Window Design Inc.com
Honeycomb Shades
Of the many pleat choices in this product line,
Most of our choices land on the 3/4" Single pleat.
It has a nice size scale, not too busy, not too big.
As far as what style of fabric, Opulence is a popular choice.
Some fabrics have prints that are trendy to some, but most want a simple smooth look.
We do have a general rule in design,
Keep the shades simple and subtle, Jazz it up with draperies and pillows.
The rule applies to color choice as well
A white hue works very well,
where as a statement of RED or other loud colors can dominate your space.
The opacity of the fabrics are often a topic of discussion,
Mostly centered around blackout needs for bedrooms or media rooms.
A blackout fabric color will have a much heavier appearance,
due to the lining of the fabric shielding it needs for a complete blackout.
A white color in semi-opaque looks light and cheery,
The same color reads very subdued with the introduction of the opaque lining.
This is just good information to know when considering a blackout fabric.
Blackout fabrics are usually not used in living room, dining, kitchen and family room areas.
Semi-Opaque fabric is the standard honeycomb shade fabric.
It provides privacy and allows a translucence of light thru the fabric,
the room gleaning a sense of daylight even with the shade down. Blackout fabric is very effective light control with 100% blockage.
Sunlight is diificult to totally comtrol, the side gaps are certain to occur.
So effective that when lowered, the user will be searching in the dark for the light switch.
Sheer fabrics are nice for partial privacy or subdued covering, great in combining into a Day / Night shade.
Day / Night shade has two fabrics combined into singe shade.
Operation moves to shift from one fabric to another.
Sheer to Blackout or drawn completely up.
Honeycomb shades are available in several pleat combinations.
Six distinct cell styles, Pleats @ 3/8", 3/4", 1-1/4",2" and double cells,
sumptuous fabrics, rich range of hues and patterns.
Opacities include sheer, semi-sheer, semi-opaque and blackout—so you control the light.
The insulating qualities maximize your home's energy efficiency,
especially with SoftStyle cellular shades featuring double cells.
The smart D cell design keeps its crisp, full pleated structure and facing for the life of the shade.
Energy & Cost Efficient
The insulating cell construction helps restrict the outside air,
keeping both you and your home warmer in winter and cooler in summer.
Honeycomb shades provide cost-saving energy efficiency
that will help the planet and your pocketbook.
Cord Lock Shades
Cosidered to be the standard configuration of a shade.
The shades pulls up with the cords, a slight movement to the side of the window and the cord lock engages,
move the cord towards the center of the window and a slight tug releases the lock and the shade can be lowered.
Shades of significant height can have a lot of cording hanging down,
This can be managed by a hook or cord cleat when the shade is drawn open.
CordLess Shades
As the word implies, a shade without cords.
That is not entirely accurate, cords do support the inner working of the shade,
but uses a spring mechanism to draw and lock the cords.
The user simply pushes the botom rail up or down to open or close the shade.
The simplest version of a Cordless operation is that locks in place, any postion that the shade is left in.
A variation of this is a " Lift and Lock ", a button is used to lock the desired position.
This might be especially useful for extra large and heavy shades.
Cord Loop or Contineous Cord Operation
The Contineous Loop cord is like a bicycle chain
( but not a chain, a fabric loop ) that goes around in a circular fashion.
This engages a reel or spools that lifts the shade,
this lifting capacity has a bit more lifting muscle,
it works well for larger and heavier shades.
A Contineous Cord Operation can be the answer to shades the might be otherwise too large to order,
such as a 72" or larger cord lock request.
Motorization
Motorization has been advancing in design in recent yearsand has become a viable option with surprising low cost.
Most applications are powered with rechargable Lithium batteries,
wireless controls and intergrated into iphone, Siri, Alexis and home automation systems.
Shades can be set up on simple commands or scene senarios and timer applications.
A Standard Shades
Standard shade configuration is know as a " Bottom Up " shade,
This is a shade that from the closed position,
the shade is drawn up from the bottom sill to stack to the top of the window.
In my mind ( and many others ) this is backwards wording,
you could interpert this as stacking at the bottom and being pulled Up!, Right?, Nope!
20 years ago this was the case,
but then someone came up with the concept of Top Down / Bottom Up.
Or, One step further a Day / Night shade
This type a shade has two functions,
The fabric can be stacked at the Top of the window
and drawn Down, as in a standard shade.
Aternatively the shade can stack at the bottom
and by utilizing a center rail the fabric can be drawn Up from the Bottom.
This can be especially useful to provide privacy to the lower part of the window
thus shielding a direct view from a road or adjoining house.
The upper portion of the window can be left open to enjoy a sunny skyline.
Day / Night or Two Shade Combo
A shade that combines the usage of two fabric selections.The mechanisim is very similar to the Top-Down / Bottom-shade
but instead of the upper portion being open a 2nd fabric is added.
So, You would have two fabrics stacked at the top,
then lower one rail ( the Bottom Rail ) to reveal the first fabric.
Let's say the first fabric is a blackout,
then you would lower the " Middle " rail, where the second fabric is revealed.
The second fabric would be Semi-Opaque
or even a sheer fabric depending on your choice.
Vertical Application
Alta has a Vertical shade option that is very useful for sliding glass doors.
The Honeycomb fabric takes a 1/4 turn to have the pleats running vertically,
Up and Down instead of side to side.
A track is used across the top of the window,
with small rollers attached to the fabric that run the width of the track.
One added feature to the hardware is the stack area
is engineered to stack into 6" of space no matter the window width.
Special Options
We have an option of the headrail being a standard painted metal headrail or fabric covered.
The optional fabric covering adds about $20 in cost.
Fabric covering is softer and can be more compatable in color balance with fabric selection.
The standard painted headrail is color coordinated with fabric selction,
however paint v.s. Fabric reads heavier in darker colors.
My rule of thumb is to always go fabric covered due to the paint to fabric imbalance.
Special circumstances call for Special Options.
SkyLight applications
Honeycomb shades are one of the few product lines that offer a sloped or skylight system.
A pole can be used for manual applications or You can do it with a push of the button in a motorized version.
A few more details
A kitchen counter might have tiles that return into the window opening,
we can specify cut out areas to accomidate this.
A special call out of headrail and bottom rail colors,
It might be part of your design elements.
Hold down brackets for a swinging door could be needed.
I seldom order Hold Downs for honeycomb shades, the shade has little movement when a door swings.
