One of our installers has picked up an old habit. Luckily it’s photography. He sent me some shots from a recent installation at Terminus and I just had to share these with you. Turns out, these will make a great post for showing how we can inter-cut shades into a challenging ceiling and still make everything look great.
In this first photo, you receive a great sense of how solar screen shades can help control light, heat, and glare while beautifying a room. The shades in these photos are made by Lutron. The fabric is a Phifer SheerWeave 3% called Oyster/Charcoal. It is a weave of white and black strands of fabric that allows 3% of the light to shine through. As you can see, the shaded parts of the shade are easier to see through than the portions that are in direct sunlight. This is caused by the diffraction of the light as it passes through the fabric. There is a trade off between shade color and diffraction as well as openness factor (3%, 5%, 10%, etc.)
In this photo, you can see the challenges of working with ceilings of varying heights. The simple roller shade is a good fit in this instance. Horizontally slatted or patterned products like Silhouette, Pirouette, Vignette and blinds and shutters do not work well here as it is very difficult or impossible to align the patterns since the products are indexed from the top. In other words, the slats wont line up from left to right. Also, we have to take into account the interplay of the vertical mullions and their relationship with the shade and the changes in the ceiling. All of these factors must be considered when endeavoring to design a job of this nature.
Here you can see another important challenge when working with “storefront” glass systems: corners. These can be very challenging however, not impossible to solve. As long as the designer and the client are in communication, this usually works out. In our installation at the Terminus, we chose the “butt and pass” design. One shade butts into the other as it passes. This works well, however; it does create a gap as you can see. The best way to design this is to take into consideration the sight lines in the room, the lay of the room in relation to the sun’s movement, if there is a media device that may be effected (i.e. TV’s and such), and how it will look. Our client chose this design based mainly on how it would look from the center of the room. We had suggested the opposite design due to how the sun will come through the gap in the middle of the day, however; the “look” was more important to her so we went with her choice. She is happy and that is all that matters.
A final challenge with many “high-rise” installations as you may have noticed in our pictures is the unevenness of the ceilings. This is just the way things are. Typically the ceilings are plastered concrete and the concrete is never level. We have to hang the shades so that they are plumb and parallel to the vertical mullions. Notice, I didn’t write “walls” as these are usually wavy as well. We are experts, however; we are not magic. If these gaps and wiggles are going to drive you nuts, then we should also install fabric valances and side panels that are soft and will fill in the gaps. Other solutions include rigid side channels that the shades can ride inside and they can be caulked from behind with light seal caulk. The ceiling gaps can also be dealt with in a similar fashion but not always.
Well, that’s my rant on roller shades for storefronts and high-rises. I hope it has been informative and slightly entertaining. If you have more questions or concerns, please give me a call. 770-512-0206 or email me at jsmith@atlantablinds.com
