Best Window Treatments for Dining Rooms in Seattle

Dining room windows can be a little strange.

At nine in the morning, you might love them. The sun is coming through, the room

feels bright, and even if nobody is actually eating in there, the whole space just

feels better with that natural light.

Fast forward to dinner.

Now somebody at the table is squinting because the sun is coming straight through the window. Someone gets up to close the blinds. Then the room gets too

dark, so they open them halfway again.

And once the sun finally goes down, you realize everyone walking past the house

can see straight into the room.

That is usually when people start paying more attention to what is actually

covering their dining room windows.

It is not only about finding something pretty.

You need something that works at breakfast, dinner, and those gray Seattle

afternoons when you absolutely do not want to give up any more natural light

than necessary.

That is why there really isn't one treatment we would call the best for every dining

room.

A lot depends on the windows themselves and, honestly, how you use the room.

If you are starting from scratch, Ultimate Shutters and Blinds offers custom

window treatments in Seattle that can be fitted around the room instead of trying

to make a standard treatment work where it doesn't quite belong.

First, When Do You Actually Use This Room?

This sounds almost too obvious, but think about it.

Some dining rooms get used every morning.

Others are basically ignored Monday through Friday and then suddenly become

the busiest room in the house when family comes over Sunday.

And plenty of dining tables aren't just dining tables anymore.

Someone works there.

The kids spread homework across it.

Packages get opened there.

You sit down with coffee and somehow stay there scrolling through your phone

for forty minutes.

So before choosing a window treatment, pay attention to the room for a couple of

days.

When does the sunlight become annoying?

When do you want privacy?

Do you usually leave the windows uncovered?

Those little things will probably tell you more than looking through fifty fabric

samples.

Plantation Shutters Just Seem to Fit Some Dining Rooms

There are certain dining rooms where you walk in and shutters simply make

sense.

Maybe there is beautiful trim around the windows. Maybe the room has a more

traditional feel. Or maybe you just want something that looks like it belongs to the

house rather than something hanging in front of the glass.

Plantation shutters can do that.

But the reason we like them in dining rooms isn't only appearance.

Imagine the sun coming across the table around five in the afternoon. Instead of

closing the entire window, you can tilt the louvers a little and redirect the light.

You still have daylight.

Nobody has to change seats.

Later, once it gets dark, close the louvers and the room feels private again.

If shutters are already on your list, take a look at our shutter installation in

Seattle options.

And if you're stuck between shutters and blinds, we went into that decision in

much more detail in our Plantation Shutters vs Faux Wood Blinds for Seattle

Homes guide.

Roman Shades Are Nice When the Room Feels a Little Too

Hard

Dining rooms tend to have a lot of straight lines.

Table.

Chairs.

Cabinetry.

Window trim.

Maybe a large light fixture hanging over everything.

Sometimes adding another hard looking treatment isn't what the room needs.

A Roman shade brings fabric into the space and softens things up a bit.

You can keep it casual with a lighter fabric or go with something richer if the

dining room is more formal.

Just don't pick the fabric based on looks alone.

Hold it up to the actual window if you can.

A fabric that looks perfect as a little sample can feel completely different when

sunlight is coming through several feet of it.

Roller Shades Are for People Who Don't Want to Think

About the Shades

And there is nothing wrong with that.

Not everyone wants the window treatment to be part of the decorating

conversation.

Sometimes you want it up when you don't need it and down when you do.

Roller shades are good at disappearing.

When they're raised, the window stays fairly open. When they're lowered, you get

one clean piece of fabric without much going on visually.

The fabric is where you make the important decision.

Want to soften the sunlight? Go lighter.

Need more privacy? Choose something with more coverage.

Getting hammered by afternoon glare? Solar fabric may make more sense.

Pretty straightforward.

That Evening Sun Can Get Old Quickly

West facing dining rooms are wonderful in pictures.

Warm evening sun coming across the table. Beautiful.

Now try sitting directly in it while you're eating.

Not quite as charming.

This is where solar shades can be really useful because you don't necessarily

have to choose between keeping the view and being comfortable.

They can knock down some of that brightness while still letting you see outside.

That matters in Seattle because you probably don't want to block good natural

light for the entire day just because it becomes annoying for an hour or two

around dinner.

If this sounds exactly like your dining room, we have a separate guide to window

treatments for west facing windows in Seattle.

Faux Wood Blinds Aren't Fancy, and Sometimes That's

Perfect

There is something to be said for a treatment everyone already knows how to use.

Too bright?

Tilt the slats.

Need privacy?

Close them.

Dark Seattle morning?

Pull them all the way up.

Done.

Faux wood blinds are also forgiving in dining areas where real life happens. Dust,

fingerprints, the occasional splash from something that somehow traveled much

farther than it should have from the table. You can wipe them down and move on.

If that kind of simplicity sounds better than fussing with fabric, you can look at

blind installation in Seattle here.

Check the Windows Again After Dark

This one catches people.

Stand in your dining room during the day and privacy may seem completely fine.

Then check the same window after dinner with the lights on.

Different story.

This is particularly noticeable if your dining room faces a sidewalk, neighboring

house, or another condo.

Some light filtering and solar materials that feel private during daylight aren't

going to give you the same privacy after sunset.

That doesn't automatically make them the wrong choice.

It just means you need to know what you're getting.

If you are trying to keep the room bright without feeling like you're eating dinner in

a display window, our guide to privacy window treatments that don't block

natural light is worth reading too.

Big Dining Room Windows Change the Decision

A big window is great until the treatment itself becomes huge.

That is when things like weight and operation start mattering.

A really wide blind can be annoying to raise. A large shade needs the right

hardware. Shutter panels need to be divided in a way that doesn't make them awkward every time you open them.

And if the window is especially large, motorization starts feeling a lot less like an

unnecessary upgrade.

If you are going to adjust a big shade every evening before dinner, pressing a

button is pretty nice.

We covered more of those issues in our guide to large window treatments in

Seattle.

And Then There Are Bay Windows

A bay window beside a dining table can be gorgeous.

It can also be the window that makes you stare at measurements for an hour

wondering how three perfectly normal looking windows became so complicated.

The angles are what get you.

Each treatment has to fit without running into the treatment beside it.

Shutters can work beautifully because they follow the shape of the windows.

Individual shades can work too. Blinds are another possibility if there is enough

clearance.

We have a full Seattle bay window treatment guide if that's the situation you're

dealing with.

Your Dining Room and Living Room Don't Have to Match

Exactly

This matters a lot in open floor plans.

You can see both rooms at once, so yes, the treatments should look like they

belong in the same house.

But identical?

Not necessarily.

Maybe shutters work perfectly on the dining room windows while the living room

needs solar shades because of television glare.

That's fine.

Keep a similar color or general style and let each room have what actually works.

Forcing the same treatment everywhere just for the sake of matching can leave

you solving the wrong problem.

Remember What Seattle Looks Like in December

It is very easy to choose window treatments in July and think, we need to block

this sun.

Then December shows up.

Now you're standing there opening everything because it feels like the sun hasn't

properly come out in three days.

That is why we usually come back to flexibility.

You want control when the sunlight is strong, but you also want the ability to get

the treatment out of the way when natural light is scarce.

Seattle gives you both situations.

Sometimes in the same week.

What Would We Actually Choose?

It depends.

That's probably not the exciting answer, but it's the useful one.

For a traditional dining room where privacy matters, shutters would be high on

the list.

For a west facing room with a nice view, we'd seriously consider solar shades.

For something simple and easy to clean, faux wood blinds make a lot of sense.

Want fabric and a softer room? Roman shades.

The window usually tells you what it needs once you stop trying to choose based

only on appearance.

Final Thoughts

A good dining room window treatment shouldn't become another thing you have

to manage.

You shouldn't be fighting with it while dinner gets cold.

You shouldn't have to choose between having enough light and having any

privacy.

And you definitely shouldn't discover after installation that the beautiful

treatment you picked makes the room miserable at five every afternoon.

Pay attention to how the room behaves.

Morning.

Afternoon.

After dark.

Once you know what the windows are actually doing, choosing between shutters,

shades, and blinds gets a whole lot easier.

And when you finally get it right, you probably won't think about the window

treatments much anymore.

Which, honestly, is kind of the point.

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Not sure what will actually work on your dining room windows?

Ultimate Shutters and Blinds can help you compare options based on the light,

privacy, window size, and everyday setup of your Seattle home.