Smart curtains are motorised curtains and blinds that you open and close from a keypad, the app or a schedule. In a Dubai home, they shut out the afternoon sun before it heats a room. They also close for privacy at night and sit neatly in a finished interior.
We design, fit and maintain the motors and the controls. Your curtain supplier makes the fabric and tracks. We work regularly with several Dubai curtain suppliers, and we work alongside whichever one you choose so that the two parts fit together.
This guide covers heat, privacy, which motors to choose and how to plan curtains so they look right in the finished room.
How do smart curtains help keep the heat out?
Closed curtains and blinds block much of the sun's heat before it reaches the room. With motors, they close at the right time even when nobody is home, so your AC has less heat to remove.
How much they block depends on the fabric, its colour and how close it hangs to the glass. The US Department of Energy reports that medium-coloured curtains with a white plastic backing can cut heat gain by about 33%. Fully closed, highly reflective blinds can cut it by around 45%. Those figures come from US studies, so use them as a guide rather than a promise for your home.
Manual curtains only help if someone remembers to close them. With motors, you set it once. For example, the west-facing blinds in your living room can close every afternoon and open again in the evening. We can also link blinds to light sensors or to sunrise and sunset times, and these schedules keep running without the internet.
We can link your blinds to AC control and to Symphony, our automation platform designed to make large, complex homes easier to manage. Its energy features include away mode, set temperature limits and usage reports. We can also add energy monitoring, with reports as detailed or as simple as you like. Our guide to AC control and energy management explains more.
How do they help with privacy?
You can close every curtain on a floor, or in the whole home, with one button. That helps in villas with large glass doors and in apartments that face the next tower.
Many rooms have two layers: a sheer that lets daylight in and a heavier blackout curtain. Each layer can have its own motor. During the day, you can close the sheers to block the view into the room without sitting in the dark.
A keypad button by the bed or the front door can run a scene (several actions that happen with one press). For example, one press of a night scene can close the bedroom blackouts and the ground-floor curtains together. When you are away, you can open or close them from your phone.
Wired or wireless: which motors suit your home?
Wired motors suit new builds and major renovations, when the walls and ceilings are still open. Wireless motors suit finished homes, where you do not want to cut into walls.
For new villas, including three-bedroom builds, we usually advise wired KNX, a wiring standard for home control that many manufacturers use. We are a registered KNX Partner, and our engineers hold KNX certification. There are three ways to connect the motors:
- Wired (dry contact): a cable runs from each motor to the control system, which tells it to open or close. Plan this before the walls are closed.
- Wireless on Somfy: the motors use Somfy's own radio system, so no control cable is needed.
- Wireless on Zigbee: a low-power wireless standard used by many smart home devices. We find it the best wireless option in the UAE, and it works well alongside wireless sensors and switches.
- Motor brands: Somfy and Aqara are our favourites, but we can work with almost any motorised curtain motor. We choose the motor to suit the curtain, its weight and the rest of your system.
Can you add motorised blinds to a finished apartment?
Yes. A wireless system is usually the simplest way to do it, and a wireless installation usually takes a couple of days on site.
The motors still need power, so our engineer checks where it can come from at each window. Our guide to wireless smart homes explains when wireless works well and when wiring is the better choice.
Wired systems take longer. We install them in step with the build or during a major renovation. In an apartment that is not already wired for KNX, a major renovation is the best time to do it.
Will motorised curtains fit a finished interior?
Yes, as long as you plan them with the ceiling and window details instead of adding them at the end. If these decisions are left late, you can end up with a curtain pocket too shallow for the motor, or no power at the right end of the track.
These are the points we agree early with you and your curtain supplier:
- The curtain pocket or recess: deep enough for the track and motor, so nothing shows below the ceiling line.
- Which end each motor sits at, so that power or a control cable is ready there.
- Keypads that match your other switches. We offer switch and keypad designs from 18 high-end suppliers.
- How curtains are grouped into scenes, so a wall does not fill up with buttons.
- Sheer and blackout layers, and whether each one needs its own motor.
For interior designers and architects
Bring us in while you are drawing the ceiling, joinery and window details. Motor positions, power points and keypad locations are much easier to settle on paper than on site.
We agree tracks and motors with the curtain maker, and keypad finishes and positions with you. Our partner programme for interior designers and architects explains how we work with design studios.
Do smart curtains work without the internet?
Yes. If the internet or your home network goes down, you can still open and close your curtains from the keypads on the wall.
Schedules and links to light sensors or sunrise and sunset times run in your home, so they also keep working without the internet. Only control from your phone while you are away needs a connection.
What affects the cost of motorised curtains?
It depends on your windows and how much you want the system to do. We usually plan apartment and villa systems around lighting, AC and curtain control together, so curtains are rarely priced on their own.
These things make the biggest difference to the cost:
- How many windows and curtain layers you want to motorise.
- The size and weight of each curtain or blind, which decides the motor.
- Wired or wireless, and whether it is a new build or a renovation.
- The motor brand and keypad design you choose.
- What else the system controls, such as lighting and AC.
What happens after installation?
Our own team does all the programming and commissioning (setting up and testing the system before handover). At handover, we show your household how everything works. You also get written system records and drawings, and for a KNX system, the project file and passwords.
Warranties come from the manufacturers of the equipment.
If something goes wrong, message our support team through the chat in the app. Monday to Saturday, 8am to 7pm, we can respond straight away, with call-outs within 4 hours. About 90% of our support is done remotely, and you approve every remote session.
You can see the kind of homes we work on in our smart home projects in Dubai.
Questions people ask
- Do you supply the curtain fabric and tracks? No. Your curtain supplier provides the fabric and tracks. We supply, fit and program the motors and controls, and we work with the supplier so the two fit together.
- Which motor brands do you use? Somfy and Aqara are our favourites, but we can work with almost any motorised curtain motor. They connect by wire (dry contact) or wirelessly on Somfy or Zigbee.
- Can my blinds move on their own with the sun? Yes. We can link them to light sensors or to sunrise and sunset times, and these schedules keep running without the internet.
- Should I choose wired or wireless curtain motors? For a new villa or a major renovation, we usually advise wired KNX. For a finished apartment or villa, wireless motors mean you do not have to cut into walls.
- How soon do I get a quote? You usually get a written quote within 2 days of our home visit.
Your next step
Our engineer can check your windows and power points and ask how you use each room. You then get a written quote. Book a free home visit or engineering survey and tell us about your curtains and blinds.
