How outdoor shades work
A weather-made fabric drops down the open side of a covered space.
An outdoor shade is mounted at the top of the open side of a lanai, a porch or a balcony, and it lowers to cover that opening. Depending on the width it is operated by a crank or a motor, and it rolls back up out of the weather when it is not needed.
Most run in side channels, which are slim tracks down each edge that hold the fabric in place. Without them the fabric lifts in a gust and flaps for the windy half of the day. With them it stays put, which on an open balcony is the difference between a shade you use and one you stop bothering with.
Where outdoor shades do best in a South Florida home
On the west side of a lanai, which is the side that makes it unusable.
A covered patio has a roof, and a roof deals with the sun directly overhead.
The sun that drives people indoors arrives in the late afternoon at a low angle, comes in under that roof and lands straight on the furniture, and it does it at exactly the hour people want to sit outside. A shade down that open side is the thing that fixes it.
It does two more jobs at the same time. It slows the wind enough that a ceiling fan starts to be worth having, and it keeps a good share of the blowing rain off the furniture. In Palm Beach County a lot of these go onto screened patios and pool cages, because screen is almost transparent to heat and glare and solves neither.
What you choose
How open the fabric is, how it is operated, and what the hardware is made of.
Fabric openness works as it does on an indoor solar shade. A more open weave keeps the view out to the garden and stops less sun. A tighter weave stops more and shuts the view down. On a lanai people usually want to keep seeing the pool, so the openness is a real decision rather than a technicality.
Operation is a crank or a motor, and on anything wide the motor stops being a luxury fairly quickly. The hardware is the part that matters most near the water.
Salt lands on exposed metal every day whether or not anybody opens anything, so on a coastal job we specify sealed hardware and avoid an exposed chain. That one choice is usually why one outdoor shade lasts and another fails in its second season with the fabric still looking new.
Motorized outdoor shades
A crank on a twelve foot shade is a two minute job every single time, which is how outdoor shades end up never being used. A motor on a wall switch does it in one press, and a schedule drops it before the afternoon sun comes around. See how motorization works.
Pairings
What people pair them with
Very few windows end up with one thing on them, and the combinations below are the ones that come up most.
Outdoor drapes do a related job with fabric that sweeps aside by hand, so the view comes back in one motion and the space feels softer. Where you want cover from one neighbor rather than from the sun, drapes are usually the better answer.
Inside the same house, a solar shade on the room behind the lanai is the matching indoor product, and it is the same idea: a mesh that cuts sun and keeps the view. Fitting both means the glare is handled before it reaches the glass and again after it.
Think about where the shade rolls up to as well as where it comes down. The housing sits at the top of the opening all year, so on a lanai with a low beam it is worth checking at the appointment that the rolled fabric clears your head and does not sit in the sightline from indoors.
The rest of the outdoor we make are outdoor drapes , and we will bring samples of whichever ones suit the room.
Before you book
Questions about outdoor shades
Anything not answered here gets answered at the appointment, and it costs nothing to ask.
Can I leave them down during a storm?
No. These are sun and weather shades, not storm protection, and they should be rolled up before high wind. They are not a substitute for shutters or impact glass and we will say so rather than let anyone assume otherwise.
Will they keep bugs out?
Not on their own. The fabric is a sun mesh, not an insect screen. If bugs are the actual complaint, a retractable screen is a different product and the right one, though a shade in front of an existing screen does not stop the screen working.
How long does the fabric last outside?
Outdoor fabric is woven to hold its color in direct sun and shed rain without anything growing on it, and it generally outlives the hardware. Near the ocean it is almost always a hardware part that fails first, which is why the specification of those parts is where the attention goes.
Do they need side channels?
On an open balcony or anywhere the wind reaches, yes. On a sheltered ground floor lanai between two walls, often not. It depends on the position rather than the size, which is one of the things we look at on site.
Can they go on an unroofed patio?
They need something solid overhead to mount to, so a pergola or a beam works and open sky does not. If there is nothing to fix to, the conversation is about a different product entirely and we will tell you that at the appointment.
I'd like to explore my options
Let's make your home feel complete. We will reach out and help you get started.
