Motorized blinds

Motorizing makes sense in two situations in particular. The first is a window out of reach, above a stairwell or under a vaulted ceiling, where getting a stepladder out every morning is not realistic. The second is a very large shade, which gets heavy to work by hand and wears faster when it is pulled unevenly.

The motor sits inside the tube of the shade, so nothing changes about how it looks. Depending on the install it runs on a rechargeable battery, on wiring, or on a small solar panel fixed to the window. Battery is what takes the least work in a house that is already finished, and it is what we fit most often on a renovation.

Once they are motorized, several shades can run together, which lets you take a whole wall of windows down in one go or set them to a time of day. If you want motors on part of the house only, it is worth raising at the measuring visit, because the choice of mechanism is made at that point.