How to install
A roller shade goes up in minutes when the brackets are right. Almost every call-back comes from a bracket that was out of level, or a shade forced into an opening it was never going to fit.
Brackets level and square first. The shade only ever hangs as straight as the brackets it sits in.
Every shade is labelled with the room it was measured for. Check the label against your schedule before anything comes out of the packaging.
[Confirm the exact pack contents against the Skyfall guide before this page goes live.]
01
Unpack away from the window on a clean surface, and never cut into the packaging with a blade. Check the room label, confirm the width against your schedule, and look the fabric over before it goes up. A fault found on the floor is a phone call; the same fault found after fixing is a return trip.
02
Hold each bracket where it will sit and mark through the fixing holes. The control end bracket goes on the side the chain, wand or motor was ordered on, and the pin end opposite. Mark both the same distance in from each end, and level them to each other rather than to the frame, which is rarely true.
03
Inside mount: the brackets go up into the head of the recess, far enough back that the fabric clears the frame as it rolls.
Outside mount: the brackets go on the wall or architrave above the opening, with the covers slid on before you fix. Pilot-drill anything that might split, and use the right fixing for the substrate.
04
Before it goes near the brackets, check the shade is the right way round: the chain should hang evenly from both sides, and the flat face of the drive should be uppermost. Control end into its bracket first, every time, then bring the pin end across and press it home until it clicks. If it will not reach, retract the pin slightly rather than forcing the bracket.
On a motorised shade, support the motor end throughout and keep the tube level. Tilt it down and the motor can slide out of the tube. Two people on anything wide. Fit it with the charging port facing down, so a charge lead can be reached without taking the shade out.
05
The shade should sit with a small amount of side to side movement. A shade jammed tight between the brackets runs badly and wears the mechanism. No movement at all on an inside mount usually means the opening was measured at its widest point rather than its narrowest.
06
Chain drive only
Lower the shade fully and fit the chain stop just below the drive, so the fabric cannot over-roll. Then fix the cleat to the frame or wall and wind the chain onto it so it is held under light tension.
This is not optional. The cleat is required to meet the child safety standard, and the warning tag stays on the chain.
07
Where one was ordered
A cassette, fascia or raceway goes up before the shade. Fix its brackets level to the architrave or wall, set in roughly [TO CONFIRM] from each end so they land in something solid, and add an extra bracket in the middle on a wide run. The shade brackets are already fitted inside the cassette, so the shade clips straight in once it is up.
A fabric-wrapped cornice fits over the finished installation instead. Keep the top treatment level to the window rather than to the shade, since that is the line the eye reads. Hold the motor end as the shade goes in, and keep it level.
08
Run the shade fully up and down twice, watching how the fabric tracks on the tube. If it drifts to one side, unroll it and add a strip of tape to the opposite end of the tube, which builds that end up fractionally and straightens the roll.
On a motorised shade, set the limits, pair the remote or hub, and leave the client able to operate it. [Add the Apollo motor limit and pairing steps here once confirmed with Porter Lake.]
Every motorized collection uses the same Apollo motors, so this sequence is the same whatever you are installing. Motors are paired at the factory to the remote supplied with the order, so there is usually nothing to pair on site.
[This whole section needs the Apollo sequences from Porter Lake. The structure is right; the steps are placeholders.]
A printed copy in the van beats a phone screen on a ladder.
Download the install sheet[PDF to be produced once the copy is approved.]
Call your dealer success manager rather than forcing anything. Most of what goes wrong on an install is fixable in a few minutes over the phone.
Apply today and join our extensive North America dealer network.