Have four windows. Approx size is 4x6'. Height is the 6'. Have had some Hunter Douglas pull string shades for a bunch of years. Been great shades. Wife is ready for new ones. Kitten tore into a couple. So as they say. That done it. Had to restring these over the years and enough is enough.
Other than up and down. Need these to keep summer sun and heat out. A local source does Graber. Will come measure and install. Wife is looking at them.

Wondering if you guys have any thoughts or recommendation good or bad.

Thanks.

Few years ago, after painting, wanted to change the 80's/90's look of the old owner.

Shopped around and actually ended up at Lowes. Hit one of those weekend with the extra off and like $2 installation.

They are Levelor. The one time when a cord snapped, calling there service was great. Looked up the order and sent a new unit out.

Lowes came and remeasured before ordering and did a fine job on installing.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yep. This is good. Sensible prices and sensible shades.

Without seeing your windows, I cannot say if you can fit them, but plantation shutters are the bomb. They are classy looking, convenient to use, and do a great job of keeping out the sun in summer and cold in winter.

Consider bottom up shades. Ones that will always protect your privacy while allowing sunlight to stream in. Got mine at Home Depot years ago. No pull cords. There are some that are powered, if you’re into that. I do like hunter douglas products.

No pull chords if you can swing it.

I spent more than $10K in hunter douglas products for our windows when we bought the house. I would not buy them again, at least not without more closely looking at other options. I bought them based on brand recognition and they sounded good on paper.

However, every one of the coverings has had issues and failures since then. These were some of their higher end offerings at the time as well.

That being said, I do prefer the tops-down/bottoms-up shades and with the variable length pull cords - the fixed length pull cords have product life issues. And definitely would stay away from anything motorized - expensive pieces of shit.

YMMV and perhaps they've improved over the past 20 years. Or not.....

Here's what I'm hearing:
1. Boss wants new shades
2. Primary objective is to limit solar and heat radiation.

Sounds to me as though your a good candidate for solar shades. These have gotten quite popular because this product does both and still affords a view. The amount of light allowed into a room is expressed as an openness factor (OF). For example, a completely opaque shade fabric has an openness factor of 0%. Those are typically referred to as blackout or room darkening fabrics. Solar fabrics have OFs or 1, 3, 5 & 10%. However, they won't all give you the same characteristics.

They can be manually operated or motorized. In the sizes you're talking about, rechargeable battery powered shades are probably in order. These would not require any wiring and of course have no cords or chains. They require a charge about once a year or so. Manual shades typically have a #10 stainless steel bead chain.

Big box stores tend to sell normally inventoried product very well. Generally speaking they fall short when it comes to custom projects. YMMV.

Let me know if you'd like to pursue this further. I might could fix you up!

We recently had new window treatments installed.

Graber Traditions wood blinds for large Pella windows in a couple bedrooms. Really like them as they do not have any holes in the 2" slats.


And Hunter Douglas Applause units (without room darkening - light filtering layers) for a large living-room window (lite rise bottom up) and two sliding patio doors (vertiglide). No issues and a great warranty.

Thanks guys, Mjl, thank you. We are not sure what we are doing just yet. If you wish to contact me my email is in my profile. Again. Thanks guys.

I worked at a window covering factory for 22 years.We manufactured our own products.

Hunter Douglas, Graber, Levelor are the big boys on the block.

We manufactured:

Plantation Shutters
Cellular Shades
Solar Shades
2"Fauxwood blinds
Mini blinds
Vertical blinds

Out of all the window coverings I sold and manufactured, Shutters were the king. They are timeless in their beauty and never go out of style. You can adjust the louvers to let in as much or little light you want. My guess on price based on your window size would be $500-$750 per window depending on what material they are made of. Vinyl being least expensive, Solid Polywood in the middle and wood being the most expensive.

Solar shades are a great product too. They are simple and clean. They won't insulate like shutters and are not a blackout product if you need that for a bedroom window. The prices can be all over the place depending on what choices you make. Fabric, motorized, manual etc.

Cellular shades look nice, but those damn small strings break all the time. They are delicate and can be quite expensive too.

As a matter of fact all window coverings with strings will eventually break. String is string.

I personally have a combination of Shutters and Solar Shades in my house.

Good luck with your shopping...

quote:

Kitten tore into a couple.

It's pretty safe to bet Kitten will tear into the new ones as well. (Ask me how I know...)

If you have tightly insulated windows and so might not need additional insulation from the window treatments, something with wooden slats like the top pic in bald1's post or the pic below might be more durable.



From a survive-the-feline-attention perspective, most non-fabric would be more robust, though I would suggest the stiff alternatives (wood, faux wood, Polywood, etc.) versus the aluminum ones. The metal ones have a less attractive look and have durability issues of their own (bending, etc.)

We did two things.

On the first and third floors, we have faux 2" wood blinds.

On the second floor where we live most of the time, we have cordless top-down, bottom-up, light filtering shades.

They give max light and privacy.

We did "Bali" brand blinds and they worked great for us. Got them at Home depot and every once in a while they are on sale so we added more to the old house. Never had a problem with them.

The wood ones were very light which was good, easy to raise/lower. We cheated out on a few rooms and got the plastic 'looks like wood' and they were heavy. You could tell the difference when raising/lowering but still worked great.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Thanks guys, Mjl, thank you. We are not sure what we are doing just yet. If you wish to contact me my email is in my profile. Again. Thanks guys.

Email sent...

Just ordered some blinds.com.
Don't know if their the cheapest but anything to keep the wife happy.
Pretty easy process and lots to choose from.

Bought from Blinds dot com, quality is ok, price ok, and had one fail to retract (no pull cords as is the requirement today) to warranty it I would have to pay to send it back.

After that went to Lowes, better quality, custom cut, I can take a defective one right back.

We did 3 inch wood like slats if your windows are inset go big, 2.5 to 3 inch, measure inside and have custom cut at Lowes. Home Depot does the same.

You won't find them will pull cords in stores, those will have to be ordered.

When these get replaced we're doing Plantation Shutters. At least that's what I've been told we'll do...