Popular & Efficient Honeycomb Shades Carry a Few Precautions

Remember the shades and blinds in your parents’ house when you were a kid?  You’d pull them down and they would jump up like a rocket, Sometimes, the goal would be to let light in, and they would wind up hanging below the window sill making you feel even more isolated. Thankfully, shades and blinds have come a long way over the years, and one popular option more people are choosing are honeycomb shades, also known as cellular shades.

While there are many benefits to choosing honeycomb shades over standard roll shades, there are potential drawbacks as well that you’ll need to be aware of if you decide to include these cellular shades in your home.

“Honeycombs” Trap the Heat of Cold

If you take a side view of cellular shades, you’ll see opening that resemble honeycombs. Normally, there are two rows of these pockets between where the shade is closest to the window and the outside surface of the shade. Whether you are dealing with summer heat or winter cold, much of the uncomfortable air gets trapped in those pockets and doesn’t reach the inside of your home. This not only ensures that you stay comfortable, but when your thermostat, furnace, and/or air conditioner doesn’t have to be at war with uncomfortable air seeping through the shades, the energy bills start to drop as well.

The catch of this feature is that when the air is very cold, ice can build up on your windows. This can be prevented by drawing up your shade each day, or by leaving several inches between the window glass and the shades so that the air is able to properly circulate.

Choose How to Handle Your Cords with Honeycomb Shades

Shade and blind cords have been a thorn in many people’s sides for a while. Their presence makes you worry about the kids or pets playing with the cords to the point where they don’t function very well. Honeycomb shades have features that take care of this problem. One of those options is to choose a cordless model of cellular shade that will allow you to pull the shade down manually and have them actually stay where you want them too. Many like the crisper look of the cordless model, and feel it is safer if there are young kids in the house that have been known to get tangled in traditional shade cords

But some people would just assume stick with cords to avoid touching the actual shade. They may also have some windows that go up higher than they can reach, so having a cord is more practical in these cases. The new cords are much more child safe than the cords you might remember in your own childhood home. The cords have a “breakaway feature” when the cord will break off if a child or pet get caught up in it, and will easily snap back into place. While this is nice for keeping kids safe, the cords have been known to “break away” with normal use, which many consider a trade off for keeping the kids safe.

Protect Your Privacy With Top Down or Bottom Up Feature

With traditional shades, once you start to pull them up, that room in your home becomes exposed to the neighbors who may have a habit of glancing into your living room. While you call pull your honeycomb shades this way, the can also come down from the top of the window, making life more difficult for would be peeping toms. Top down still let light in, and even allow you to look out without inviting the neighbors to look in.

Easy Installation

One thing these shades do have in common with standard shades is that they are easy to install. They snap right into place. If you choose to have cords, however, there are a lot of them — one on each side of each blind. This forces you to choose between no cord and many cords.

With both positive and negative aspects of honeycomb shades, you’ll need to consider carefully whether or not they are a fit for your home, or if some other option might serve you better.