Want motorised blinds, curtains or awnings?

Nicholls Interiors partners with Somfy, one of the largest manufacturer of controllers and drives for blinds and awnings to help bring smart home solutions to your home. As authorised Somfy Experts, Nicholls can assist with motorised interior window coverings, motorised roller shutters and automated awning solutions. In fact, we can help with adding motorisation and smart home technology to any of the window furnishing treatments you require.

Get in contact with us to learn more about adding Somfy technology to motorise your home window furnishings.

Motorised curtains, blinds and shades provide convenience and elegance at the touch of a button or with the sound of your voice, so that you can relax and enjoy the view. A simple touch of your smartphone or tablet can open or close your blinds, just as it can turn on the lights, heater or air-conditioner.

Motorisation and home automation have become an affordable addition to new and old homes of all scales.

Can I operate my blinds with my home automation system?

Motorisation is compatible with voice activation systems such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

What can my home automation system do?

Home automation technology has become so advanced you can now use a smart phone app to enable you to control your blinds from anywhere in the world. You can group blinds, set timers, create scenes all at the press of a button. The App can link to control not only your home, but also your office & your holiday home.

Particularly convenient if you’ve got living areas that contain a number of blinds. Imagine walking into the room and simply saying “Alexa – open the blinds” and watch all your blinds go up. Much easier than going to each individual blind and opening them by hand!

You can also program them to open or close at certain times of the day – handy if you need to close your blinds when the sun hits certain windows or if you are not going to be home until later that night, to ensure privacy and safety simply close the blinds from wherever you are. It’s that easy! Set them up on timers when you go away on holiday to make it look like you are home.

What are the benefits of Home Automation?

Motorised window coverings are able integrate into many different home automation systems both wireless and hardwired giving you the ultimate smart home experience.

Home-automation systems control devices automatically by switching on/off and adjusting settings at pre-set times or in response to environmental changes

e.g. the external temperature reaches a certain point, which triggers air-conditioner to switch on and blinds to come down in the house.

The benefits of home automation include:

Reduce energy consumption: Control heating, cooling and lighting through window coverings, thermostats, air-conditioners, fans and lights. Home-automation allows each device to work individually or together based on user preferences or external conditions.
Convenience: Automatically carryout routine tasks that would be performed on a daily basis, whereby at the press of a single button when leaving the house – the lights will switch off, blinds come down and security system is activated.
Comfort: Set the perfect ambiance for the theatre room by a single button press, lights will dim, blinds come down, the air conditioner will turn on to your preferred temperature and your projector & AV system switch on.
Security: Configure the home automation system to give the illusion someone is home by having your lights turn on/off as well as having your blinds open & close while on holidays.
Safety: Sensors can prevent damage to awnings by retracting them when winds exceed a certain speed and can control light by closing/opening an awning based on a customised light intensity setting of your choice.

What home automation systems can I use?

The three most popular systems are: Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple Homekit. Amazon Alexa – is arguably tailored for smart home newbies.

It is easy to set up, with the ability to be plugged in and used anywhere, and controlled via Android or Apple devices.

Alexa is also the most widely supported hub, with many of compatible smart home apps (like MySmartBlinds).

Google Home – is much smarter than Amazon’s Alexa. It is powered by Google’s search engine technology, so it’s able to respond to a broader array of questions and commands. However, it has far less compatible smart home apps so check it covers everything you want to automate (blinds are compatible).

Apple Homekit – No home assistant is required for this option; it is used directly with your phone via Siri. Not all motors are compatible with this option so speak to us for advice first.