Motorization & Smart Home
Shades that know what time it is
PowerView® Automation and Aura® smart shades move on a schedule you set — installed, programmed, and explained by the same local team.
A Michigan winter gives you maybe nine hours of good daylight. Motorized shades make the most of them. Set a morning scene and the bedroom shades rise with the sun; set an evening one and the west windows close before the glare hits your kitchen table. PowerView® Automation and Aura® smart shades run on schedules you set once, then adjust from a remote, an app, or your voice.
Josh will tell you the same thing our designers do: motorization is only as good as its setup. That’s why we don’t just sell the shades — we install them, program the schedules, connect the app, and teach you the system before we go. And because our designers never work on commission, you’ll get a straight answer about which windows are worth motorizing and which aren’t.
What Smart Shades Actually Do
PowerView® Automation and Aura® smart shades are two ways Hunter Douglas puts a motor behind the fabric. Both let your windows run on a schedule — up at sunrise, down at dusk, tilted just so for movie night. Group shades into scenes like “Good Morning” or “Away,” run them from the app while you’re out of town, or ask your smart speaker to close the living room. They work with the major smart-home platforms, so they fit whatever already runs your house.
Installed, Programmed, and Explained
Most motorization headaches start after the box is opened: pairing remotes, naming shades, connecting hubs. So we never hand you a box. Our installers mount every shade, connect it to your network, and build the schedules and scenes you actually want. Then we stay until you can run the whole system yourself — and we’re a phone call away when you add a smart speaker two years from now.
Motorization earns its keep on the windows you can’t reach: the two-story great room, the transom over the front door, the window at the top of the stairs. Once those shades have a motor and a schedule, they finally get used.
No Cords Is the Point
A motorized shade has no lift cord, which makes it the safest choice in a house with kids or pets — nothing to tangle, nothing to pull down. It’s also simply cleaner to look at. And if you’ve been searching for a PowerView® dealer, our Ann Arbor location is Michigan’s largest Hunter Douglas showroom, where you can watch these shades move before you order a thing.
The Esquire way
Automation without the headaches
Schedules and scenes
Set your shades once and they follow the sun all year: up for morning light, down before the evening glare.
App, remote, or voice
Run one shade or the whole house from a handheld remote, your phone, or the smart speaker you already own.
Cordless and child-safe
No lift cords means nothing for small hands or curious pets to reach — the safest option we sell.
Battery or hardwired
Rechargeable battery packs keep installs simple, hardwired power suits new builds and remodels — we’ll recommend the right fit for each window.
Programmed, then taught
We install the hardware, build your schedules, and walk you through the app before we leave — no manual required.
Made for tall windows
Two-story foyers, stairwell windows, transoms: a motor and a schedule put the shades you can’t reach to work.
FAQ
Questions, answered
It depends on the shade, the size, and the power option, so we’d rather measure than guess. Motorization adds a per-shade premium over the corded version of the same product, and our Best Price Promise applies either way. A quote costs nothing — stop by the showroom and we’ll work from your window list.
Come watch a PowerView® shade move at our Ann Arbor or Plymouth showroom — it’s the fastest way to know if it belongs in your house.