Battery Operated Shades & Blinds

Made to your measurements. Designed for your room.

Light Filtering Roller Shades in Ivory — Photorealistic interior photography of a contemporary rental apartment living room, lightly furnished in the way a recent move-in looks

7 results
  • A white pleated roller blind, partially rolled up at the top, shown against a solid white background.
    29
    Light Filtering Roller Shades From $49
    +19 colors
  • Black
    32
    Blackout Roller Shades From $59
    +21 colors
  • Honey Cane
    11
    Woven Wood Shades From $103
    +9 colors
  • An off-white or cream-colored pleated window shade, shown partially rolled up at the top against a plain white background.
    29
    Light Filtering Cellular Shades From $59
    +1 color
  • Gray honeycomb
    37
    Blackout Cellular Shades From $59
    +1 color
  • A white horizontal roller blind with alternating white and light gray horizontal stripes, shown partially unrolled on a solid white background.
    6
    Zebra Shades From $59
    +11 colors
  • A gray roller blind or shade shown partially unrolled, featuring a printed pattern of dark green trees against a light gray sky. The product is displayed on a clean white background.
    22
    Solar Shades From $59
    5 colors

Find your solution

Motorized shades used to mean an electrician, a wall switch and a wire chase. Battery operated shades remove all of that. The motor and its rechargeable pack live inside the tube or headrail, so the shade installs on two brackets. That makes them the practical answer for a rental you cannot wire, a retrofit where opening the wall is not worth it, and any window that is awkward to reach twice a day.

Which shades run on a battery motor

Every shade on this page can be built with a battery motor. Blackout Roller Shades and Light Filtering Roller Shades are the most common build, because the motor sits inside the 38 mm tube and the cassette hides it completely. Solar Shades motorize well on large sunny openings. Zebra Shades add a tilt angle adjustment, so the sheer and solid bands can be set by remote. Blackout and Light Filtering Cellular Shades motorize inside the head rail. Woven Wood Shades take a motor in a 2 inch headrail. Roman shades are not listed: our roman size limits are still marked unconfirmed in the supplier material, and a motorized build depends on a confirmed minimum width.

Motors, minimum widths and charging

We build on the A-OK AM25 and AM28 series. The AM25-1/25-ES-E is a 25 mm motor at 1.0 newton metre and 25 RPM with a 2600 mAh pack, rated IP44. The AM28-1.5/30-ES-E steps up to a 28 mm tube, 1.5 newton metres and a 3000 mAh pack for heavy or wide shades.

How the motor reaches your phone depends on the chip. The base RF433 motor needs an RF hub to talk to Alexa or Google Home, and can also be run solar powered. The Zigbee version connects directly, with no hub, to five specific Alexa devices: Echo Plus 2nd Gen, Echo Studio, Echo Show 10 3rd Gen, Echo Show 2nd Gen and Echo Show 4th Gen. Any other Alexa device still needs a hub. The Matter version connects directly to Apple HomePod and HomeKit.

Minimum width is the spec that catches people out. A motor has to fit inside the tube, so motorized roller shades need roughly 8 to 10 inches more minimum width than the manual version of the same system. On the CB-235 an automatic build starts at 20 1/8 inches, on the CB-268, CB-269, CB-282, CB-283 and CB-258A at 20 1/2 inches, and on the CB-181 and CB-208 open rolls at 21 1/4 inches. On woven wood the lithium ion motor needs 25 1/4 inches, though the standard DC motor drops that to 12 3/4 inches and is the narrow window answer.

Charging runs off a 5V DC 1.0A charger and takes about four hours. Charge the pack at least six hours every six months even if the shade has not moved, because that is what preserves the cells. At 6.2V or below the red light flashes and the motor drops into jog mode, and at 5.5V or below it stops. One thing worth knowing before you set limits: the upper and lower limits can each be fine tuned only once, and changing them again means resetting the motor.

Installing them yourself

Roller, zebra and cellular shades use the cassette and valance bracket system. Drill with a 0.2 inch, or 6 mm, bit and set bracket screws at 1.1 inch spacing. Two types of expansion anchor come in the box, so pick the one matching drywall or masonry. Each bracket has four pre-drilled holes; two screws on opposite sides hold fine on a standard wall.

Lock the groove at the top of the valance onto the latch on the bracket, then press the valance back until it clicks, and check for looseness before you let go. A bracket seated on the top latch but not the rear will hold under its own weight and then drop the first time the shade is raised. Woven wood uses a different bracket, 1 3/8 by 1 3/4 inches with 1/2 inch of fabric clearance.

Shades ship direct with brackets, screws, anchors and the remote in the box. The shade carries a limited lifetime warranty, and motors and controls a separate five year warranty.

A closer look, from every angle.

Explore shade styles, try fabrics, and see how they move before you choose.

How do I measure for my shades?

Choose an inside or outside mount first, then follow our shade measuring guide. Measure each window individually before entering your width and height on the product page.

Should I choose light filtering or blackout?

Light filtering fabric softens daylight. Blackout fabric blocks light through the fabric itself, while light can still enter around the edges. Your mount and any side tracks affect the final result. Solar and unlined woven fabrics have different privacy characteristics, so check the product details.

Can I add a motor?

Open the product configurator to see the controls and motor options offered for that shade. Motor and smart-home compatibility vary by product and the motor you select.