The Best Blinds and Curtains for a Home Office

A home office window has its own particular demands: cutting glare off a screen during the brightest part of the day, looking presentable on video calls, and doing it all without turning the room dark and gloomy the rest of the time.

Glare control without losing light

A light-filtering roller blind — rather than a fully opaque blackout fabric — is often the best fit for a home office, cutting the harsh, direct glare that makes screens hard to read while still keeping the room bright and usable. Venetian blinds are another strong option here, since adjustable slats let you fine-tune exactly how much direct light gets in through the day as the sun moves. See our Venetian blinds buying guide for material options.

Looking good on video calls

Whatever’s behind and beside you on a call is part of how the room reads on screen. A neat roller blind or a well-hung set of curtains in a considered fabric gives a calmer, more polished backdrop than a bare window or a mismatched off-the-shelf blind — worth thinking about if video calls are a regular part of your working day.

Managing a south or west-facing office

If your home office faces south or west, direct afternoon sun can make a room genuinely uncomfortable to work in, on top of the glare problem. See our guide to south-facing rooms for how to manage heat and fade alongside glare.

Curtains in a home office

Curtains work well in a home office too, particularly layered with a blind for daytime glare control and drawn fully in the evening once the working day is done — see our guide to layering blinds and curtains. A lined curtain also adds a little sound absorption, which can help in a room being used for calls.

Our recommendation

For most home offices, we’d suggest a light-filtering roller blind or Venetian blind as the working core of the room — enough control to manage glare through the day — with curtains as an optional layer for evenings and a more finished look on camera.