By Stephanie Casimiro
In the dynamic world of home interiors, where form and function intertwine, Hunter Douglas has long stood as a beacon of innovation and style. With a rich legacy that spans over decades, this trailblazing company has consistently redefined our concept of window treatments, melding aesthetic elegance with practical brilliance.
Recently, HD innovated their twin shade array and added interior lighting in the headrail that addresses the wellness trend that is all the rage now in the home. These shades utilize a parabolic reflector and a reflective liner to uniformly disperse LED light from top to bottom, while a diffuser ensures the elimination of hot spots. This creates an effect akin to daylight streaming through a shade, offering a soft and even glow through its textured fabrics.
This new entrant in the market isn’t just a product; it’s a revolution, reimagining the interplay of shade and light in living spaces. Wellness and control are combined, seamlessly in the Aura™ Illuminated Shade. Winning multiple awards since its debut, including the Technology Designer 2023 Performance Home Award, Aura has quickly become a disruptor in the shade and lighting industry, a testament to Hunter Douglas’s enduring commitment to transforming ordinary spaces into extraordinary experiences.
“Whether it’s for wellbeing or mood-setting, Aura’s ingenuity allows you to create an ambiance of natural light at your window, irrespective of the time or weather conditions outside. It’s about transcending the limitations of traditional shades, offering the ability to craft a perfect lighting environment at any moment.”
Kelly Foster, Senior Director of Product Management at Hunter Douglas talked about this fascinating product and how it’s changing the way blinds, once a last-minute addition to any room, are installed in spaces. At the heart of Hunter Douglas’ innovative Aura shades lies a profound understanding of how light shapes our lives. “There are times in your life or in the day, that you might need light for either your wellbeing or to set your mood, and you can’t always achieve that,” she said.
The inspiration for Aura emerged from a simple yet profound realization: we rely on window coverings not just to manage light but to harness its transformative power to enhance our homes and our moods. However, natural light, capricious and ever-changing, isn’t always at our beck and call. This sparked the idea for Aura – a revolutionary concept of illuminated shades that provide ‘daylight on demand’.
Kelly captures the dynamic of this new product by saying, “Whether it’s for wellbeing or mood-setting, Aura’s ingenuity allows you to create an ambiance of natural light at your window, irrespective of the time or weather conditions outside. It’s about transcending the limitations of traditional shades, offering the ability to craft a perfect lighting environment at any moment.” This vision propelled Hunter Douglas to redefine the role of shades in our homes, transforming them from mere window coverings to creators of perpetual ambiance, regardless of the hour or the sky’s whims.
The brilliance of Aura lies in its versatility. Users can effortlessly adjust both the color temperature, ranging from a warm 2200K to a crisp 6500K, and the brightness, from a subtle glimmer to full 100 percent. This tunable white lighting can support a range of routines and comforts: from waking up to a sunrise-like warmth, energizing with bright, midday-like light, to creating a cozy ambiance on a dreary day, or even adding light to windowless areas. These shades are perfect for setting the mood for any occasion, whether it’s a tranquil evening at home or a lively gathering.
When not illuminated, Aura operates as a traditional shade, offering all the benefits expected of smart shades – style, comfort, convenience, energy efficiency, wellness, privacy and accessibility. The room-darkening feature, ideal for media rooms or bedrooms, blocks out most external light, while still allowing Aura to transform the lighting in any part of the home as needed. Kelly describes it as “The prefect three in one shade design. With the ability to filter natural light, provide room-darkening and enhanced privacy and built-in illumination you can control.”
Complementing its innovative design is the PowerView Gen 3 Automation, ensuring reliable and scalable two-way communication. Whether it’s for new constructions or renovations, Aura is standard with PowerView+, a low-voltage hardwired power solution with an ultra-quiet motor. Post-installation, homeowners can personalize scenes and schedule automations via the PowerView App, change the ambiance instantly with the Pebble Remote, voice commands, or through integration with leading smart home systems.
Available in several popular Hunter Douglas styles like the Vignette Stacking Roman Shades, Sonnette Cellular Shades, and Designer Roller Shades, Aura offers a plethora of fabric choices to match the aesthetic of any space. What truly sets the Aura collection apart is its alignment with the existing Hunter Douglas product lines. The fabrics selected for Aura are a curated subset of the extensive roller shade collection, meaning that the same fabrics available in Aura are also offered in other Hunter Douglas shade products. This thoughtful coordination allows for a harmonious design flow throughout the home.
Meaning, if a homeowner chooses not to use Aura shades in every room, they can still maintain a cohesive look and feel by selecting roller shades in the same fabric for other areas. This provides immense design flexibility, ensuring that regardless of the choice of window treatment, there’s a consistent and elegant aesthetic throughout the home. This approach not only underscores Hunter Douglas’ commitment to style and quality but also its understanding of the need for a cohesive design language in today’s home decor trends. With Aura, the possibility of creating a unified, stylish, and illuminated interior has never been more attainable.
When asked if the Aura Illuminated Shade would become the standard moving forward, Kelly had this to say, “Absolutely, I do. In the areas of your home where you live and typically have shades, the Aura can manipulate the light to fit your unique needs for wellbeing and mood.”
Shades that control light internally within a unique ecosystem, via from your phone, voice or control keypad – this is the future of lighting and shading where you are able to harness and control both natural and electric light. The future can look dim to bright, the choice is yours thanks to Hunter Douglas and the innovative Aura Illuminated Shade system.
Stephanie Casimiro is a Contributing Editor and the Social Media Manager for Technology Designer. She is the Founder of Designer Marketing Solutions, a full-service social media and marketing agency.
