A tall skylight set into the sloped ceiling over a stairway. A light filtering cellular shade, held flat in side tracks, turns harsh sun into an even glow.
Can you put a shade on a skylight in a sloped ceiling?
Yes. A skylight cellular shade is built for it. It runs in side tracks so it stays flat against the glass at any angle, even on a steep slope.
We see plenty of skylights when we plan window treatments in Chula Vista. This home has a tall, narrow skylight in the sloped ceiling above the stairs. Look up from the landing and it is the brightest thing in the house. In the middle of the day, the sun comes straight through the glass and lands as a hard rectangle on the steps and the wall. That kind of light is harsh on the eyes when you are walking down, and it bakes the stairwell.
A normal shade would not work here. Gravity pulls a regular roller or cellular shade straight down, away from a tilted window. On a skylight the fabric would sag in the middle and hang off the glass.
So the skylight shade is held at both sides. The fabric runs between two slim channels along the long edges of the frame. Wherever you stop it, it stays put, flat and square to the glass. Our cellular shades come in skylight versions sized to the frame, because no two skylight openings are quite the same.
What does a skylight cellular shade look like with the sun behind it?
It glows. With direct sun on the glass, the fabric lights up evenly and you can see its soft woven texture, but you cannot see the sky or the frame behind it.
The close up shows that well. A bright patch of sun falls across part of the shade. Even there, the fabric spreads the light out instead of letting a hard beam through. The rest of the shade stays a calm, even white.
That is the job of a light filtering cellular fabric. It does not make the stairwell dark. It turns the skylight into a lampshade.
You can also see the side track in the close up, running along the right edge. That track keeps the fabric tight on a tilted opening. It sits inside the skylight well, so from the stairs it is hard to spot at all.
At the top, a taupe headrail covers the hardware. It is a small detail, but against the white drywall it gives the skylight a finished edge, like a frame on a picture.
Do cellular shades help keep heat out of a skylight?
They help. The honeycomb cells trap a pocket of air between the fabric and the glass, and that slows the heat coming through the skylight.
A skylight takes the sun at the hottest part of the day, when it is high overhead. A wall window gets that sun at an angle, if at all. That means a skylight can push a lot of heat into the space below it, and a stairwell tends to hold warm air near the top.
Chula Vista summers are milder than the inland valleys, but a skylight on a clear afternoon still heats up the upstairs. Close the shade at midday. That keeps the warmth from collecting at the top of the stairs, and in winter the same air pocket slows the heat that leaves through the glass on cold nights.
If you want the numbers and the details on how the cells work, our guide to honeycomb shade energy savings covers it. For a skylight, the short version is simple. The cellular shade is the one product that both stays flat on a slope and adds a layer of insulation.
How do you open and close a skylight shade you cannot reach?
With a pole or a motor. A skylight over a stairwell is out of reach for everyone, so we plan how the shade will be run before we order it.
A pole is the simple choice. It hooks onto the shade and slides it along its tracks from below. It works well when the skylight sits over a floor where you can stand flat and steady.
Over stairs, many homeowners prefer a motor. You press a button on a remote or a wall switch, and the shade moves on its own. No ladder on the stairs, no pole leaning in a corner. A motorized shade can also run on a schedule, closing at midday when the sun is strongest and opening again later in the afternoon.
Either way, we measure the skylight well carefully, because the shade has to fit the opening down to a fraction of an inch for the side tracks to work. If your home has a skylight like this one, book a free in-home consultation. We will look at the angle, the reach and the sun, and bring fabrics to try.