QUASARMONTRÉAL
Back to the site
The Montréal Light Guide, by exposure
Which way your windows face decides the answer. Most people are sold a fabric before anyone asks. This is the short version of the diagnosis we do on site.
West
Glare and heat · the hardest exposure in the city
The one that ruins rooms. From roughly three in the afternoon the sun sits low and comes in almost horizontally, so it travels deep into the room rather than landing near the window. Screens become unreadable, floors and furniture heat up, and the problem is worst in summer when you least want it.
The common mistake is reaching for blackout. It works, and it costs you the view and the daylight at the same time, which is why people end up living with the blind up and the room unusable.
A solar fabric chosen by openness, not by colour. A low openness, around three percent, cuts the glare and the heat while leaving the skyline readable through the cloth. Darker fabrics control glare better than pale ones, which surprises people. Add drapery in front if you also want the room to close at night.
South
All-day load · the highest total gain
South glass takes sun for most of the day, with the sun high overhead rather than low in your eyes. So it is less about glare and more about accumulated heat and fading. Rooms with south glass are usually pleasant in winter and punishing in July.
Solar fabric again, but you can often go to a higher openness than west because the angle is kinder. This is the exposure where motorization earns its money: a shade that lowers itself before the load builds keeps the room even all day without anyone thinking about it.
East
Early light · a bedroom problem
East glass is gentle for most of the day and brutal for ninety minutes after sunrise. In June in Montréal that is before half past five. If the room is a bedroom, this is the exposure people complain about most, and it is not a heat problem at all.
Room-darkening or blackout, and the detail below about the halo matters more here than anywhere else. If you want the room usable in the day as well, layer: a sheer or light-filtering shade for daytime and blackout behind it for sleeping.
North
Flat and cold · not a sun problem
North glass gets no direct sun in Montréal. There is no glare to control and almost no heat gain, so solar fabric solves a problem you do not have. What north rooms actually suffer from is flatness, and privacy after dark, because the moment it is darker outside than in, the glass becomes a mirror from your side and a window from theirs.
Textile rather than technical fabric. Sheers soften the flatness and give daytime privacy without taking the light you already do not have much of. Handle the night with a second layer, not by choosing a denser sheer.
The blackout halo
The thing nobody warns you about
This is the single most common disappointment in the whole category, and it is a geometry problem rather than a fabric problem. Blackout fabric blocks the light that passes through it. It cannot block the light that goes around it. The fabric has to be narrower than the opening to travel freely, and that clearance is a gap. At six in the morning in June, that thin outline of light is the thing you notice.
Side channels that seal the edges, or a generous outside mount, or full-height drapery in front of the shade to catch what escapes. If darkness genuinely matters to you, say so at the first conversation, because it changes the specification rather than the fabric.
If you are considering motorization
Two things fail in practice, and neither is the motor. The first is batteries: they last roughly one to three years depending on how often the shade moves, and on a high window that means a ladder. The second is the app, which is where reliability complaints actually come from.
Have the power method chosen per window rather than for the whole apartment, and have the scenes set and named on site at handover. If it is set up properly you should not need the app for daily life, which removes the part that breaks.
If you are considering curtains
Curtains look cheap for reasons that are decided on the order form, not in the fabric shop. The usual culprit is fullness: panels that are too narrow cover the window but hang flat instead of folding. Thin fabric, shiny finishes and a hem with no weight do the rest.
Enough width for real folds, a weighted hem, and a track that lets the fabric stack properly. Hung floor to ceiling rather than window to sill, which is what makes a room read as finished.
If you live in a Montréal tower
Most condo declarations specify what the building looks like from outside, which usually means the exterior-facing side of any window covering is not your choice. This is not a problem, it is a constraint, and it only becomes a problem when nobody checks it until installation day.
Bring the declaration to the first conversation if you have it. We specify the outward-facing side to the building and you choose everything that faces into your room.
Want the version for your actual windows?
The guide is the general case. The useful version is fifteen minutes on the phone about your room, your exposure and the hour it goes wrong.
Design My WindowsQuasar Montréal · Custom blinds, curtains and motorized window coverings · Montréal and surrounding areas
This guide is general information about window exposures, not a specification for your home. Specification follows a site visit.