A sunroom suncatcher has more to work with than almost any other spot in the house. You have glass on two or three sides, light from morning to late afternoon, and plenty of empty window space. If you have a sunroom or an enclosed porch, you can hang a whole collection and watch it change through the day. This guide covers how to choose pieces, how to hang several together, how acrylic copes with sun and warmth, and why these belong indoors.
The Room With the Most Windows: Choosing a Sunroom Suncatcher
Most rooms have one or two windows. A sunroom may have a dozen panes, and an enclosed porch often has a whole wall of them. That means more places to hang, and light arriving from different directions as the sun moves.
Our suncatchers are printed acrylic. The design is printed on the frosted back of 3mm clear acrylic, and then the piece is cut to the outline of the design. When daylight passes through, the colors glow. Acrylic is also lighter than glass and does not shatter, which is handy in a room you use every day.
With so many windows, it helps to plan by theme rather than filling every pane:
- Give each window its own subject, such as flowers by the door and birds by the corner.
- Follow the seasons: leaves in fall, snowflakes in winter, shells in summer.
- Add the optional cut crystal drop to pieces in the windows with the longest direct sun, because the crystal is what throws rainbows.
You can look through every design in our full collection and pick the ones that suit your room, whether that is calm and floral or bright and playful.
Hanging Several Pieces Without Them Clashing
Once you hang more than two or three, the risk is a busy window where nothing stands out. A few simple habits keep it calm.
- Repeat a color. If one piece is mostly blue and green, choose others that share one of those shades.
- Vary the sizes. One larger piece with two smaller ones looks more natural than a row of identical shapes.
- Stagger the heights. Hang chains at different lengths so pieces do not overlap or shade each other.
- Leave gaps. Clear glass between pieces lets each one catch its own light.
Hang each piece from a chain, from one point, high in a window that gets direct sun for part of the day. Because acrylic is light, a small suction hook is enough. Our guide to hanging and caring for suncatchers walks through the details.
Crystal drops need a little room. They only throw rainbows in direct sun, so save them for the windows that get it, and keep a hand's width between drops so they do not knock together. The rest of your pieces will still give their glow of color when the sun is soft.
Heat, Direct Sun and How Acrylic Holds Up
Sunrooms get warm. Glass traps heat, and a south-facing room can feel much warmer than the rest of the house by afternoon. It is fair to wonder how a printed piece copes.
Acrylic is a sturdy, light material, and 3mm clear acrylic hangs happily in a bright window. We do not make claims about extreme temperatures, so use common sense: keep pieces away from heaters, stoves and anything that gives off real heat, and do not leave them in a closed, sun-baked car.
Direct sun also changes with the seasons. A window that is bright in winter may be shaded by leaves in July, and the other way around. Watch your room for a week and note which windows get direct sun and for how many hours. Put crystal drops in those windows, and let the colorful acrylic pieces fill the rest.
If a window gets sun for only part of the day, that is fine. The piece glows while the light hits it, and any crystal drop throws rainbows in those same hours.
Keeping Them Indoors Rather Than Outside
An enclosed porch with a roof, walls and closed windows counts as indoors. A screened porch open to the weather does not. Suncatchers are made to hang inside a window, away from rain, wind and the knocks of outdoor life. If your porch is open to the weather, hang them on the inside of the glass instead.
Indoors also makes care easy. Wipe each piece with a soft cloth, dry or slightly damp, using plain water only. Skip glass cleaner, alcohol and abrasives, because they cloud acrylic and wear the print. When you clean the windows, take the suncatchers down first so spray does not drift onto them.
Each piece is made to order by Merchize, which takes 2 to 3 business days, then delivery takes 5 to 10 business days. Shipping is free within the US, and we ship to US addresses only. Plan ahead if you want a new piece in place for a particular season.
Start with one or two for your best window, live with them for a week, then add more. A sunroom has room to grow a collection slowly.