What Are Hunter Douglas Roller Shades?

Hunter Douglas roller shades are custom fabric shades that roll up around a tube at the top of the window and drop to one flat, clean panel. The fabric decides the job: light-filtering, screen fabric that keeps your view, or room-darkening. They can be motorized with PowerView, so they move on a schedule or at a tap.

Roller shades are the simplest shade we sell, and that is most of their appeal. This guide covers the Hunter Douglas roller lines, how much light each fabric lets in, when motorization is worth it, and where a roller is the wrong pick. If you already know you want rollers and need styling ideas, see our tips for decorating with roller shades.

Key Takeaways

• The main Hunter Douglas roller lines are Designer Roller Shades, Designer Screen Shades, Designer Banded Shades, and Sonnette cellular roller shades.
• Pick the fabric before the style. Light-filtering, screen, and room-darkening fabrics do very different jobs in the same room.
• PowerView motorization lets roller shades follow the sun on a schedule, which matters most on tall, wide, or hard-to-reach windows.
• The honest downsides: rollers leave small light gaps at the edges, especially on inside mounts, and most insulate less than a honeycomb shade.

Which roller shade lines does Hunter Douglas make?

Hunter Douglas makes four roller lines most homeowners compare: Designer Roller, Designer Screen, Designer Banded, and Sonnette cellular rollers. Each one solves a different problem at the window (Hunter Douglas, "Roller Shades," retrieved 2026-11-09).

Line	What it is for	Fabric and light	Insulation
Designer Roller Shades	A clean, minimal shade for any room	More than 350 fabrics, from sheer to opaque	Modest, like most flat fabrics
Designer Screen Shades	Cutting glare and UV while keeping the view	Screen fabrics in five opacity options	Modest; built for sun, not winter cold
Designer Banded Shades	Light and privacy in one roller	Alternating sheer and solid bands	Modest
Sonnette Cellular Roller Shades	A roller look with cellular insulation	Semi-opaque and room-darkening, with soft, diffused light	Better than a flat roller, thanks to its cellular design

Designer Roller Shades

This is the classic roller. Hunter Douglas lists more than 350 fabrics, from sheer to opaque, in textures, prints, and patterns (Hunter Douglas, "Designer Roller Shades," retrieved 2026-11-09). Two options make it more flexible. Duolite puts a light-filtering fabric and a room-darkening fabric on one shade. Dual Roller mounts two separate shades on one bracket. In a west-facing great room in The Canyons in Castle Pines, we used dual rollers: a sheer that cuts glare and keeps the view, and a room-darkening fabric that comes down when the sun drops low.

Designer Screen Shades

Screen shades, also called solar shades, use an open-weave fabric. Hunter Douglas says they curb harsh UV rays, keep furniture and floors from fading, and preserve your view while controlling sun and glare (Hunter Douglas, "Designer Screen Shades," retrieved 2026-11-09). We put Designer Screen Shades in the office of a Pradera model home in Parker. Its windows ran nearly floor to ceiling, and the afternoon glare made the room hard to work in.

Designer Banded Shades

Banded shades alternate sheer and solid stripes on a single roller. Line the bands up to see out, or offset them for privacy (Hunter Douglas, "Different Types of Shades," retrieved 2026-11-09). They are a good fit when you want a roller's clean line with some of a blind's adjustability.

Sonnette Cellular Roller Shades

Sonnette pairs a roller with a cellular fabric that has 2-inch cells, so it adds insulation a flat roller can't. It comes in semi-opaque and room-darkening fabrics. A front-rolling option clears window handles and cranks (Hunter Douglas, "Sonnette Cellular Roller Shades," retrieved 2026-11-09). If insulation is your main goal, though, a true honeycomb shade is still the stronger choice. See our guide to energy-efficient blinds.

How much light do roller shade fabrics let in?

It depends on the fabric's opacity. Light-filtering fabrics soften the sun, screen fabrics cut glare while keeping the view, and room-darkening fabrics block most of the light.

Fabric type	What you see and feel	Best rooms	Watch out for
Sheer or light-filtering	A soft glow and daytime privacy; the room stays bright	Living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms	Not dark enough for sleep
Screen or solar	Less glare and UV, and you keep the view out	Offices, great-rooms, view windows	More open weaves mean more view but less sun control
Room-darkening or blackout	Blocks the light coming through the fabric	Bedrooms, nurseries, media rooms	Light still leaks around the edges
Duolite or dual roller	Daylight and darkness from the same window	West-facing rooms, bedrooms that double as offices	A deeper bracket or headrail

Screen fabric is sold by openness, the share of the weave that is open. Hunter Douglas's GreenScreen Sea-Tex screen fabrics, for example, each have 3% openness (Hunter Douglas, "Different Types of Shades," retrieved 2026-11-09). Two screen shades that look identical from across a room can behave very differently. How much you see out, how much anyone sees in, and how much heat gets through all change with that number. Choosing it is most of the work.

Can a roller shade be truly blackout?

The fabric can be, but the window usually isn't. A standard roller needs a little clearance at each side so the fabric can roll freely, and that is where light sneaks in. Hunter Douglas designs its rollers for minimal light gaps, but minimal is not zero. For a room that has to go fully dark, we often recommend an outside mount that overlaps the opening, a Duolite or dual roller, or a room-darkening honeycomb shade with LightLock side channels instead. See our room-darkening options.

Can Hunter Douglas roller shades be motorized?

Yes. With PowerView motorization, your roller shades move by remote, by app, by voice, or on a schedule you set once. Never touch your window coverings again.

PowerView works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Home, so shades can fold into routines you already use. Set the west windows to come down at 2 p.m. and the bedroom shades to open at sunrise. Many PowerView shades run on a rechargeable battery wand, with no electrician needed. In a new build we can plan hardwired power before drywall. Hunter Douglas's own manufacturer warranty covers motorized components for 5 years from purchase. That is separate from our lifetime product warranty and 5 years of free in-home service.

Motorization pays off most on the windows you fight with every day:

• Tall and two-story windows you can't reach without a pole or a ladder.
• Wide banks of glass, where moving six shades by hand gets old fast.
• West- and south-facing rooms, where a schedule beats the afternoon sun even when you are away.
• Kids' rooms, where no cords means one less hazard.

For the deeper dive, read our complete PowerView guide, our honest take on whether motorized shades are worth it, and how PowerView compares with entry-level kits. Building new? Read why to decide before drywall. Or see PowerView motorization.

Where do roller shades fit in a Colorado home?

Roller shades fit best where you want sun control without losing the view. In Castle Rock homes, that usually means big, bright windows facing the hard afternoon sun.

• Great-rooms and offices facing west or south. Colorado's high-altitude sun brings glare and UV. Screen shades keep the room usable and the view open.
• New builds. When we're brought in before drywall, motorized rollers can be wired properly and the headrails pocketed into the ceiling, with nothing hanging out from the wall.
• Modern and minimal rooms. A flat roller nearly disappears when it is up.
• Mixed rooms. You don't need the same product everywhere. In Pradera, the office got screen shades and the bedrooms and baths got Roman shades.

What are the downsides of roller shades?

Roller shades have two real weak spots: light gaps at the edges and limited insulation. Neither is a problem in the right room, but both matter in the wrong one.

• Edge light on inside mounts. An inside mount sits within the window frame for a tidy, built-in line, but a standard roller leaves a thin gap at each side. An outside mount overlaps the opening and blocks more of that light, at the cost of covering some trim.
• Less insulation than cellular shades. A flat fabric doesn't trap much air. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that cellular shades achieved higher energy savings than all other shading devices in national-lab simulations (U.S. Department of Energy, retrieved 2026-11-09). For a drafty room, a honeycomb shade or Sonnette is the better choice.
• Screen fabric at night. Screen shades keep your view by day. After dark, with the lights on inside, the open weave lets people see in. Bedrooms that need nighttime privacy need a solid fabric, a Duolite, or a dual roller.
• All or nothing. A single roller is up, down, or in between. It doesn't tilt like a blind. Banded shades and dual rollers are the answer when you want both light and privacy.

See roller shades in person

Fabric opacity is hard to judge on a screen. Bring your questions to our Castle Rock showroom, hold screen fabrics up to the light, and try PowerView yourself. We are Castle Rock's only Hunter Douglas showroom for interior window coverings, and an authorized Hunter Douglas dealer since 2003. Browse our custom shades, or book a free in-home consultation. We will bring samples to your windows, measure, and give you a price in one appointment. Your shades come with a lifetime product warranty, plus free in-home service for 5 years.