Product News

Pirouette® Window Shadings:

Pirouette window shadings is the newest Hunter Douglas product addition.  This product is a hybrid of Vignette roman shades and Silhouette.  Pirouette is a roman shade that rolls up in its own header like a Vignette, but the privacy vanes can be lifted to provide view outside.  All controlled with a single loop lift system.  Beautiful product!

Luminette® Privacy Sheers:

Available now:  Quintette® 4 3/4" size vanes in the Portico fabric.  Increases view to the outside.

Now available:  MOTORIZED Luminettes!!  You may see this product in our showroom.  Hunter Douglas has now developed a motorized system to tilt and traverse Luminettes.  PowerRise 2.0 Platinum Technology, by Hunter Douglas, is 2 times more powerful and 5 times quieter than the previous motorized system.  It runs by remote control using radio technology (no need to point at an IR receiver).  The motor is built into a special headrail and simply plugs into a standard 110 volt outlet. 

Country Woods® Crosswinds™ Wood Vertical Blinds:

Hunter Douglas now offers TopShield II™ finishing process to further protect Country Woods real wood blinds.  This includes further resistance to:  fading, moisture, scratches and chemicals.

Now available, the new Crosswinds™ wood vertical collection looks like a real winner.  he slats are 3 1/2" wide and very slim due to Hunter Douglas' technolgy that keeps the slats from warping.  Using finger jointed short sections keeps the slats flat.  Usually finger jointed slats are unattractive for stained finishes, but Hunter Douglas has applied a print of wood grain then the product is stained. (As it appears to me, because the actual process is not disclosed.)  The finger joint is almost invisible and the appearance is indistiguishable from real wood.  The process is called TruGrain.

Vignette® Modern Roman Shades:

Now has a top down/bottom-up option on 3" and 4" fold sizes.

Vignette also available in  6" tailored flat folds. 

All fabrics can now be ordered with PowerRise, operated by 12 AA batteries, or AC adaptor.

2 on 1 headrail is now available covering windows up to 140" x 96".

Silhouette®:

Hunter Douglas continues to add desirable features.  Now available:  4" vanes called Quartette.  If you are looking for deeper colors, even black, the new Matisse Collection™ is for you!  The Lumiere™ semi-sheer fabric provide shadow-like outlines, while ensuring moderate privacy and light diffusion.   The width limit has now been increased to 120" wide by up to 120" long as a single unit, in 3" Silhouettes.  The headrail is now standard with fabric covering.  The vane fabric is used to cover the headrail.

Provenance® Woven Wood shades:

The Hunter Douglas line has expanded again!  A new bark pattern - Rustica, has been added to the line.  A new design option is now available:  A hobble style of Roman with gentle folds even when fully lowered.  The hobbled roman is not available in Safari fabric. 

Provenance now offers attached linings, (in Chocolate, Cocoa, and Ivory), instead of independently operated linings behind the decorative shade.  Provenance Woven Wood shades is a line of textured woven woods, bamboo and delightful materials creating a natural and unique look at a price never available.  These shades are roman style - soft fold.  Now available up to 144"  wide.  And clutch lift systems are now offered - a big plus.  This product is now on display in our showroom.

Park Lane™ Privacy Sheers: 

Hunter Douglas introduces their latest line of Privacy Sheers.  Similar to Luminette® Privacy Sheers, this vertically oriented product dresses large window walls with ease.  Park Lane is for outside (on the wall) mounts, not for inside mounts due to gaps on the sides for inside mounts that results from the Park Lane headrail system.  It tilts for privacy and stacks back, when you desire a clear window.  The sheer facings provide a view to the outside and with a quick twist of the wand you have privacy.  Room darkening vanes are available, as is an optional valance for the headrail.  Savings over Luminette® is about 25%.  Park Lane™ Privacy Sheers used the Paramount vertical headrail and fabric that is less costly than Luminette® to provide these savings.  Other features of Luminette® including split stack, inside mounts, motorization and additional fabric choices are reserved for owners of Luminette®.

Reveal™ with MagnaView™ Metal blinds :

Just released by Hunter Douglas, the new 1" and 2" slat Reveal™ metal blinds is a whole new product that affords twice the view to the outside, when tilted open.  Here's how it works:  When you tilt a Reveal™ metal blind open, every other slat "sticks" to the one above it creating double the open view area.  On 1" blinds instead of a 1" open view, you now see a 2" open view and on a 2" blind the view is doubled to a 4" open view.  When you tilt the blind closed the slats settle to their closed position.  This product has visible route holes (no delight or motorization is available.)  I have a hand sample to demonstrate this clever shade in your home.

Castec Natural Woven Shades:

To compliment the Provenance line we have added Castec's premium Natural Woven Shades.  Their line includes optional privacy linings that are attached to the woven shade.  Castec also offers edge binding to increase the durability of these fine products.  Castec's line includes more grass cloths and petite bamboo.  It really is beautiful.  Clutch lift systems are strongly recommended for Provenance and Castec woven shades.  They just last longer andoperate smoother.

Alouette® LightLouvers:

The latest product in Hunter Douglas' ever-expanding line of innovative window coverings is Alouette® LightLouvers!  Available now, these 2 3/4" soft, eliptical, cellular fabric louvers float gracefully in the window supported by a cord 2" in from each edge and a center cord as needed.  Louvers raise and lower like a shade.

Alouette®LightLouvers have three innovative operating designs with choice of tilt and lift options.  Louvers are available in translucent and room-darkening fabric styles, with a total of 50 fabric/color combinations.

A fabric covered headrail valance is now available as an option.

Available in widths up to 96 " and heights up to 120".  Only available in a Hunter Douglas dealer's local service area.  The next 3 pictures below are from our 2004 St. of New Beginnings show houses.<Light transmitting  Room darkening below

Announced Changes/Enhancements (Duette®):

• Shades Of The Future® no longer offers Hunter Douglas' PowerRise SKYKIGHT shades.  They need further engineering.
• Hunter Douglas announces their new Duette fabric:  Ariosa™ featuring fashion forward colors.
• Duette with LiteRise® will come standard with a fabric covered headrail.
• Announcing TruRise™ lifting system.  A single, weighted cord tassel raises and lowers the shade with minimal effort.  No cord lock or loops.  Available only on Duette 1 1/4" cell lines and it comes standard.
• Door Sidelight products:  The minimum shade width is now 4" wide for door sidelights. In Duette or Applause a cordless, operable sidelight shade is available.  There are no cord locks, just a constantly tensioned shade with a moving rail operated by a built-in handle.  A non-operable sidelight shade is also available.
• Top Down/Bottom-up width limit has been increased to 108" wide with a 48 square foot limit on most of the line.
• Additional 1 1/4" pleat fabrics have been added to the Duette collection.  A new Ultra Glide lift system with larger headrail will lift this product instead of standard lift cords. The pleat will retain its appearance, when fully lowered because the back of the web will carry the weight of the shade. 
• Duette Power Rise is now available to operate top-down Duette shades.  Previously only bottom-up operation was available.  This is a great product for Duettes around bath tubs.
• An AC transformer is available to eliminate batteries.

Product line Enhancements/Changes:

• Applause cellular is now available with PowerRise 2.0 Platinum Techology lift system.
• Hunter Douglas now offers battery operated, remote controlled tilt, called PowerTilt™ on their entire horizontal metal, wood and faux wood collection including Country Woods, Everwood lines.  (Motorization is not available on Reveal™ with MagnaView™ metal blinds.)   The full featured remoted control includes 3 channels plus an "all" button.  This motorized tilt feature is available on blinds up to about 50 square feet.
• Everwood faux blinds:  Tru-Grain by Hunter Douglas is a process they have developed that is a man-made, simulated, wood grain that appears almost exactly like nature's own wood.  Available in Everwood horizontal blinds and Cross Winds Vertical lines.
• Hunter Douglas is now building Duette and Applause cellular shades with Ultrawear™ Cord.  The average cycle life of standard cord is 3,134 cycles.   Ultrawear cord has an average life of 47,583 cycles!  The most common time for customers to request a restring of their shades was 7 years.  The new cord should make shade restringing a thing of the past.  This is an exclusive, money-saving innovation from Hunter Douglas.
• The width limit has been changed to 120" for UltraGlide™. 

All inquiries: info@shadesofthefuture.com   (8 am to 5 pm Pacific time)
Local customers and ALL vendors: (503) 644-9300
Reserved for distant customers only: 1-877-SHADES9 [742-3379]