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Home Decorating Windows Design Dilemma

Ideas for Mounting Motorized Shades

last year

Looking for suggestions on how and where to mount motorized shades for our son's condo. The living area has wall-to-wall floor-to-ceiling windows, as shown in photos below:

He'd like to get some motorized shades for privacy and solar control. One approach would be to have individual shades for each window. In that case, he'd mount the shade inside the window frame - but that leads to a lot of shades with the associated high cost.

Another approach is to have one shade for every two windows. In this case, we'd have to mount the shade externally, to one of the three surfaces shown below:

Surface A is the window frame, and is probably the safest to attach the shades to. Surface B is some kind of a cover or trim piece, so I don't know what's behind it or if it can support the weight of the shade. Surface C is drywall - I'm not sure what's behind it or if it can support the shades; it sounded pretty hollow when I tapped on it. It also would place the shade further away from the window.

So I'm thinking that Surface A is best - is that what's commonly used for mounting?

Also, what are some sources to buy shades for a DIY installation?

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Comments (7)

PRO
Windows on Washington Ltd
last year
I would check with the blind supplier as well as the building engineer. I'd be hesitant drilling into surface A.
tupi2020
Original Author
last year
@Windows on Washington Ltd Where would you typically mount a shade on this type of window frame?
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PRO
Windows on Washington Ltd
last year
We don't do much high rise so I would try to reach out to the building engineer.
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PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
Ceiling would be the perfect answer but I agree you need to check first If you have the space to do the individual blinds maybe just use solar shades that allow you to keep the view but control the heat and UV and forget the motorized I leave mine down all summer and when the heat is gone I just roll them up not such a big deal and BTW single solar shdes are not horribly expensive I use Steves blinds for my clients no issues The other thing I will mention is the darker the solar shade the better the view so I use 10% and in either charcoal or bronze depending on your color scheme
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ptreckel
last year
I would imagine that there are MANY residents in this building who have installed motorized blinds. Consequently, speaking with the building’s management/maintenance people, etc. will generate options for installation. (In addition to the suggested engineer.). WOW what a view!
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tupi2020
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
Thanks for the responses, these are very helpful. We'll see if we can track down the "building engineer", but I'm not sure how likely we are to find someone who can tell us where to mount the blinds. But the idea of trying to see what others in the building have done is certainly a good one, there are many units there with blinds installed.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting good tip about the solar shades - would those work for both glare control (the TV is facing the west windows) and solar heat gain control?

@ptreckel yes, the view is fantastic, so we definitely want to get the shades right!
PRO
Creative Windows
last year
If you mount to surface "A" you'll have a privacy gap on the sides where there is nothing to bridge the gap between the shade cloth and the edge of the window opening. The gap would be directly over glass.
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