Motorised blinds, for the windows nobody reaches

Rechargeable or wired

Rechargeable tubular motors sit inside the blind's tube and run off an internal battery. They need no wiring at all: you charge them from a lead a couple of times a year, usually with the blind still up. This is what makes motorisation realistic in a finished Dainfern home, where chasing a wall means replastering and repainting a room you have already lived in.

Wired motors take permanent low-voltage or mains power. They are tidier, never need charging, and are the right answer if a ceiling is open or a wall is still to be plastered. If you are renovating, tell us before the bulkhead closes — a cable at that stage costs almost nothing and is close to impossible afterwards.

How you actually control them

• Handheld remote — one channel per blind, or a channel per group, plus an all-blinds channel.
• Wall switch — a fixed point that never goes missing down the side of a couch.
• App and voice — via a bridge on your home network, if you want the blinds in with the rest of the house.
• Timers and sun sensors — the genuinely useful one here: drop the west side at three, lift it at six, without anyone deciding to.

Where it stops being a luxury

Anything above about 2.4 metres is already awkward on a chain. Above a stairwell it is a ladder job, so it never happens, so the blind stays up and the room bakes. Wide sliders are the other case: a five- or six-metre run of fabric is heavy enough that a chain becomes hard work, and a motor lets us run one blind where we would otherwise have had to split it into three.

Almost everything we make can be motorised — rollers, day/night blinds, venetians, verticals, cellular blinds, roller shutters, awnings and zip screens. What differs is the motor size and the mounting, which is decided per window on the measure.

Get a quote for motorisation