Specifying drapery can be dizzying, sometimes with more options than we could ever parse through in one showroom visit. Blinds, panels, or curtains? Sheers, shades, or slats? Should they be operable from the top-down or bottom-up? How does smart technology apply? The number of solutions will vary by lifestyle and require a level of nuance few window covering companies value as a core tenet. With over a century of experience transforming natural light through thoughtfully executed treatments – and tendrils extending to include a network of installers, designers, and gallery dealers – industry leader Hunter Douglas walks us through a handful of personas proving their positions as masters of their craft.
The Problem: Homes without energy-efficient window coverings can lose up to 30% of heating and cooling energy through fenestration, according to the Department of Energy. And while many standard trappings are operable, homeowners have a tendency to underutilize them with roughly 75% remaining in the same position all day. You’re painfully aware of growing energy costs and know that fighting the climate crisis starts with the individual.
Our Product Pick: The Duette Honeycomb Shades and Solar Charger could save you up to 15% on your annual energy bill, according to studies by the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories. The pleated cell design – a proprietary technology created by the brand some 30 years ago – creates air pockets that insulate and maintain consistent indoor temperatures. When drawn closed, room-darkening, opaque fabrics help keep spaces warmer in the winter by preventing heat loss at night and cooler in the summer by providing shade during the day. With more than 150 fabric and color choices, window treatments may be customized by window size and shape. Adding cordless automation allows you to maintain effortless control over everything around the clock accessible through personal devices, remote control, or voice activation.
Lifestyle Perks: A simple smart system ensures your shades are always positioned exactly where they should be to achieve greater command over insulation, solar heat gain, and daylighting for maximum energy savings.
Photo: Jacob Snavely
The Problem: As compared to morningness, eveningness is associated with increased morbidity, plausibly because those prone to the latter have a compromised wake-sleep schedule. Maybe creativity comes to you at the witching hour, or twilight is your only free time. Perhaps your job requires overnight shifts. Personal preference or profession, your circadian rhythm is out of sync and you’re searching for a solution to manage environmental factors.
Photo: Jacob Snavely
Our Product Pick: The three-in-one designed Aura Illuminated Shades integrate a textured front shade for natural light control, a reflective room-darkening liner for blackout functionality, and programmable LED lighting for ambient illumination. You can achieve “daylight on demand” with a symphony of tunable color temperatures and brightness levels. The proprietary technology, including a parabolic reflector and reflective liner, ensures even light distribution without hot spots, closely mimicking the look and feel of natural light. What’s more, the system operates on the advanced PowerView+ Gen 3 Automation platform, which is both simple to control and easy to integrate into existing smart home networks.
Lifestyle Perks: Night-owls and shift workers alike will enjoy circadian-supportive shading and lighting to help mitigate the effects of irregular schedules including: disrupted sleep cycles, fatigue, mood fluctuations, and a lack of productivity due to fatigue. Those looking for similar blackout benefits at a more accessible investment can use LightLock in conjunction with the Duette Cellular Shades.
Photo: Genevieve Garruppo
The Problem: The contemporary household is complex, from everyone’s personal taste to the home’s unique spatial programming. And it’s also as if the kids have schedules as packed as their parents with résumés nearly as decorated. Managing routines and room aesthetics takes a great deal of orchestration; you’re looking for a beautiful solution with modern conveniences.
Photo: Genevieve Garruppo
Our Product Pick: PowerView Gen 3 Automation by Hunter Douglas is a state-of-the-art smart shading solution that reconciles schedules and tastes in a convenient, energy-efficient solution. It is built on a reliable Bluetooth Low Energy platform, pairs well with other popular smart home networks, and can be controlled using voice commands or the sculptural Pebble Remote. Heads of household may schedule whatever variety of shades have been installed and integrated to automatically adjust based on daily routines for wake-sleep schedules, enhanced privacy, a sense of security while away, energy savings, and overall comfort. Technology is of no hindrance to style with over 20 shade types and hundreds of fabrics to choose from.
Photo: Hilton Carter
Lifestyle Perks: Whether retrofitting select rooms or integrating into a new build, this product is scalable to meet the needs of growing families as well as expanding households for a system that is future-proof to current tastes and changing technology.
The Problem: Plenty of places offer custom drapery and shading solutions, but you’re unsure of each company’s heritage or commitment to craft. And you’re design-centric, willing to invest in products that are as functional as they are beautiful with the ability to accommodate changing interior fashions.
Photo: Jacob Snavely
Our Product Picks: Some solutions are made more potent when paired together. Consider crafting a custom design starting with Luminette Privacy Sheers for light diffusion and privacy – these aren’t your typical vertical blinds. Their orientation adds height to spaces enhancing the drama while their softness tempers the room with ambient light and organic texture. And with gentle air flow, they appear to dance in the light. Complement them with Pirouette Window Shadings in other spaces to extend an ethereal atmosphere with correspondence in material, form, and command of light. The unique floating vanes feature softly contoured fabric that appears to float, giving windows a striking quality while offering variable shading and privacy control, as well as unobstructed views with the Invisi-Lift™ system, which allows the vanes to float in place without visible cords.
Photo: Jacob Snavely
Lifestyle Perks: Used in conjunction, they cater to homeowners who take pride in curating their spaces – and accommodate a variety of window orientations – by serving as functional and artistic elements, elevating the overall personal narrative of the residence while incorporating benefits typical of Hunter Douglas solutions.
To learn more about these and other products by the brand, or to find a dealer near you, visit hunterdouglas.com.
Photography provided by Hunter Douglas as noted.
