We have a West facing lanai and love it. The morning breakfasts are wonderful and the evening sunset are fantastic. We were also faced with what "should we do about the sun in the evening" and after some thought decided to go with curtains. We found curtains on Amazon that are mold resistant and have guide holes on both the top and bottom. You need the guide holes on the bottom to stop the curtains from blowing into the lanai. We then had a handy-man run a steel guide wire across the top and bottom of the lanai opening where the curtains were to be placed. A curtain was hung on the left side of the lanai able to run about 1/2 way into the middle and another one hung on the right side able to run about 1/2 way. The logic I used was: Its a lot cheaper solution then an electric shade running from the top to bottom of the lanai window and if we didn't like it we didn't have a lot to loose compared to the electric shade solution. When we want to block the sun typically we only need to move one of the curtains over some and it leave the rest open for a nice view. Out lanai is large and we have 2 sections with 2 curtains on each section. It is very rare for us to have to move even 1 curtain over to the middle and I can't remember ever having to close 2 of the curtains and never the 4. The curtains move fairly easy on the guide wires but clearly not as easy a pressing a button. This solution works for us but as most people have recommended > use the Lanai in the spring/summer/ a little before you make a decision. Good luck.
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