Cellular shades have become a popular choice for many home owners. In this 2000 word buying guide, we are going to take you on a detailed tour on how to buy cellular shades and how to install them.

 

What is Cellular Shades

In general, many window shades and blinds are made with slats of fabric, plastic, wood or metal. Cellular shades or cellular blinds if you will is also called honey comb shades which feature layers of air pockets in the shape of honey comb that insulate against heat and cold which gives you superior energy efficiency and cost savings. They are virtually undetectable when fully raised, because cellular shades and cellular blinds are made with very thin and durable materials which compress to only a few inches when fully raised and leaving your window unobstructed.

 

Cellular Shades VS. Regular Blinds

Most common understanding of Cellular shades is to keep the heat out during summer time, but many people are not aware that cellular shades can also help conserve heat during winter. Recent tests show that cellular shades can help to reduce heat loss in your home by 24 to 31 percent. Vs. Regular Blinds which only meant to block sun light but very little of the radiation, cellular window shades are definitely a must have.On top of that, cellular shades folds up to be only a few inches thick with no snags or problems and don’t have annoying rollers that get stuck, they are cost efficient, light weight, long lasting and easy to install and repair.

 

Cellular Shade Brand Choices

Brands

Bali Cellular Shades
Bali cellular shades is probably the most innovative brand among all the other brands. Bali Cellular Blinds Company has put in a lot of effort to differentiate themselves form other cellular blinds manufacturers in the market. They have been constantly improving the usability and technology of blinds making. Always find ways to improve their blinds designs so that customers will have a pleasant experience in installing and maintaining their Bali blinds.

Graber Cellular Shades
The Graber brand has long been synonymous with style and sophistication, providing a timeless look that’s always on trend. Offering innovation, quality, service and selection since 1939, Graber transforms the blank canvas of an uncovered window into a beautiful work of art. Choose from a variety of quality custom-made window treatments that range from soft fabric Cellular Shades to beautifully crafted Wood Shutters. No matter which type of Graber window treatment or option you select, every window treatment is backed by a limited-lifetime warranty and the resources of our experienced customer service team.

Levolor Cellular Shades
Levolor is probably the most popular and the oldest brand among all the other brands, it has been setting the standard in window fashions, design innovation, product quality and customer satisfaction since the 1990′s. It was founded in 1914 and has since remains the most recognized name in custom window coverings today. They offer a comprehensive range of blinds which you can purchase from their official website.

Laura Ashley Cellular Shades
Laura Ashley brand started in the early 1959s in UK. Their products span over a few hundred categories. Blinds and cellular blinds are just one small section of their inventory. Even though they don’t specialize in making Blinds of any kind, you can be assured that the window blinds that they sell are top quality products.

 

Structures

Single cell to triple cells
The amount of insulation is determined by the number of honey cone cells and the size of the pleats. The more cells the better the insulation. Double cells generally insulates better than single cell. And larger pleats provide better insulation than smaller ones.

Top Down/Bottom Up Cellular Blinds
The Top Down/Bottom Up type of Cellular Blinds are designed for advantage of allowing the owner to be able to have natural light pass through the window while maintain the privacy of their own room.I personally thinks that it is not really suitable to install a cordless type of top down/bottom up cellular blinds for this case, as you might have problem closing the blinds fully if the window is too tall because you can only pull it as high as your hand could reach. Hence cordless cellular blinds are preferred here.

Standard Bottom Up Cellular Blinds
This is the most common and traditional type of cellular blinds seen in most of the household. It features easy raising of the blinds from the bottom up. For this type of blinds both corded and cordless are suitable.

Multiple Shades on One Rail
This type of cellular blinds works best when you have a few windows next to each other and the multiple shades on one rail will give the unity and cleanliness that a house owner is looking for.

Continuous Cord Loop
A continuous loop, which works on the principle of a pulley, rotates a clutch to raise or lower the shade. From the fully raised position, pulling down on the front half of the loop lowers the shading. The covering is raised by pulling on the rear of the continuous loop.

Cellular Shades Fabric Choice

There are quite a number of choices of fabrics for cellular shades that you can choose depending on your unique requirements. It is generally categorized into two major types – Light diffusing Fabric and Blackout for Bedrooms and Media Rooms. Light defusing fabric is generally used for living rooms and reading room where certain amount of light is required constantly, whereas the blackout fabric is more suitable for bedrooms and media rooms where light is not necessary most of the time. The pros and cons of the different capacities are really just a matter of what you need for your particular room.

 

Corded, cordless or remote control motorized cellular blinds

In terms of the basic structure design and its operation method, cellular blinds are generally categorized into three big groups, corded Cellular blinds, cordless cellular blinds and remote control motorized cellular blinds.Based on my own experiences with the above mentioned blinds, I think remote control cellular blinds are more suitable for hard to reach areas like skylight and Cordless cellular blinds are more suitable for windows that are not very tall and lastly corded cellular blinds are suitable in most of the cases.

 

Where to buy Cellular Shades

Buying a cellular shade is really quite simple if you have done your studies well and you know exactly what type of blinds to buy for your home. Most of the major blind distributors around the world offer online purchase from their official websites. There are also many other smaller online shops carry various brands of blinds for international distribution. And one of the most preferred site to purchase cellular blinds are actually from amazon.com, for further reading regarding buying a cellular blind from amazon.com, please read up the article about where do I buy cellular blinds and how to choose the right ones.On the other hand, if you are not so technical inclined and foresee that you might have a lot of problems choosing the right blind and installing them, then I suggest that you should go to any of the furniture shops that carry various kind of blinds and ask the sales person to help you out. Most of the time you can also request for installation services from the place where you have bought your blinds from.

 

How To Install Cellular Shades

Before you begin, verify that you have received all the hardware and familiarize yourself with the instructions. For basic installation, all you need is a drill, screw driver, pencil and measuring tape.

For Inside mount

1. First hold the cellular shade in the window frame casing to confirm the shade fits properly
2. Using a pencil, mark a line three inches from the end of each side of the window casing
3. Next, place a bracket on each of the lines and mark the mounting holes with the pencil
4. Once you have marked the holes for each of the bracket, drill starter holes at each of the marks.
5. Align the brackets over the holes and drill the screws in until they are tight, be careful not to over tighten them.
6. With cellular shades in fully raised position, snap the rail into the bracket.
7. Once the cellular shade is in place, test the operation of the cellular shade, make sure nothing is obstructing the cellular shades movement.

For Outside Mount

1. First get yourself a screw driver, a drill, a pencil and a measuring tape
2. Use the measuring tape to measure 2 inches above the frame and mark a pencil marking
3. Align the top of bracket upwards to the pencil mark and mark the drill holes with pencil
4. Drill the holes according to the mark and tighten the screws
5. Once all the brackets are in place, mark the center of the head rail which will be a guide for us to align it to the center bracket. This is to make sure when you clip the head rail into the bracket, the cellular shade is in the correct position as the bracket clips are often too right for any adjustment to the position of the cellular shade after the installation.

 

Measuring and Installation Tips

One thing to be aware of when you are doing the outside mount is that you want to make sure when you put the brackets in, the cellular shades head rail is going to project over the front of the wall, so that the cellular shades do not rub onto the wall which will make your cellular shades ware out easily. If you are afraid that your cellular shades is not going to project far enough over the wall, you can order spacers (see pic below)which goes on the wall behind the bracket during cellular shades installation.

Hire a professional to Install cellular shades for you
If you are too busy or just too lazy to figure out how to install a cellular shade, there are plenty of walk in blind installation technicians to help you solve your problems. Just go through your local yellow pages and you can find plenty contacts that provide window blinds installation services.

 

Cellular Shade Maintenance

How to repair Cellular Shades
Cellular blinds are generally easy to repair due to its simple structure and ease of detachment. However, it does take a bit of technicality to be able to understand all the instructions that you can get online. I find the easiest way to fix a blind is to search for such instructional videos on youtube.com and follow from there. As video and audio are always easier to understand than plain text with technical drawings…:)On top of learning to repair blinds, at times you also need to purchase spare parts if they are broken. Some of them can be replaced with common house hold items but some parts are custom made for that particular type of blinds which can only be ordered from the original manufacture. I personally think its much better to purchase a new blind than to spend the time to search for the spare part online and pay for parts and shipping which will usually cost up to 1/3 of the price of a new blind. The choice is yours!

Are Cellular shades Easy to Clean?
Cellular shades are very easy to clean with a regular feather duster or the brush attachment of your vacuum. You many want to soak them in a tubful of warm water with a mild soap for five minutes, then rinse and hang them to dry in order to remove heavy dirt such as grease and stain. There are paid cleaning services that will wash them either by machine or by hand. There is often no extra charge for picking up and re-hanging your cellular shades for most of the cleaning companies.