Why I Chose to Upgrade to Motorized Shades

As I was wrapping up my renovation in 2017, I kept seeing woven wood shades all over social media and knew in a heartbeat I wanted some for the huge bank of front windows across my main living area.  I called my neighbor, Leslie Rainer with Leslie Rainer Designs, and she helped me pick out the perfect woven woods from Horizons Window Fashions.

When I started sharing pictures of my home on Instagram, my number one asked question quickly became, “Where did you get your shades?”

At the time of ordering these, installing motors never crossed my mind and for five years, every. single. morning. and every. single. evening, I traipsed through my home and manually raised and lowered my shades.  Honestly, it was tedious because there are twelve total.

Fast forward to summer 2020.  I got to go with Hector Sanchez to Round Rock, Texas, to shoot my friend Wendy Conklin’s (@chairwhimsy) home.  She had just purchased motorized shades for her bedroom, and the minute I saw her whip out her remote and raise and lower ALL of them with a press of a button, I KNEW I had to have some too! But I wondered if I could even afford them.

When I moved into my cottage in 2017, Leslie helped me design my window coverings and we chose Matchstick Woven Woods from Horizons.  They garnered SO much interest from my online community and people constantly raved about them.  I knew when I added my new motorized shades, I wanted to keep the same look and feel.

Leslie once again came over and brought TONS of sample books.  We looked through them meticuolously weighing all the pros and cons of each color.  Ultimately I decided to stay in the same ballpark as my old, manual Horizons shades and chose Glendale Stone.  They looked almost the same as my old shades but a little less red.

My assumptions about motorized shades were that they’re too expensive, too bulky, and just too much to have in a simple home like mine. Then, I learned about Somfy, a company specializing in designing motorized shading products. After digging in a little deeper to what they offer, all of my negative assumptions about motorized shades disappeared and I made the plunge! Once again, I called Leslie to come over and we got to work picking out new Horizons Window shades and THIS time, I added Somfy motors.  (My old shades were unable to be converted to motorized.)

I can’t even begin to express how convenient my new, motorized, Somfy/Horizons shades have been! I used to manually raise and lower my Horizons shades each morning and night, but now it’s as simple as pressing a button on a remote! They are so perfect for all indoor living spaces, including living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and more. My custom made and professionally installed shades give me the convenience of easily managing my room lighting and privacy.

Horizons and Somfy are a match made in heaven! Somfy is a company that envisions a more comfortable, more responsible and safer home. They create new solutions, reliable and sustainable, that improve life and well-being.  With Somfy, my home is definitely smarter and more convenient than ever before. Horizons has a custom fabric collection that includes over 350 selections.  They are able to customize and design window treatments to meet your exact needs. Both companies go hand in hand to make your home more aesthetically appealing.

Here are a few reasons you should take the plunge, too!

1. The Comfort and Convenience:

• Motorized blinds and shades from Somfy can be easily raised and lowered from a remote control, tablet, or smartphone.

2. Moments of Silence:

• You don’t ever have to worry about noises when raising and lowering your blinds and shades thanks to the superior acoustic performance from Somfy.

3. Reduce Energy Costs:

• Somfy created interior shades with sun sensors making them adapt to the external conditions – how cool is that?! Energy efficiency at its finest.

4. Match Your Lifestyle with Custom Interior:

• Somfy encourages you to play with natural light and create your own moods.

I truly can’t recommend Somfy and Horizons enough. My new motorized motorized shades have really changed my daily routine for the better – I love starting and ending my day with convenience. If you’d like to find a Horizons dealer near you, you can click here.  And if you’d like to learn more about Somfy motors, you can click here to connect with a dealer. Definitely let me know if you make the leap too! I promise you’ll never look back.

*This post was approved by Somfy and Horizons.