This blog post was written in collaboration with LLumar. All opinions are my own.
It was love at first sight: The sun-drenched breakfast nook in the kitchen of our house was one of its big selling points when we bought it.
Today, the large picture window in that nook is still one of my favorite features of the room. It frames our long breakfast bench beautifully, and floods it with natural sunlight. Through it, I can see the whole backyard— dog roaming, kids swimming— through the trellises in our vegetable garden while I prepare dinner or work at our kitchen table.
But when you live with something year after year, what starts as picture-perfect can reveal itself to be problematic. When the LLumar team reached out to collaborate on this post, they turned me on to their solar window film, a product I didn’t know too much about, but solved so many problems I was having in this space!
Turns out, the massive window lets in so much heat during the day that for a period in the late afternoon, it’s impossible to sit at the table and work— I need to relocate from one end to another to avoid the blast of glare. The air conditioner kicks in to compensate, wasting energy. And the fabrics on my bench and pillows take a beating, many of them have faded over the five years they’ve lived under the harsh UV rays that stream in. Part of the floor gets hit too, which can fade its finish over time.
We had a window shade, but I never wanted to lower it… it was a bummer not to have the view, so it did little to help.
LLumar’s solar window film seemed like the perfect solution— it would cut back on UV damage to my fabrics and combat the rising temperature from all that sun exposure, all while being virtually invisible.
My biggest concern was that I didn’t want the finished result to change the color of the window, or make it feel like we were looking through sunglasses whenever we sat at the table. So I set up a consultation. A representative came in person to my house with a swatch book and talked me through my options. There were many tints that were darker than I was comfortable with— of course those would block more light and UV damage, but it’s all about finding the right balance. We settled on a tint that felt natural looking (Neutral Series “Crystal Elegance” to be exact!), yet it cut back on glare and UV exposure considerably.
On install day, the installers worked swiftly and, when they were done, I actually struggled to notice any difference at all. I’m actually blown away by the finished result and how invisible the LLumar film is, and how great my window continues to look.
I love knowing that LLumar’s solar window film helps cut back on the heat that comes through the window, thus saving energy on our cooling bill. It’s saving our fabrics too, which won’t continue to fade at the rate they were fading before.
Lastly, I feel better knowing that my family gets the benefit of added protection, too—UV rays contribute to skin cancer, something that impacts 3 million Americans a year— without sacrificing the view I love so much. Another example of technology protecting wellness.
Special thanks to the LLumar team for supplying the solar window film. As always, I only promote products that I would use in my own life.
