How to Start With Automated Shades and Add More Later

Wednesday, 21 October 2026

Shades Can Be the Whole Project, But Start With the Windows That Matter Most

The west-facing family room is the one nobody wants to sit in after three o’clock, and the primary bedroom gets its wake-up call at dawn. Many homeowners across the Main Line in Pennsylvania live with that for years because they assume there’s no real fix, or that it would mean opening walls or committing to a whole-home smart system. It does not.

Motorized shading works as a project in its own right, covering one window or twenty, and it can be the only thing we install for you. Below, we explore how a standalone project comes together and what to settle before we begin.

Which Windows Should Come First?

Start with the window that bothers you most, not the one that is easiest to cover. Glare on the TV wall, afternoon heat in a sunroom, a bedroom that fills with light at 5 a.m., a stair-hall window too tall to reach: any one of those can justify a project.

Rooms that get full afternoon sun are best done early, since that is where floors and fabrics fade fastest. We begin with a conversation about how and when you use each room, then sort the windows into a first phase and a later one. The latter list can wait for another season or another budget, and the next windows will match the first when both phases are planned together.

How Are Motorized Shades Powered?

Homeowners often ask whether this means running new wire through finished walls. Sometimes it does, and often it does not. Lutron shades come battery-powered or hardwired, and either way, they have the cord-free look, with nothing hanging near children or pets.

Battery power leaves your plaster and millwork alone, which matters in an older stone or Tudor home where nobody wants a wall opened for a window treatment. Hardwiring makes sense where power is already close to the window, and it leaves you no batteries to think about.

If a kitchen or primary suite renovation is already on the calendar, tell us before the walls close. Running wire to a window is far simpler while the framing is open than it will be afterward.

Deciding How to Control Automated Shades

Settle this before anything is ordered, because it shapes what we install. A wall keypad by the door gives everyone in the household the same button, and a phone app covers the times you are upstairs or away. If you want shades to move without anyone touching a control, we can add a schedule so they lower for the afternoon glare and rise on their own. Voice control works too if you already use an assistant at home. We program each button and schedule to suit your family’s needs, so the shades behave the way that the room is used.

What Installation Looks Like in a Lived-In Home

A shades-only project follows the same path as everything we build. We begin with a conversation, then present a design proposal to you. Once you approve it, drawings guide our technicians through installation and testing, and we program each shade with you. The scope is smaller, and the care is the same.

We measure every window ourselves, because made-to-measure shades depend on those numbers, and that matters on the Main Line, where arched tops and divided panes are common. How long it takes depends on the number of windows and whether any need wiring, so we talk through timing with you before work begins.

What a Shades-Only Project Leaves Open

Starting with shades does not close any doors, and one early decision keeps them all open: which system the shades run on. Because Lutron shades and lighting control work together, a later lighting project can respond to the same scenes, so one button lowers the shades and brings up the lamps.

A full smart home automation system, including audio and video, can be added later in the same way. Choose a platform that can grow, and adding a room next year means adding devices rather than replacing what you installed. We plan every standalone shading project with that in mind, even when shades are all you want today.

Plan Your Shades Project With SoundWaves

Tell us which window has your attention, and we will take it from there. Visit our Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, showroom at 956 Youngs Ford Road to see fabrics in person, or contact SoundWaves to schedule a consultation.