Cellular shades

Seen from the side, a cellular shade is built from honeycomb pockets that trap a layer of air between the window and the room. That still air is what slows the heat moving through, and it is the one technical reason to choose this shade over another.

You notice it most in winter, at a window where you feel the cold coming down as you sit beside it. So we fit these first on the most exposed windows rather than throughout a house. The fabric comes in single or double cell, with double insulating more in exchange for a slightly deeper stack when the shade is up.

Cellular also comes with a top down and bottom up option, which lets you lower the shade from the top of the window instead. You keep the daylight up at the ceiling while closing the bottom of the window off from the street, which is useful on a ground floor in a dense neighbourhood.