Press
A curated collection of news stories, articles, and media features about Innovation Shades and our work.
The Detail That Sets High-End Upper East Side Interiors Apart
By Mike Mishkin, Eastsidefeed | May 27, 2026
Photo: Innovation Shades
Walk through enough recently renovated apartments on the Upper East Side and a pattern starts to emerge — not in the furniture or finishes, but in how the spaces operate. The rooms feel different. The light moves differently. And the small mechanical things you’d normally notice in a home — cords, pulls, switches — seem to have disappeared.The reason is often motorization. In new condos rising throughout the UES, motorized shades and drapery are being specified at the development stage. In prewar coops on Park, Fifth, and the cross streets in between, they’re being retrofitted into apartments where the original cord systems were never going to age well in homes with eleven-foot ceilings.
Why Some Upper West Side Apartments Just Feel Warmer Than Others
By Mike Mishkin, Ilovetheupperwestside | May 21, 2026
Photo: Innovation Shades
There’s a particular feeling that comes with walking into a beautifully done Upper West Side apartment — the kind where late-afternoon light falls just right against the walls, where rooms feel calm rather than staged, and where the sense of comfort lands almost the moment you step through the door. It’s not always easy to name what creates that effect.Most people assume it comes down to furniture, art, or the bones of the building itself. But designers and longtime UWS residents who’ve spent time in brownstone and larger prewar building apartments tend to point somewhere else entirely: the windows. Specifically, what’s hanging on them.
The Best Window Shades in New York
By Maria Yagoda, CURBED | Feb. 14, 2025
Photo-Illustration: Curbed
For Foolproof Motorized and Smart Shades
The decade-old shop has developed a cult following in the design community for its mastery of connected- and automatic-shade installations. Nicole R. Fisher, former stylist for Lady Gaga and the founder of BNR Interiors, first hired the company to connect drapery and shades to a smart-home system in a four-bedroom West Village apartment. The starting price for manual or roller shades on a standard-size window can be as low as $175, while motorization and customizations can add thousands. Her client had already sourced the fabrics she wanted, and, says Fisher, the Innovation Shades staff “were very patient with her, walking her through everything.” In the end, Innovation installed custom drapery in the primary bedroom and inside-mount Roman shades in the kids’ room for a comprehensive blackout effect. On a current project in a Tribeca apartment with 20-foot-high ceilings, Innovation is installing utilitarian roller sunshades that fold up discreetly into the ceiling. Fisher, who designed Lucy Liu’s apartment (Liu opted for shutters), says the company can create whatever you have your mind set on. “I can send them a photo from House Beautiful from 30 years ago, and they figure out how to make it,” she says.