Three Decisions to Settle Before the First Shade Goes Up
Most people shop for motorized shades the way they shop for paint. They focus on matching colors and fabrics, but not on their overall functionality. They don’t think about how the fabric color they chose will help reduce glare from the afternoon sun on the TV. They also forget to think about what happens behind the scenes: did the model they chose force them to open up fresh drywall to run a wire?
Beacon Audio Video Systems designs and installs motorized shading for homeowners in Dayton, OH. On nearly every project, the same three decisions come up: how the shades are powered, which fabric covers each window, and how you run them day-to-day. The answers to these questions will determine which shades you choose for each room.
SEE ALSO: Keep Your Home Cool with Motorized Window Shades
Should You Go With Wired or Wireless Shades?
Before you pick a color, you need to pick how the shades get their power. Hardwired shades offer greater functionality, but they may not always be the best choice.
The answer usually comes down to your walls and the stage of construction. Wired shades need a low-voltage cable run from each window back to a power supply. With the walls open, in a new build or a gut remodel, that’s a much simpler job. Once the drywall is up and painted, someone usually has to cut into it to get the cable there. You pay not only for the wiring but also for the patch and paint job afterward.
If your walls are already finished, battery shades are usually the right call, and Beacon will walk through your home with you to tell you which windows suit them. Lutron rates the batteries in its Triathlon shades at three to five years, so you won’t be changing them often, and a swap doesn’t mean taking the shade off the wall. You get motorized shades without opening a single wall.
Not sure which fits your home? Beacon will check your walls and tell you which windows should be wired and which don’t need to be.
Match the Fabric to the Sun and the View
Fabric controls how much light comes in and how much of the outdoor view you keep. The openness factor is the share of direct light a fabric lets through. A lower number cuts more glare. Color matters just as much. Darker fabrics absorb light, so a dark fabric is the usual answer for a window that throws glare onto a TV. Lutron's fabric guide also recommends a dark screen fabric with a higher openness factor for the clearest view-through.
Bedrooms need the opposite. Blackout fabric stops light from passing, so the room stays dark well past an early July sunrise.
Privacy takes some thought. A light fabric gives daytime privacy, but with the lamps on at night, it can show silhouettes from outside. If you use the room after dark, see the fabrics in person before you decide. Visit Beacon’s Control4-certified showroom and ask to see how each fabric looks with the lights on. Our earlier post on Lutron shades walks through fabric options room by room.
Decide How You Will Run the Shades
The best shades are the ones you stop thinking about, so how you control them matters as much as the shades themselves.
Start with the Control4 app on your phone to raise or lower any shade from the couch. A keypad on the wall by the door or beside the bed does the same job with one press, so family and guests never need the app. Prefer to just say it? A voice command works too.
Scenes tie it all together. Press Movie, and the shades lower while the lights dim. Press Good Morning, and they rise before you reach the kitchen. Beacon programs each scene based on your routines.
Schedules handle the rest. Your shades can open in the morning and close when the afternoon sun hits the TV, with a different plan for July than for January. You set it once, and from then on, the house takes care of itself.
Walk Your Windows With Beacon Before You Order
The easiest time to plan shades is before the drywall goes up, but Beacon works with finished properties, too. Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation, and we’ll walk through your home with you and tell you which options would fit you best.