Motorized hobbled shade project

Here is a challenging project- 6 side-by-side hobbled shades with a distinctive printed fabric.

This project was designed by Susan Marocco Interiors, and motorization was expertly accomplished by Joe of All Systems Go.

The pattern layout and the pleats had to be very precisely planned and fabricated  to ensure continuity once the shades were hung.  Luckily this Harlequin fabric was expertly printed and pattern drift was nearly nonexistent- a big deal these days, when so many patterns are printed off grain.  Here you can see by comparing the owls that the pattern is off by barely 1/4" from one side to the other.  

Before sending the shades to be motorized they were hung in the workroom to make sure everything lined up correctly.  Any discrepancies were easily fixed by adjusting the encased cord tape from Rowley which served as the hobbling tape as well as the shroud.

With a 27" pattern repeat, half of the birds on the fabric are hidden in the folds of the hobbled shades, so I used some of the hidden birds in the backdrop section of the valances.

The valance body is just a rectangle with a gentle bottom curve, a little wider than the area covered to give the droop; the width was determined by draping a piece of chain weight so the backdrop would have the right amount of exposure.  The tapered horn is from the M'Fay Imperial valance pattern.  Little double jabots were velcroed into the corners after the boards were up.

The skinny bows are made of two pieces- the long main piece and a little cinch with a tail.  The bow was lifted up and the tail of the cinch stapled to the board face.....

then the bow was flipped back down and secured with a staple snuck in under the cinch.

The shades have three settings- fully lowered, middle of the window, and fully raised.   A lot of hard work paid off with a job that was very satisfying in the end.

Somfy Motorization

Well, I finally did it!..... I attended a training seminar for Somfy motorization.  I'm official, and I'm very excited about it!

Somfy is an industry leader in motorization of window treatments.  For us, the primary application will be fabric shades and draperies.  This session today provided the information needed to identify which of Somfy's many products is the right one for a specific job.

I was amazed at how well developed the product line has become since I first heard of it some years ago.  Somfy motorization can be as simple as a hand-held remote operating a single shade by infrared, or as complex as systems for large homes or commercial buildings such as offices or restaurants, that control not only dozens of window treatments but also awnings or outdoor heating systems.  There are wind detectors for awnings, and solar detectors for awnings and window treatments.  A single channel can control one window, or all the windows in a group.  For example, all the western exposure window shades in the whole house could be programmed to lower at the same time when the sun comes around that side of the building in the summer.  An integrated system can allow the window treatments to be controlled by the customer's computer or remote control that also controls other building functions, such as audio or television.

And besides the soft window treatments we fabricate here, Somfy motors are used for blinds, cellular shades, woven woods, roller shades, and many other hard window treatments.  It's even possible to retro-fit many existing manually operated products that are already in use.

There will be a learning curve for me, but Somfy's customer service is great and I'm very excited about being able to offer this product to my clients.

If any of you readers have any advice on motorization from your own experience, I'd love to hear about it.