Motorized Blackout Shades & Blinds

A blackout shade only does its job when it is all the way down, and the hours it matters most are the ones when you least want to get up: late at night, early in the morning, or mid-afternoon for a nap or a sleep after a night shift. A motor closes the room from bed, on a schedule, or by voice, so the shade is down when you need it rather than when you remember. Every motorized blackout shade and blind here is made to the size you measure and shipped direct to you.

Motorized blackout shades and blinds, by type

Blackout roller shades are the cleanest look, a flat opaque fabric that rolls into a cassette at the head of the window. Blackout cellular shades bring the pleated cell. Blackout roman shades give the soft horizontal folds of a fabric panel with the same motor options. Woven wood shades become blackout shades with an attached 100% blackout liner, available in nine colors from white and off white through camel, taupe and dark brown to black, so the room side reads as natural bamboo, jute or reed while the liner does the work. The liner goes on the valance too.

Power comes three ways. A rechargeable battery motor needs no wiring. A small solar panel keeps that battery topped up on a window you would rather not take down. A plug-in motor runs on 100 to 240 V from a nearby outlet and never needs charging. For smart control, a Matter motor connects directly to Apple Home and also reaches Alexa, Google Home, SmartThings and Home Assistant, a Zigbee motor connects to five specific Echo devices without a hub, and the standard motor reaches Alexa or Google Home through a hub. Each motor stores six positions, and one of our remotes has a built-in timer, so a bedroom can go dark at the same time every night without an app.

Motorized sizes to check first

Motors need width, and blackout fabric runs narrower than light filtering, so check both ends. A motorized blackout roller starts at 20 1/8 inches wide on our 3 1/2 inch squared cassette and reaches 94 1/2 inches wide by 118 inches high. On the 2 15/16 inch squared and round cassettes it starts at 20 1/2 inches and stops at 86 inches wide. Anything over 100 inches high moves to the large squared cassette with a thicker tube.

Motorized cellular is limited by height rather than width. It starts at 23 inches wide and reaches 126 inches wide, but tops out at 79 inches high, so a tall bedroom window with a motor is the combination to measure twice.

Woven wood reaches 96 inches wide and 118 inches high with a motor. The standard DC motor builds down to 12 3/4 inches wide, while the lithium and AC motors need 25 1/4 inches. It also needs at least 1 5/8 inches of depth inside the frame, or 2 5/8 inches to sit flush.

Measuring and installing it yourself

Measure the width at the top, middle and bottom and use the smallest figure, rounded down to the nearest 1/8 inch, then do the same for height. For the darkest result, consider an outside mount: adding about 3 7/8 inches to the width and height lets the shade overlap the frame and cuts the light that slips around the edges.

Roller and roman shades hang on a cassette bracket fixed with a 6 mm drill bit, with drywall and masonry anchors both in the box. Hook the cassette onto the bracket latch, press back until it clicks, and check the top and rear have both locked. Then pair the remote and set the top and bottom limits. Each limit can be fine tuned once, so set them carefully. A battery motor charges in about four hours; the light shows red while charging and green when full.

In a bedroom, match the shade or liner color to the wall rather than the window trim and the closed shade will read as part of the room. Dark liners disappear against deep walls; white and off white keep a small room from feeling boxed in.