SkyLift™ Manual Operation for Hard-to-Reach Skylight Shades
Operate Hunter Douglas SkyLift™ shades manually with a hand crank or telescoping pole. Turn the hand crank to raise or lower the shade. For hard-to-reach skylights, use a telescoping pole for convenient control from the floor.
SkyLift™ is available with both Hunter Douglas Duette® and Applause® Honeycomb Shades, making it an excellent solution for skylights and other hard-to-reach windows. These energy-efficient honeycomb shades help insulate your home while providing light control, privacy, and a clean, streamlined appearance. Whether you choose the premium performance of Duette® or the value-driven design of Applause®, SkyLift™ allows you to enjoy the benefits of honeycomb shades in challenging window locations.
Skylight windows invite gorgeous natural light into your home. But, there are times of day–and seasons of the year–where the direct rays coming into Winnipeg homes is not welcome. Suddenly, that beautiful light is causing squinting headaches, heat exhaustion and damaged interiors.
When you cover skylight windows with the right window coverings, you’ll experience light when and if you want it. You’ll maintain comfort, while adding a layer of protection against harsh UV rays.
Honeycomb Shades for Skylights
Hunter Douglas Doulite Duettes, which are a type of honeycomb shade, are available for skylights. They offer the options of a room darkening or light filtering fabric for the bottom shade and a sheer shade on the top to keep the damaging effects of UV rays to a minimum. It’s two shades in one!
Make adjustments simple with a manual crank, or even better, smart shades. The innovation of automated shades allows you to make adjustments with a tap on your phone or a voice command. Set schedules, save favorites, or sync the movement with your smart home system. It’s as easy as that.
SkyLift™ skylight system, available on Duette® and Applause® Honeycomb Shades, is specifically suited for skylights. Choose PowerView® Automation for these shades, or manual operation with a hand crank or telescoping pole for hard-to-reach windows. Either way, the SkyLift™ system is perfect for very large, overhead windows. Meet with a Superblinds expert to learn more.
Hard-to-reach windows can be difficult to cover and even harder to operate. Whether your windows are located above a staircase, in a vaulted ceiling, or high on a feature wall, choosing the right window covering solution is essential for everyday convenience.
Motorization is one of the most effective solutions for hard-to-reach windows. With the touch of a button, you can raise, lower, or adjust your shades using a remote control, wall switch, smartphone, or voice command. There’s no need for ladders or manual operation.
Looking for Even More Convenience?
Take your hard-to-reach window solution a step further with automation. Automated shades can move throughout the day based on a schedule you create. Open them in the morning, adjust them as the sun changes, and close them in the evening for added privacy—all without touching a remote.
Automation helps you maximize natural light, improve comfort, protect furnishings from UV exposure, and enjoy effortless control of windows that would otherwise be difficult to reach.
Choose the Right Balance of Light, View, and Privacy
Privacy needs vary from room to room. For example, bedrooms and bathrooms often require complete privacy. Living rooms and kitchens, however, may prioritize natural light and outside views. As a result, selecting the right window coverings for each space is important.
Two key factors determine how much light enters your home and how much visibility remains from outside: openness factor and opacity. Therefore, understanding these terms will help you choose the right blinds and shades for every window. In turn, you can create the ideal balance of privacy, natural light, and comfort throughout your home.
Understanding Openness Factor
Expressed as a percentage, openness factor describes the density of a fabric’s weave. As a result, it determines how much light enters a room and how much visibility remains through the fabric.
Generally, lower percentages provide greater privacy and glare control. In contrast, higher percentages allow more natural light and preserve outside views. Therefore, the right openness factor depends on your privacy and lighting needs.
Openness Factor
Daytime Privacy
Outside View
1%
Highest
Limited
3%
High
Good
5%
Moderate
Better
10%+
Lower
Maximum
For many homeowners, a 3% openness factor offers an excellent balance of privacy, natural light, and outside views.
Understanding Fabric Opacity
Fabric opacity determines how much light passes through a material. As a result, different fabrics provide varying levels of light control and privacy.
Common Fabric Opacities
Sheer Fabrics
Sheer fabrics allow the greatest amount of natural light into a room. However, they offer minimal privacy.
Light-Filtering Fabrics
Light-filtering fabrics diffuse sunlight, reduce glare, and provide moderate privacy. As a result, they maintain a bright and comfortable room while softening harsh sunlight.
Room-Darkening Fabrics
Room-darkening fabrics significantly reduce incoming light and provide enhanced privacy. Therefore, they are a popular choice for bedrooms and media spaces.
Blackout Fabrics
Blackout fabrics block nearly all incoming light and offer the highest level of privacy. Consequently, they are ideal for bedrooms, nurseries, and media rooms.
Why Evening Privacy Matters
Daytime privacy does not always provide privacy at night. After dark, interior lighting can make it easier for people outside to see into your home. As a result, fabric openness and opacity become important considerations when selecting window coverings.
Selecting the right fabric helps maintain privacy, improve security, and create a more comfortable living environment. To help you compare your options, the photos below show how different fabrics appear from outside during both daytime and evening hours.
Find the Right Privacy Solution for Your Home
Every home has unique privacy requirements. Therefore, selecting the right openness factor and fabric opacity is essential. In addition, different rooms often require different levels of privacy and light control. Our design consultants can help you select the ideal solution for every space.
Ultimately, the right window coverings balance privacy, natural light, and beautiful design. Visit our showroom or schedule a consultation to explore custom blinds and shades for your home.
Dual Shades for Light Control, Privacy, and Comfort
Natural light brightens your home and creates a warm, inviting atmosphere. However, too much sunlight can cause glare, increase heat, and make your space less comfortable. Dual Shades solve this challenge by combining two shades in one window treatment, giving you exceptional flexibility throughout the day.
With a Dual Shade system, you control light and privacy throughout the day. Enjoy softly filtered natural light when you want a bright, welcoming space, then lower the secondary shade to create room-darkening privacy whenever needed. The front shade diffuses sunlight, fills your room with a warm glow, and reduces harsh glare. During hot summer afternoons, simply lower the secondary shade to block intense sun, improve privacy, and create a more comfortable environment.
This innovative two-in-one design allows you to create the ideal atmosphere for every moment. Enjoy bright, inviting spaces during the day, reduce heat gain during Winnipeg’s sunny summer afternoons, or create a restful environment for sleeping, watching television, or relaxing in the evening.
Dual Shades are available in a variety of beautiful window covering styles, allowing you to choose a look that complements both your décor and lifestyle.
Whether you are looking for enhanced energy efficiency, elegant light diffusion, or a sleek contemporary appearance, there is a Dual Shade solution designed for your home.
At Blinds are Beautiful, our experienced design consultants will help you select the ideal Dual Shade system based on your home’s orientation, privacy needs, and design style. We take the time to understand how you live so that your window coverings provide both beauty and everyday functionality.
Cords and kids don’t mix. Did you know that ordinary household items like window coverings with long accessible cords can seriously harm or cause death to a child?
In 2021, new regulations for corded window coverings came into force in Canada. Before the change, an average of one child per year died from strangulation by a window covering cord. One death per year involving a home décor product is one too many.
Canada’s requirements for window coverings are the strictest in the world, and apply to all products sold in Canada, both custom-made and off the shelf.
Blinds are Beautiful prioritizes cordless and child-safe operating systems.
Health risks
In Canada, there have been many reports of strangulation deaths and near-fatal incidents caused by window coverings with long, accessible cords. Children between 1 and 3 years old are most at risk.
Strangulation can occur when a child:
places their head through a cord loop
wraps a single long cord around their neck
pulls inner cords out of the window covering and puts their head through a loop
Strangulation happens quickly and quietly. It can happen even when caregivers are nearby. It only takes 22 centimeters of cord (or a 44 centimeter loop), to strangle a child. This can cause:
unconsciousness in 15 seconds
brain damage in 4 minutes
death in 6 minutes
Reduce the risk
Replace window coverings that have long accessible cords
Any type of long accessible cord, such as cords on the side, inside or back of the window covering, can strangle a child. The safest window coverings are ones without long accessible cords.
To keep your child safe:
Remove window coverings that have long accessible cords.
If you can only replace some window coverings, start with those in children’s rooms and play spaces.
Use all additional components and accessories that come assembled with your window coverings (for example, a cord shield). These components help keep children safe and should not be removed.
Safety tips for long accessible cords on older window coverings
If you can’t replace your older window coverings that have long accessible cords, you can still take steps to reduce the risk. Until you can replace them, make sure to:
Always keep cords out of reach of children.
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions and read all warnings.
Never place cribs, beds, and playpens near a window where a child could reach a cord.
Do not place furniture that a child can climb near a window.
Securely attach tension devices supplied with window coverings to the wall so a child can’t place the cord around their neck.
Install a cleat or tie-down device up high on the wall and use it to keep cords out of reach.
Never tie knots in cords. Immediately untie any knots that form accidentally.
Remove any devices that form dangling loops, whether at the bottom, middle, or top of the cords.
Window coverings with long accessible cords can become an even greater risk if incorrectly installed. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions when installing and using window coverings.
When you have children or pets living in your home–or even just visiting, it’s important to have the peace of mind that cordless blinds and shades represent. At Blinds are Beautiful, we want to ensure the safety of our community members’ homes. We have a number of operating systems that make safety a priority for children and pets.
Find out more about the choices in lift systems, from cordless to cord-safe, and from manual to power options. You’ll rest easy with these innovative safety features, and with the clean look they provide, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
When you choose Blinds are Beautiful, you can be confident that your custom window coverings meet today’s Canadian safety requirements while delivering the beauty, functionality, and quality you expect.
LightLock™ Duette® Shades – Total Darkness Meets Energy Efficiency
LightLock™ Duette® Shades bring innovative Hunter Douglas technology to your home, delivering complete darkness and exceptional energy efficiency.
How Do These Shades Work?
Along with your Duette® shades, U-shaped side channels are installed right inside your window frame. These channels seal out the light.
The specialty blackout fabric prevents intense light from entering the space. Along with this incredible room darkening, you’ll also gain energy efficiency. Duette® shades are well-known as the industry leader for their cellular construction, preventing energy loss.
Why Choose LightLock™ Duette® Shades?
100% Blackout: U-shaped side channels and blackout fabric seal out all light for uninterrupted rest or entertainment.
Energy Efficiency: The cellular design reduces heat transfer, helping maintain indoor temperature and lower energy costs.
Versatile Applications: Ideal for bedrooms, media rooms, nurseries, or any space that needs complete darkness.
Stylish Design: Available in a variety of fabrics and colors to complement any interior décor.
Enjoy complete darkness whenever and wherever you need it with LightLock™ Duette® Shades. While they create the ideal sleep environment in bedrooms, they also transform children’s naptime spaces, media rooms, and sun-filled east- or west-facing rooms. Their innovative 100% blackout design blocks unwanted light, giving you greater comfort, privacy, and control throughout your home.
Ready to transform your space? Contact our experts today to explore LightLock™ Duette® Shades and discover the perfect blackout solution for your home.
Whether you are creating a restful bedroom, a comfortable nursery, or the perfect media room, choosing the right level of light control is essential.
One of the most common questions homeowners ask is about the difference between room darkening and blackout window coverings. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, they provide different levels of light control.
Room Darkening vs. Blackout
Room Darkening Window Coverings
Room darkening window coverings block most incoming light while allowing a small amount of light to enter the room. As a result, the space becomes significantly darker, yet visibility remains.
Room darkening products are ideal for:
Bedrooms
Living rooms
Nurseries
Home offices
Media rooms
For many homeowners, room darkening offers the ideal balance of privacy, comfort, and light control.
Blackout Window Coverings
Blackout window coverings are designed to block virtually all incoming light, creating a much darker environment. Consequently, they are often recommended for:
Bedrooms
Nurseries
Home theatres
Shift workers
Rooms with intense sun exposure
Both options support better sleep. However, daytime sleepers and those sensitive to light often benefit most from blackout solutions.
Understanding Light Gaps
Even blackout fabrics can allow small slivers of light to appear around the edges of a shade. These are known as light gaps.
Light gaps vary depending on window depth, frame construction, mounting style, and product selection. Therefore, some blackout shades may create a room darkening environment rather than complete darkness.
Professional product selection and installation can significantly reduce light leakage.
Solutions for Complete Darkness
LightLock™ by Hunter Douglas
For homeowners seeking the ultimate blackout solution, LightLock™ is one of the most effective options available.
Available on select Hunter Douglas Duette® Honeycomb Shades, LightLock™ uses specially designed side channels to seal the edges of the shade against the window frame. As a result, it helps create an exceptionally dark room by blocking unwanted light.
LightLock™ is ideal for bedrooms, nurseries, home theatres, and daytime sleepers.
Layered Drapery
Layering custom drapery over blinds or shades is another effective way to reduce light gaps.
Drapery panels extend beyond the window frame, helping block light that can enter around the edges. In addition, layered window treatments add softness, texture, and style to your home.
Find the Right Light Control Solution
The ideal solution depends on your room, lifestyle, and light control goals. Our design consultants can help you select the right combination of fabrics, products, and installation methods for your home.
Visit our showroom or schedule a consultation to explore custom room darkening and blackout window coverings.
Transform flooding light into a comfortable glow with our window covering solutions for large windows. Many of our shades let you enjoy your beautiful view while protecting your home from too much light.
Covering wide windows with blinds presents a few key challenges: weight, size limitations, and operating mechanisms. Large blinds can be very heavy, making them difficult to lift and operate, especially for taller windows. Additionally, many blinds have size restrictions, and very wide windows may require multiple blinds or alternative solutions like vertical blinds or sliding panels.
Our Design Consultants at Blinds are Beautiful will help you find the best solution for your windows.
Tilt & Turn windows offer flexibility, ventilation, and a clean modern appearance. However, their unique operating system can make window coverings more challenging. Because these windows tilt inward from the top and swing open like a door, traditional blinds and shades can interfere with their operation or hang away from the glass.
Fortunately, there is a solution designed specifically for tilt & turn windows.
Duette® Honeycomb Shades with TrackGlide™ on Tilt & Turn Windows
TrackGlide™ is an innovative operating system available exclusively with Hunter Douglas Duette® Honeycomb Shades. Slim side tracks guide the shade along the window frame, keeping it securely in place whether the window is closed, tilted, or fully opened.
This specialized system allows you to enjoy privacy, light control, and energy efficiency without sacrificing the functionality of your tilt and turn windows.
A No-Drill Installation Solution for Tilt & Turn Windows
Many tilt and turn windows have shallow frame depths that limit traditional mounting options. TrackGlide™ addresses this challenge with a slim track system that adheres directly to the window frame rather than the glass.
In many applications, this creates a clean, secure installation without drilling into the frame. The result is a streamlined appearance that preserves both the beauty and operation of the window.
Comfort, Privacy, and Energy Efficiency
Because TrackGlide™ is paired with Duette® Honeycomb Shades, homeowners also benefit from one of the most energy-efficient window coverings available. The honeycomb construction helps insulate the window, improving comfort throughout the year while reducing glare and enhancing privacy.
Features
Designed specifically for tilt and turn windows
Operates smoothly in closed, tilted, and open positions
Available exclusively with Duette® Honeycomb Shades
Excellent privacy and light control
Energy-efficient honeycomb construction
Room-darkening fabric options available
Cordless design for enhanced safety
Helps reduce glare while preserving natural light
Slim side-track system for challenging window applications
No-drill installation available on many tilt and turn windows and glass doors
Tracks adhere to the window frame, not the glass
Looking for the best solution for your tilt and turn windows? Our design consultants can help you select the right Duette® Honeycomb Shade and TrackGlide™ configuration for your home.
