A high rise living room with a full wall of glass and a skyline view. Sheer vertical drapery softens the light, tames glare on the TV, and opens wide when you want the city back.
What is sheer vertical drapery, and why use it in an El Cajon high rise condo?
It is a sheer fabric panel with soft fabric vanes attached, hung from a track like drapery. In this El Cajon high rise condo, sheer vertical drapery gives you a sheer by day, privacy when the vanes close, and the full view when you draw it aside.
This living room is mostly glass. The window wall runs from the ceiling down to a low sill, broken up by dark mullions, and the city fills every pane. On a sunny day that much glass pours light straight across the room and onto the TV.
Regular vertical blinds would have looked like an office. A plain sheer would soften the light but never close it down. Sheer vertical drapery does both. The vanes rotate on the track, so you can turn them flat to see through the sheer, or close them into a soft, solid looking wall of fabric.
We ran the track at the ceiling across the full width, so the fabric falls in one long, even line. That height makes the room feel taller, and there is no gap at the top for light to slip through.
How do you cut TV glare in a room with a wall of windows?
Turn the light before it reaches the screen. Tilting the vanes on sheer vertical drapery angles the sunlight away from the TV while the room stays bright.
Here the TV hangs on a slatted wood accent wall at a right angle to the glass, above a glossy red media console. That layout is common in condos, and it means low sun hits the screen from the side and shows up as a white wash across the picture. A blackout shade would fix the glare but make the room feel like a cave at noon.
With the vanes partly closed, the fabric still glows, the city still shows as a soft outline, and the screen stays readable. When the sun moves, you adjust the angle a little. No fabric goes up or down, so you never lose the whole view to fix a small problem.
If you are weighing options for a sunny room, our guide to window treatments for the San Diego climate compares them.
Can sheer vertical drapery open all the way for the view?
Yes. The fabric stacks to the sides like drapery, so the middle of the window wall opens up completely and the skyline is all you see.
This photo shows the panels pulled to each end of the track. The center panes are bare, and the city stretches out past the sofa. The stacks stay narrow because the sheer fabric folds tightly, and the soft white keeps them from looking heavy against the window frame.
That is the real advantage over a shade. A roller or cellular shade on glass this big lifts up, but the roll sits at the top and the fabric covers the whole width until it is fully raised. Drapery style tracks let you choose how much to open. Half the wall, one side, or all of it. This style sits within our vertical blinds line, built with soft fabric vanes instead of hard slats.
In a high rise, the view is often why you bought the place. Treatments that hide it most of the day defeat the point. We plan the stack so it lands on solid wall or mullions, not across the best panes of glass, and the fabric hangs clear of the sofa and console.
Do sheers give you privacy in a high rise at night?
With the vanes closed, yes, for most rooms. Open, a sheer alone shows the room to nearby towers after dark, so closing the vanes at night matters.
People often think height means privacy. It does from the street, but not from the building next door. In a dense skyline, other condos and offices look straight across, and once your lights are on, a plain sheer becomes see through from outside. Closing the vanes puts solid fabric between you and the next building while the room still looks soft from inside.
Bedrooms in the same unit might want more. For sleeping, we would pair this look with a blackout layer or choose a different product.
We plan window treatments in El Cajon and across the county for homes of every height. If your condo has a wall of glass and a view worth keeping, book a free in-home consultation and we will bring sheer vertical samples to try against your own window light.