Sterling / Home integration / Motorized shades
Motorized shades, Monroe GA
Motorized shades are not a standalone purchase. Wired into the same system as lighting and climate, they rise and fall with the sun, the scene, and the time of day, without anyone reaching for a remote.
A shade that only opens and closes from a wall switch is still just a switch. A shade that is part of the same system as the lighting, the thermostat, and the Control4 scenes becomes something closer to weather-aware architecture, closing before the afternoon sun hits a west-facing window, rising with the arrival scene, dropping on cue for movie night. None of that requires a homeowner to think about the sun’s position or remember which room gets hot in the afternoon, the system already knows.
A typical day
None of this requires remembering to do anything. It is set once, at trim, and it runs on its own from then on.
Paired with a low lighting scene instead of overhead lights at full brightness.
Privacy and lighting change together at dusk, instead of one happening and the other getting forgotten.
One button dims the lights, lowers the shades, and starts the system, in the right order, every time.
Part of the same away scene that handles the lighting and the thermostat.
Choosing the fabric
Most rooms end up using more than one type, often on the same window, stacked on a dual track so you choose the level as the day changes.
Softens direct light without losing the view. The most common choice for living spaces and kitchens during the day.
Cuts glare and heat while keeping the outside visible. The default for west-facing and south-facing exposure.
Removes light entirely. Standard in media rooms and common in primary bedrooms, often paired with a sheer on a second track.
How it gets built
A hardwired shade motor needs power run to the header above the window, decided before drywall the same way a keypad location is. Skipping that step at blueprint review does not rule out motorized shades later, but it usually means an exposed cord, a battery pack that needs charging, or a retrofit that costs more than doing it right the first time. Ten minutes with the architect at blueprint review settles the question for every window in the house at once.
Track and motor selection happens closer to trim, once the actual window dimensions and fabric choices are locked in, but the power has to be there waiting for it.
What we install
Sterling installs Lutron motorized shading, the same platform behind the lighting keypads, so shade position becomes part of the same scenes as everything else in the house instead of a separate system with its own remote and its own app. A shade rising for a morning scene and a light dimming for the same scene are two outputs of one command, not two systems that happen to run at the same time.
Already in a finished home
Not every home gets shades planned at blueprint. If yours is already finished, we can usually still add motorized shades, the trade-off is power, since a battery-powered motor is the more common route in a home where running new wiring means opening a wall. We will walk the rooms with you and tell you plainly which windows are a clean retrofit and which would need more work than the shade is worth.
Common questions
They can run on their own remote, but the value is in tying them to everything else. Once shades are part of the same system as lighting and climate, they can open, close, or adjust based on the sun, the time of day, or a single scene button, instead of being one more remote on the coffee table.
Yes. Solar shades on a south-facing wall can lower automatically as the sun crosses a certain angle in the afternoon, then rise again once it has passed, without anyone touching a switch or an app.
Sheer shades soften light without blocking the view. Solar screens cut glare and heat while keeping the outside visible. Blackout shades remove light entirely, which is what most media rooms and primary bedrooms use. Many rooms use two of the three on a dual track, so you can choose the level of light room by room, moment by moment.
Both exist, but for a whole-home system we plan power at blueprint review the same way we plan any other run, since a hardwired shade motor is quieter, more reliable long-term, and never needs a battery change on a window nobody can reach.
Yes. An away scene can lower every shade on the ground floor at once. An arrival scene can raise the ones in the rooms you use in the evening while leaving upstairs bedrooms alone. The same scene logic that runs the lighting runs the shades.
Quiet, though not silent. A hardwired motor at trim quality is noticeably quieter than a battery-powered retrofit motor, which is one more reason we plan power at blueprint when possible. Most homeowners describe it as a low hum for a few seconds, not something that wakes anyone up if a scene runs at night.
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