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Hardwired Motorized Shades Offer Window Coverings That Operate in Perfect Unison

One of our favorite aspects of smart home integration is the unique customization options for every home and budget. In this, our second in a series of motorized window coverings and lighting, we'll explore the wired indoor options and why these systems may be the best in certain situations.

Let's look at the different products, materials, and control options that today’s motorized shades offer homeowners in Park City, UT, and the surrounding areas.

It’s Not All About Convenience

You might remember a few things that weren't as easy as they are today if you are of a certain age. Automobiles are a great example. Did you learn to drive with a manual transmission? Do you remember the thrill of learning to launch the car on a hill with the clutch and try not to go backward? Or how about a car without power steering? No need for weight training if you learned to parallel park muscling a heavy steering wheel.

When we talk about motorized shades, your first thought might be, "why do they need motors?" In cars, we've gone far beyond those manual days toward machines that almost drive themselves. There are many good reasons why adding power to motorized shades goes beyond the convenience factor, although it's hard to deny the convenience.

In this blog, we'll continue to make the case why motorized shades are an excellent investment for your Bountiful, UT home. Keep reading, and don't be surprised when one day, manual windows shades will be as rare as manual steering is in cars today. 

The Answers to These Common Questions Will Help You Find the Ideal Solution

You may have heard us boast before on this blog about the many benefits that motorized shades can bring to your home in Salt Lake City, UT, or the surrounding areas. Outside of their well-known stylistic benefits, motorized shades regulate your home's temperature, keep pets and small children safe, and protect your furnishings from sun damage.

While this versatility makes motorized shades stand out, it can also be challenging to understand what features and options are the best fit for your unique needs. How can you figure out if you're using the right fabric, color or even control option? Below we highlight a handful of questions we usually ask our clients when designing a tailored solution for them. 

QMotion Automated Shades Manage Light, Beautifully

Your first thought about motorized shading might be about convenience. After all, what’s more convenient than pushing a button and having your window shade go up or down?  One of the beauties of adding automation to a straightforward function is what you can do with it in concert with other automation. That’s when you start reaping the benefits of smart home control.

Have you heard the term “daylight harvesting?” Just as it sounds, it's about making the most of natural light. Fortunately, in Salt Lake City and the Utah Wasatch mountains, sunshine is abundant. Motorized shades can help you make the most of natural light in any season, saving energy, increasing comfort, and enhancing your interiors. Keep reading to learn how to master natural light in your home.

New Fabrics from QMotion Celebrate Your Unique Style

Whether you’re starting fresh in a new home or renovating your abode, decorating your interiors is an important undertaking. The way you decorate your spaces not only reflects your personality, but it also has a significant impact on the way you and your guests feel within your home.

At Show & Tell AV, we partner with QMotion not only because their motorized shades are whisper-quiet and simple to control but because their breadth of fabrics and colors is also quite impressive. Homeowners in Bountiful, UT, and surrounding areas who desire smart shades that excel in style will love QMotion just as much as we do.

Earlier this year, QMotion announced four new fabric collections, adding 80 new fabrics to their offering. Featuring trend-setting colors and textures, these new fabrics perfectly complement any home interior. Get inspired by learning more about these new collections below.

Make the Best Motorized Shading Decisions for Your Home

Hand cranks were the standard for operating car windows until we upgraded to automatic buttons. We used to wash dishes by hand until the time-and-water-saving dishwasher was invented. Would you go back to cranks and hand washing now? Probably not. And after you experience powered window treatments, you won’t want to go back to manual blinds and shades either.

If you’re considering making the upgrade to motorized shades, this blog can serve as a quick guide to help you make the best decisions for your home. Our motorized shading experts have answered the most common questions about this smart home solution below. Keep reading to learn more!

Motorized Drapes

While the term most applied to motorized window treatments is “shades," the styles available go far beyond these. Roller shades may very well be the most popular powered style, but there are many more to choose from. Are you more into the elegance of drapes? You can motorize those, too. Lutron, a leader in lighting control and motorized shading, offers powered drapery track systems that work for large windows and even heavy drapes. Heavy drapes can be a chore to open and close manually, so power makes them much more convenient to let the light in when you want it and keep it out when you don’t. Styles include classic pinch pleat and ripplefold, and there’s even an innovative vertical system that can lift drapes up instead of opening horizontally to expose Bountiful, Utah’s beautiful views.

Blackout Shades

Blackout shades and drapes are popular for bedrooms and living areas or game rooms that double as home theaters. Did you know you can have double motorized shades for those rooms? When you need darkness to sleep at night or watch a movie, you can lower both the blackout shade and the decorative one. For daytime, you can filter the sun with your decorative shade only while the blackout layer is rolled up. With a wide choice of light-filtering fabrics that can fit the sun exposure for your room, you can have the perfect solution for fully utilizing natural light and having a dark room when you need it. With smart home automation, you can use schedules, sensors, and all manner of controls to position your shades exactly how you want them throughout the day.

SEE MORE: Master Natural Light in Your Home with Motorized Shades

Insulating Shades

Utah has a wide range of weather, from cold winters to fairly hot summers. If you want to give your HVAC system and your wallet a bit of a break, honeycomb shades are an excellent option for their insulating qualities. Their cell design traps warm air inside in the winter from escaping through windows and keeps your air-conditioned interiors cooler in summer. When you want to fully enjoy the view, just press a button to raise your shades and enjoy a sunset or let in warming sun on a cold winter day. Going green has never been easier.

Tensioned and Cable Guided Shades

There are some windows that you might think are hard to manage. Consider a clerestory window or skylight that lets you enjoy the light, but for two hours of every day in a season creates too much glare from the sun streaming in. Powered tensioned shades can come to the rescue. The tensioned design can handle even fully horizontal applications, and you can open and close the shade when you want or on a schedule. For angled applications, cable-guided shades keep a shade perfectly in line with the window angle. Cable-guided shades also work well where shades might be moved by airflow from ceiling fans or open windows and doors.

Palladiom Shades

What makes Palladiom shades different? It goes beyond the contemporary colors and fabrics. They’re designed for exposed applications and don't need a fascia, pocket, or recess. Exposed doesn’t mean unsightly, as hand-finished aluminum brackets that match the equally elegant keypads show off the sleek industrial design. Palladiom shading is the epitome of form following function elegantly.

When it comes to function, Lutron excels with superior innovation. Lutron motors are the envy of the industry for power, efficiency, and quiet operation. The company’s patented Hembar Alignment system (available throughout the shading lines) synchronizes shade movement within 1/8 of an inch for perfectly choreographed operation in your Salt Lake City, UT home.

The Palladiom line is an ideal choice for today's industrial, mid-century, and modern styles. With new warm brass finishes and graphite and opal white brackets, they add the perfect modern touch to eclectic interiors.

SEE ALSO: Four Unique Ways to Use Motorized Shades and Window Treatments

Palladiom Wall Controls

Lutron's Palladiom wall stations feature the same attention to detail in industrial design. Made of complementary materials and colors featuring matte, glass, and metal finishes, they add elegance to your walls and consolidate control of multiple functions into one interface. The keypads work with HomeWorks QS, Lutron’s most sophisticated lighting control system. One button can turn on and off lighting throughout your entire property. HomeWorks also integrates control of Lutron motorized shades and smart thermostats. You can create scenes to make them all partner to set the ideal atmosphere for any activity with lights, shading, and temperature control.