Sheer Shades
Soft fabric vanes held inside sheer fabric. Tilt them open and harsh Boise afternoon sun turns into even, diffused daylight with your view still there. Tilt them closed and the room is private. Also sold as window shadings, and installed across the Treasure Valley.
Sheer Shades and Window Shadings Are the Same Thing
Worth clearing up first, because the two names cause real confusion. Hunter Douglas sells this product as Silhouette Window Shadings and Pirouette Window Shadings. Most homeowners call them sheer shades. It is all one product category and this page covers it.
Here is how it works. Horizontal fabric vanes, the same idea as a blind slat but made of soft fabric, are suspended inside or against sheer fabric. Tilt the vanes open and you look out through the sheer between them. Tilt them closed and they overlap into a solid surface. The sheer is always there, which is why the light coming through never goes hard and striped the way it does through a blind.
Silhouette has led this category for over twenty five years, and the reason is the light. It takes the flat, harsh glare off a west-facing Boise window in July and turns it into something that fills the room evenly. It also cuts UV, which protects floors, rugs and furniture from fading.
Two Styles: Silhouette and Pirouette
Same job, different construction, and they look genuinely different on the window. This is the first choice to make.
Silhouette floats its vanes between two layers of sheer fabric. The vanes appear to hang in mid air with sheer in front and behind, so the whole shade reads as light and almost weightless. From across the room it can nearly disappear. Vanes come in two, three and four inch sizes, and the bigger the vane the more you see through when it is open: about an inch and a quarter on a two inch vane, up to two and a half inches on the four inch Quartette.
Pirouette attaches its vanes to a single sheer backing instead. The fabric faces into the room, so you see the full color and texture of the material rather than a vane suspended in haze. It reads softer, warmer and closer to a fabric shade, and the vanes overlap slightly when closed for a gently contoured look. An almost invisible support system called Invisi-Lift holds the vanes with no visible cords. It comes in 86 colors across 14 fabric styles, up to 120 inches wide.
Short version: choose Silhouette if you want the window to feel open and the shade to disappear. Choose Pirouette if you want to see the fabric and want a softer, more substantial look.
Silhouette. The vane floats between two sheers, with the view coming through the gap.
Pirouette. The vane attaches to one sheer backing, so the fabric itself faces the room.
Choosing Your Sheer Fabric
After the style, every one of these shades makes you pick a sheer, and it changes the product more than the color does. Both styles offer the same two directions under slightly different names.
For the clearest view out, choose ClearView. It is the same name on both Silhouette and Pirouette. The sheer is engineered so the outside stays crisp rather than hazy, and on Silhouette the ClearView fabrics carry a black rear sheer that sharpens the view further.
For softer light and more daytime privacy, choose the standard sheer. Silhouette calls it Originale, Pirouette calls it Classic. Both trade some of the crispness of the view for better diffusion and a veil over the window.
Ask yourself what you bought the shade for. If it is the foothills, the mature tree in the yard, the backyard you look at every day, take ClearView. If it is the glare on the television and a neighboring window forty feet away, take the standard sheer. Most people are never offered the choice and end up with whichever the sample book opened to.
What They Will Not Do
These do not black out a room, and it is better to hear that from us now than to discover it in a bedroom in June. Hunter Douglas puts it plainly in its own dealer material: this is not a blackout product, and a warm glow filters between the vanes.
There is a second, smaller thing worth knowing. Because the vanes have real dimension to them, they are not engineered to seal against each other perfectly when closed. It shows most at the bottom of the shade. The overlap is enough that privacy genuinely holds, but closed means private, not sealed. On windows where it bothers you, magnetic hold-down brackets pull the shade tighter to the frame and improve it.
If you want this look and a dark room, both styles have an answer. A room-darkening panel rides behind the sheer shading on the same headrail, called Duolite when it shares one roller and A Deux when the two operate separately, so you can run the sheer alone by day and drop the panel at night. Even that is not true blackout, because a little light shows at the edges and in the headrail.
For a bedroom that needs to be properly dark, we would rather put you on a roller shade with a room-darkening fabric or a cellular shade, and spend the sheer shades where the light and the view are what you are paying for.
How They Open and Close
Both styles run on the same family of Hunter Douglas systems.
UltraGlide uses a single wand. One click drops the fabric and opens the vanes, and pulling the wand straight down closes them or raises the shade. The wand stays the same length wherever the shade sits.
LiteRise is fully cordless. Push up to raise, pull down to lower, and it stays where you put it.
SoftTouch is a battery motor operated by hand at the wand: pull down to lower, push up to raise. No cords, no remote to lose.
PowerView Gen 3 is full automation, from a remote, the app or a schedule, with a rechargeable battery wand available. On a tall stairway window or a whole wall of shades you want to move together, this is the one worth paying for.
EasyRise is a continuous cord loop for people who prefer a traditional pull, with the cord anchored to the window frame.
One measuring note that catches people out: the ordered length of a sheer shade is measured with the vanes open. When you close them, the bottom rail lifts a little, sometimes up to an inch off the sill. That is normal and it is designed in, so the vanes have room to rotate.
Where They Work in a Boise Home
These are for the windows where the view is worth something and the sun is a problem, which in the Treasure Valley is most west-facing rooms from June to September. A foothills living room, a dining room that looks onto the yard, a kitchen window over the sink, a front room you want softened from the street without going dark.
They are also the right call for a room full of things the sun is quietly ruining. Hardwood, a rug, art on the wall opposite the window. The sheer cuts UV all day even with the vanes open, which a blind cannot do without also cutting the view.
Over a kitchen sink or island, vanes open keeps the daylight and the yard while killing the glare.
Pirouette in a darker room, where the fabric face reads as part of the decor rather than disappearing.
Questions People Ask About Sheer Shades
What Is the Difference Between Sheer Shades and Window Shadings?
Nothing. They are two names for the same product. Hunter Douglas sells them as Silhouette Window Shadings and Pirouette Window Shadings, while most homeowners say sheer shades. If you have been comparing the two terms online, you have been comparing the same thing.
Can You See Through Sheer Shades at Night?
With the vanes open, yes, and that works both ways once your lights are on. Closed, the vanes overlap and privacy holds. The honest caveat is that these vanes are not engineered to seal tightly, most noticeably at the bottom of the shade, so think of closed as private rather than sealed. Magnetic hold-down brackets tighten it up on some windows.
Do Sheer Shades Block Out Light for a Bedroom?
Not on their own, and Hunter Douglas says so directly: a warm glow filters between the vanes. If you want a dark bedroom while keeping this look, the answer is a version with a room-darkening panel behind the sheer, called Duolite or A Deux, which runs on the same headrail. Even then a little light shows at the edges. For a genuinely dark room, ask us about roller or cellular shades instead.
Which Is Better, Silhouette or Pirouette?
They do the same job with a different look. Silhouette floats its vanes between two sheer layers, so the shade reads as light and airy and almost disappears at the window. Pirouette attaches its vanes to a single sheer backing, so the fabric shows more fully and it reads softer and more like a fabric shade. Pick by which look you want, then choose the sheer.
Are They Safe Around Children and Pets?
The cordless options are, and they are what we recommend for a room with kids. LiteRise has no cord at all, UltraGlide uses a single wand, and SoftTouch and PowerView are motorized with nothing hanging. Pirouette holds its vanes on an almost invisible monofilament system rather than visible cords.
See the Vanes Move in Your Own Window
Photographs cannot show you what these do, because the whole product is the quality of the light coming through it, and that depends on what is outside your window. Justin brings the samples to your house, holds Silhouette against Pirouette and ClearView against the standard sheer on your own glass, and you pick from what you can actually see. Our showroom at 2615 W Main St in Boise is open too if you would rather come to us. Call ahead so we can be sure to be there.
Or call (208) 808-8676
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