you; a free quote gets booked.
- Our specialist arrives, takes every opening’s size, and jots down the direction of each wall, the furniture layout and the spare wall either side of each frame.
- Matching screen and cloth swatches go up against both walls of the room, or you come into the Swansea showroom for the wider selection.
- Next comes a quote naming each window and the fabric picked for it.
- Production follows your figures.
- The installers hang everything, confirm each shade rolls true and lines up with its neighbour, and run through the controls with you.
Mounting in a corner
Corners bring a practical detail: two windows close together on adjacent walls leave little wall space between them. An inside mount, fitted within each frame, avoids the shades clashing at the corner. Where an outside mount is needed for darkness, we size the shades so they clear each other. We look at this carefully during the visit, and where a corner is especially tight, we may suggest setting one shade slightly forward of the other so the two clear each other neatly.
Choosing colour for a bright room
A room with light from two sides tends to feel bright and open, and most people want to keep it that way. Soft whites, pale greys and light linen tones keep the room airy when the shades are lowered. For screens, a mid-tone or darker colour can give a clearer view out without making the room feel heavy. Because the shades on two walls are seen together, it is worth choosing the colour with both walls in view.
Seasons in a two-sided room
The balance between the two walls changes through the year. In summer, the sun rises and sets further round to the north, so an east or west wall gets long, low light early and late in the day. In winter, the sun stays lower and further south, and it reaches deep across the floor from the south wall in the middle of the day, which many people welcome in a cold month.
Shades that raise and lower independently let a room follow those changes without any fuss. In summer you might keep the west screen down for most of the afternoon; in winter you might leave the south wall open to take in the low sun and drop the shade only when it hits the television. It is one more reason roller shades in Berkley, MA are planned wall by wall rather than as one set.
Kitchens with windows on two walls
A corner kitchen often has one window over the sink and another beside the table. The sink window wants a light filtering cloth that wipes clean, mounted inside the frame to clear the tap. The table window may face a different direction and need a screen if it gets the late sun while the family eats. In the same colour, the two read as one kitchen.
Care
Roller shades are easy to live with. A soft brush or a low vacuum setting removes dust, and most fabrics can be sponged lightly if they mark. Running a shade fully up now and then keeps the fabric smooth.
Other treatments for the town
A roller shade is not right for every window. A cold room may be better with a cellular shade, which holds air in its cells, and a dining room may suit the folds of a Roman shade. You can see every service we offer the town on the window treatments for Berkley homes page, and the main roller shades page explains the full range of roller and solar fabrics.
Working With Window Works
Window Works opened in Swansea in 1988 and remains a family store, now run by the second generation. Berkley is a short drive across the river, and for over 37 years our specialists have worked in capes, ranches and colonials across the SouthCoast and the East Bay.
- An experienced team of window treatment specialists
- Measuring in your home, wall by wall
- Installation by our own installers
- The store in constant contact with you until the job is done
- Warranties offered on the products we sell
The showroom has screens and cloths to compare side by side, along with the Norman range.
Questions from Berkley
My living room has windows on two walls. Do they need the same fabric?
Not necessarily. The wall that takes the strongest sun may need a solar screen while the other needs a light filtering cloth. Keeping both in one colour makes them look like a set.
How do I stop glare on the television from a side window?
A solar screen on the window that causes the glare usually solves it. We check where the light lands during the measuring visit.
Can a corner bedroom be made dark?
Yes. Blackout cloth on every window, with outside mounts where there is room, cuts light from both sides.
What suits a room facing Assonet Bay?
A solar screen on the bay side keeps the water in view while taking down the glare. A second layer gives privacy after dark.
What does a quote cost?
Nothing; quotes are free. Ring the store with the call button or send the form, and a specialist will come out to measure at a time that suits.
Start With a Free Quote
To get moving on roller shades in Berkley, MA, press the call button and ask for a free quote, a measuring date or a word about installation. The form does the same job in writing. Screens and cloths can be seen in person at the Swansea showroom, and the contact page shows how to get there. Window Works holds a 5.0 rating on Google.