From the Floors Up

What's New With Hunter Douglas

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I just took a field trip outside the blogoshpere (a.k.a away from the laptop) to spend some time at the Hunter Douglas Coffee Talk Training. WOW was it inspiring! Stations were set up demonstrating each product showing all of the new features, colors and offerings. Hunter Douglas really does a fantastic job of keeping up with trends in color, style, fabric and technology.

Some Notable New’s

  • Chalet Woods Wood Blinds have specialty finishes in 3 stylish motifs. Enhanced Grain Finish that resembles beautiful cherry wood grain, Antique Finish (my personal favorite) with an aged rub-thru look in colors like “toasted marshmallow” that would be perfect for a beach cottage, mountain home or shabby chic space and Distressed finishes are comprised of a stained base coat accented with gentle worm- hole distressing and a matte sheen. You can also now get the lite rise cordless feature for a cleaner look that is also safer for households with pets and children.
  • Silhouette and Nantucket Shadings have a new installation bracket that features a locking lever. The lever makes a click sound to indicate the shadings are properly installed and in the locked position.
  • Silhouette, Nantucket and Vingette Shadings have the new UltraGlide designer tassel that was introduced on Duette Honeycomb Shades in May 2009. This tassel features a clear, frosted base and a color coordinated cover. The tear drop design fits better in one hand, allowing for increased control when operating the shading or shade. Also, to improve the PowerRise with Platinum Technology, Hunter Douglas has implemented a software upgrade and hardware improvement that includes low battery detection, visible indication of reception and dry contact pins to accommodate harness connectors for input/output communications. This enables their usage with the advanced control systems used for home automation.
  • Designer Screen Shades, Designer Roller Shades and Provenance Woven Woods feature  great new motorization option with a proprietary new offering for residential hard-wired motorized shades.
  • Skyline Gliding Window Panels are now available with PowerGlide 2.0 with Platinum Technology!

Visit Hunter Douglas’ website for more information.

Window Coverings Design Scenario: What to Do!?!

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In this situation, a homeowner needed some guidance about which type of window covering would be best for his contemporary downtown loft.

Here’s how it went down. The customer called and asked for a price on Silhouette window coverings for his home. He also asked for samples of other vertical products or products that would be good choices for large windows also keeping in mind that he would like some shading from the sun without completely blocking his city view.

Having  already seen the space, Skyline gliding window panels from Hunter Douglas were an immediate consideration. Skyline has plenty of designer fabrics to choose from (187 color/material combinations), has the option of 11″ or 17″ veins and can cover the wide span of windows he has across the front of his home. Skyline also offers heights up to 168″ for his tall ceilings. (note: widths can go up to 384″)

After seeing the Skyline product, he fell in love. Skyline gave him a more contemporary feel for his loft than the Silhouette and the fabric and color choices left plenty of options for the accent wall he wanted to coordinate with.

Next came the details. He wondered whether the hardware could match the dark fabric he liked. The answer: YES! He wondered if the shadings offered any UV light protection for his fine furniture and artwork. The answer: YES! He then asked about the warranty only to be pleased to learn that like all Hunter Douglas window coverings, they are backed by Hunter Douglas’ exclusive lifetime guarantee. The best part – when he learned that he could operate the whole wall of windows with one single remote control. A bachelor’s dream!

Once again, Hunter Douglas was able to meet the needs of a client with multiple issues. Stay tuned for photos of the product installation!

Did You Know That Window Coverings Can Be Green?

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And no…..we don’t mean the color green although you can get many Hunter Douglas window covering products in shades of green!

Hunter Douglas is the worldwide leader in creating innovative, energy-efficient window fashions that save valuable energy resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Significant energy efficiency improvements at the window began for Hunter Douglas with the invention of the Duette Honeycomb shades back in 1985. Air contained within the honeycomb cells proved to be an effective insulator, keeping heat inside in the winter and keeping it out in the summer. The huge success of the Duette brand has spawned other energy saving innovations including Silhouette window shadings, Vignette Modern Roman Shades, Luminette Privacy Sheers and Pirouette window shadings.

A new creation called Duette Architella honeycomb shades takes energy conservation to a whole new level. The patented honeycomb-within-a-honeycomb design forms 3 air pockets to dramatically reduce heat flow at the window. If installed in every window of every American home, these shades have the potential to cut our annual energy consumption by 2 1/2%! That may not sound like much, but it’s the equivalent of a 33% increase in fuel mileage for all passenger cars on US Roads – which would save about 450 million barrels of oil annually and reduce CO2 emissions by almost 200 million tons.

Hunter Douglas also has a corporate commitment to minimizing their own impact on the environment through an aggressive plan to reduce energy consumption by 15%, water usage by 40% and overall carbon emissions by 20% over a three year period.

Other green efforts from Hunter Douglas include financial support of the Arbor Day Foundation in its efforts to replant trees lost in US fires and to preserve dwindling rain forest lands. Their investment is expected to result in 15,000 new trees and help save over a million square feet of rainforest.

From products to processes to philanthropy, environmental responsibility is a core Hunter Douglas value. For the future of our children and our children’s children, they are indeed “Hunter Green”!

Call your local retailer today to find out how you can have Hunter Douglas “green” products in your home!

From the Floors Up

From the Floors Up blog was created with the goal of providing a destination for consumers, designers and those interested in the flooring, design, and kitchen and bath industries. Here you’ll find, current, accurate and informative information that is always just a click away!

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