Thank you patty.
Does anyone know anything about Texton's brand (www.texton.com)? They say they have a similar product at a more competitive pricing.

I don't know anything about Texton's shades, but I had a good experience with the Comfortex Shangri-la (lower-cost) version of the HD Silhouettes.

Any others with advise on Silhouette shades?
I wonder if anyone with an older home (circa 1920s or older)
has used Silhouettes for a window treatment?
I ask because I worry that they might look to modern in my older home.
But I do like their functionality.

We have that style in two of our bay windows. Light filtering. I'm not sure of the brand because they were here when we moved in. But I LOVE them. So much that I want to put them in all the windows in our new house.

I like the way they look, as they're very sleek and minimal. I feel you can dress the window easily without them competing with drapes, treatments, etc. They're extremely easy to open/close and retract, not fussy at all. When you retract the whole shade into the top part, they're almost completely out of sight.

But most of all, I like that when they are closed, they provide privacy but still allow a lot of light in. So you don't have to open them, and you'll still get natural light, unlike if drapes or blinds are closed. Our new home has a lot of windows and I hate going around opening and shutting blinds each morning and night. My dream is motorized window treatments, but that's not in the budget. So I'm looking forward to having these so when I wake up, the house will have a lot of natural light even with the shades shut, and I can open them more as needed but not because it's a dark cave inside until I do.

I am interested to hear what people have to say about the quality between the HD ones and the more economical versions.

Jlnick,
Thanks for sharing your experience with the Silhouette style window treatments.
I've never paid that much attention to all the different window treatments
other than roman shades and curtains.
So although I know that Silhouette-style blinds have been around for awhile,
I'm just starting to notice them.
(Especially on the HGTV design show "Love it or List It" --
guess Hunter Douglas is a sponsor!)

The only thing I think I don't like about them
is the "cassette" that houses the shades
when they are fully in the "up" position.
Oh, that and my understanding that they are very pricey.

Yes, when we moved into our house 7 years ago I had never seen this style of shade before, but I loved it right away. I just learned that they're called Silhouette shades, while searching for options for our new house's windows. I personally don't mind the "cassette", as it sort of fades into the background to me. More so than a retracted cellular shade or something similar. That said, we don't keep them fully retracted that often. I prefer the ease and light filtering aspect of having the shade down, not to mention the privacy.

And yes, they are pricey. To me, it's worth the extra cost since we'll have them forever and it'll save me the hassle of opening/closing dozens of window treatments every morning and night over the course of the many years we plan to be in our next home. Our current ones are at least 7 years old and still look great with little to no maintenance on our part. They're more of a functional treatment to me - they look fine, but their real appeal is that they provide both privacy and light simultaneously. I plan to install them in our new house right away for privacy and function, and then as I decorate I'll put up draperies or valences that enhance the decor of the room and make the windows more interesting/pretty.

We had them for 20 years in our LR and loved them. They folded up flat and hid nicely under the valance. At night they provided privacy. The only issue we had was our cat liked to use the cords as "dental floss" and we needed to replace the strings. Fortunately hunter Douglas provides kits for free via the web.

The Hunter Douglas silhouette and Comfortex Shangri-la fall into the category of "horizontal sheer shades". Hunter was the first to come out with them but now there are many brands out there with the shangri la being the 2nd most popular and the silhouette being first but you will pay a preium price for the Hunter Douglas name. I have seen many of these and for the most part people love them. Only problems I have seen is if they are not installed level the edges can fray. Also little bugs love to crawl into the cells. If you draw the shades up you can squish them and stain the fabric. Blow them out with can of compress air you use to clean your computor.

Oh, you'll love them! I had HD Silhouettes in the MBR of house on the beach and couldn't have chosen anything better. The house next door was pretty close, and when the vanes were tilted to the open position, it gave just the right amount of daytime privacy (neighbors couldn't see in during the day) and were so easy to completely close at night for complete privacy. I would, however, consider the Comfortex Shangri-la as I understand they can be raised several inches with the vanes still in the open position, whereas Silhouettes have to be in the closed position to raise at all, not to mention the price difference.

Bugs get trapped in them and die. I had them installed in my whole house 7 yrs ago. I haven't tried the computer spray--just my blow dryer. Thanks for the suggestion.

Very spendy, although lovely. They are hard to clean and do show dirt after several years. Dusting doesn't cut it.

I actually took my family room set to my garage, used my Green Machine on them, let them dry, and rehung them. Worked pretty well. Nobody around here did the cleaning method recommended by HD. I figured I had nothing to lose.

I have since replaced a couple of windows with Plantation Shutters. Just wipe off and they are clean.

I purchased a foreclosed home that had the hunter douglas blinds, but was missing 3 of them. After extensive research I purchased my replacements from selectblinds.com
They will even send you free color samples so you can be sure you are ordering the right color. I would rank them the same in quality. The selectblinds.com ones are about one third the price and also came with a cloth panel to place over the top housing portion. I would never pay more.
I have been very happy and I have had mine for almost a year now and they are showing no signs of wear whatsoever.

I love, love, love the Silhouette line! There are so many options to choose from, but my favorite thing about these window shadings is that you can open from top or bottom, OR BOTH! This really helps me get just the right amount of lighting, and in the directions I want.

JckieC84: Welcome to GardenWeb. I want to warn you that we are suspicious of people who pull up old threads and post links to blog sites on their very first post. It makes us think the blogger is trying to drive traffic to her blog.

And if you are Lisa, there is nothing "inspiring" about your blog.

Hi, I'm getting ready to choose window treatments and I'm considering Silhouette or Honeycombed type shades. I had them in a home a while back but we had old windows and got a lot of condensation and staining. My new home is in a different climate, dry in the winter and hot & humid in the summer. I'm looking for something that insulates well against the summer heat. I'm interested to hear your experiences and if you've had problems with condensation. My home is insulated and has dual pane vinyl windows. Thanks.

I cannot say enough good things about selectblinds.com. Their sheer blinds are just as good as Hunter Douglas silhouettes, and 40% cheaper. (Please note that selectblinds.com has two levels of quality --the better ones are called Good Housekeeping.)

The turnaround times are amazing fast, less than a week.

And, best of all, their customer service went above and beyond. By mutual error, a cancelled order was shipped as well as the correct one. They could technically have tried to stick me with the charges, especially since this is a custom order. But they did the right thing and let me return them. This increases my confidence in ordering from them online 1000%. I will not hesitate to use them in the future.

Here is a link that might be useful: sheer shades from Select Blinds

downtowner:

Did you measure and install these yourself? If so, was it easy and do they fit well?

Liz

I have Hunter Douglas silhouette shades 74 inches wide. I need a drapery panel or a valance. Any suggestions to cozy up since the top comes out so far standard rods won't work.

annettejd it is pretty easy to DIY an mdf valence and then cover it with fabric, or DIY one made from molding. Cornice board kits are available.

Another option: search on "curtain rod projection extensions"

Also best to start a new thread instead of posting to an old one, this one started in 2012.