i'm doing to my mom who has recently passed on july twenty first we love you mommy and thank you for always being supportive and today i'm going to welcome andy andy albert andy albert has been a window treatment industry specialist for how many years andy just about thirty three thirty three years well i'm going to tell a quick story about andy andy and i met back when i started business thirty years ago and  when when i started as an interior designer it was very difficult to open up a new account everybody was very fastidious about who are you and you know and you gave me my very first account did you know that i do you  so you gave me my very first account and then once you have an account it's easier to get the second one and the third one so i'm going to start with just saying thank you andy for the last thirty years you've been a big support and i appreciate it and then i thank you absolutely and we went from vertical blinds into into a nation lines and metal mini blinds to shutter and roller shades and roman shades one hundred dogless free teen years and i sold two box stores and retailers and also had reps out on the street so that we could build our business and i did a lot with not only sales more product knowledge as well as marketing so i would be able to help all of my dealers and you did and we did you did back then there were a lot of trade shows and there was a lot of stuff going on there was a lot of education going on because the product kept changing and changing and changing back in the eighty's and the ninety's we were coming out with all this new product that is still here today right and so who do you work for now and i now work for an independent distributor and fabricator and i'm in charge of both sales from top to bottom as well as marketing some a little more involved on the corporate end of the business range cause of that i do have reps out on the street that help me with all of our dealers but i still get involved with every dealer from the smallest to largest because that's what i enjoy doing is helping people gain more knowledge enabling them to be successful in their business right right it's all about the connection and the sales help is not about selling it's really about educating correct and that's what we're doing today right we're educating our consumers about what's out there when it comes to custom window treatments and we're going to talk about hard window treatment and versus software no treatments and do you want to tell me what the difference is so you won't be there well pretty much be to light in a room and it's more of something that's a necessity for privacy whereas with soft window treatments you really dressing up the window after the hard window treatment goes up and i know i know that's where your expertise comes in yeah so a lot of the times yeah we talk about soft and hard window treatments and the software to treatments that what i say is anything that's made out of fabric where a lot of the products that we're talking about today are made out of different hard hard surfaces not a soft surface so will go through those in a minute but what's the difference between a custom and a ready made window treatment well i would consider a ready made treatment something that you would probably buy in a war this type store or roller shades cut down roller shapes cut down wood blinds cut down honeycomb shades the problem with those products is that they don't last very long they're all imported from overseas none of these products have any type of warranty there's no longevity there's no longevity of the product they're probably going to last about a year or two tops and one of the major issues is the sizing because they don't come in exact sizes in both with and length that creates a problem for the consumer and they don't always fit right they always for i can't tell you how many times i go into you know people's homes beautiful homes and they don't take that next level to customizing their window treatments and they go out and they buy ready made and they put them in these million dollar homes and it just doesn't cut it because custom window treatments really upscale the entire room that is the difference between a room that just is and and one that is spectacular and that's made the difference with with the window treatments with the custom window treatments i totally agree and one thing of  importance there will be an issue with ready made products because as of january two thousand and nineteen there will no longer be able to be cords on she and that is going to be a problem on any of the ready made and stock items carre from overseas right so we are going to talk more about modernization and different chord live systems as we go through it but you're absolutely right the law is changing and we need to stay on top of what's going on because there has been some tremendous tragedies with the strings and the cords especially with a lot of the ready made products so be careful for safety can you can you give us an idea of what is the difference where you want to start talking about some of the products you want to take us through some of the products that we have here today sure one of the most popular products for the past ten years have been plantation shutters  and plantation shutters when i speak of them they are shutters for the inside of the house not to be confused with shutters that are on the outside of the house in today's market place shutters in the northeast part of the country had become extremely popular and the shutters really started down south and in southeast and southwest portions of the country and now that it's in the northeast again and the popularity of shutters is going through the roof yes it is there are three types of shutters available there is a vinyl shutter there is a composite shutter which is manufactured out of basswood and most of them are wrapped with a polypropylene so there's a lifetime warranty where they won't warp chip scratch dent and they're also totally there's also a wood shutter and wood shutters are usually purchased when someone is interested in some type of a stain not so much  traditional with the stain as opposed to a painted color like a white or an off white there are a lot of different features on shutters today this is your standard charter which has a bar which operates the louvers we also have available what's called a hidden or invisible till then where that's my favorite it's more common in today's market less is more less is more and a lot of people like this because there is no issue at any point in time even with the warranty of having a problem with the tilt bar if there's children and it gets over as well as the easy function easy functionality of the hour just a touch and boom it's done yeah yeah and we can also actually motorized the shutters wonderful where the will tilt yes we love we love easy convenience modernization everything's on our phone everything's a touch and that is the name of the game today so yes it is the name of the game so indeed let me say let me start by shutters you know the way i look at it as a designer is putting furniture on the window when you are looking at the highest hard window treatment product out there is that correct that is correct ok so from i want the consumer also to look at these products and as we go through them maybe get an idea of budget is that we're good absolutely great with the shutters it will without a doubt when you do plan to sell your home it will increase the value of yes yes and it is like putting furniture on your windows yes it is the only window treatment that adds value to your homes correct so they are worth the investment because there are an with the honeycomb or cellular shades these are manufactured out of a non woven polyester and they're very energy efficient what they do is they trap all the heat and the air between the shade in the window so in the summer time it's going to keep the house color and in the winter time it's going to keep the house more excuse me a little more and with the technology that has been out for the past few years with cellular shades there are a lot of different operating systems that are available what we have here is a cordless shade we also have a shade that can be motorized with an infrared remote control which can also be automated and hooked up to any of the systems that you may have in your home beautiful that will allow you to also raise the shades turn on your air conditioning and things of that nature the function of the twenty first century so so in the price point is this kind of low where are we price point price point i would say we are about a third of the cost of a shot or ok when it comes to cellular shades and i believe am i correct that the cellular shade is the most energy efficient correct hard window treatment or  air between the shade and the window preventing it from coming through and heating up the house or making the house colder yeah so i get a lot of clients who come to me and say oh this room is very cold i need to put something on the windows colors but we don't usually buy a rainbow shade right so what we now have available is the technology to manufacture a honeycomb shade in a wide array of collars and then just about eight hundred different colors wow every shadow purple every shade of green every shade of rose a red and basically this deck here is the same exact color deck from benjamin moore paint one so you can actually designers dream absolutely designers dream yes we love to pick our perfect colors perfect so show me something else what else do we have so still in the lines of the cellular shade one of the other operating systems that we have available i think and as i was the arm handy that's the bottom ok and as you can see you can stop at any point and then raise it up i like that fabric this is for safety purposes and there's no cord we can have the wand measured to the exact length so whether or not the person is tall or short correct they will be able to reach the wand or if you don't want your children to reach you may want them a little shorter exactly and this is just one of the innovative things that are now available with honeycomb shades this particular company also takes the fabric and they wrap it across the head and bottom rail so that it looks more of a finished product like it's all fabric from top to bottom as opposed to just having the aluminum rails at the top and the body it's a really pretty luck yep it's a little more address stopping than your standard cylons at a linen look fabulous so here's a honeycomb shade that  starting to look a lot more sophisticated absolutely yet it's given us the energy efficiency and we also have options call bottoms up touch down you want to tell me a little bit about that yes we can max manufacture the honeycomb with a lot of different operating systems one is a continuous clutch roll or another is cordless your standard cord lock there's also the availability of a top down bottom up shade which is available both corded and cordless and what this shade will allow you to do is to raise the shade down from the bottom and also raise it off from the pot from well with fans from the top and ray and raise it off from  bottom the reason people like that is you can put this particular type of shade in your bathroom and you would be able to have the privacy from half way down or opposite from the top up so one of my fav it's to put in the bedroom because i said it where it comes down from the from the top and you know if they see my head it's ok they don't see the rest of me and i still have the privacy that i need but when i need the energy efficiency those very hot summer days that we've had recently perfect prado perfect product to keep the house cool so we are going to be running out of time let's go through some other products as well that would be great what i have here is another very popular product which is you know it's hard to hold the sample as well as open it so it's ok ok it's much better when they're hanging in the window and this is also an innovative product which is going to be very important come january worn this is actually a cordless blind and all you have to do is push the button on the middle of the bottom rail right animal raise and lower is the whatever point that you wanted and this is that's what is that made out of this is manufactured out of a people about forward blind is that you're really not listing if you want to lift the window you want to different product i believe that a full wood blind is down all the way and you're really tilting it for privacy and for li filtering very much like people used verticals in the eighty's in the ninety's they were usually just tilting them for that flexibility am i correct or more correct and it's a similar application with plantation shutters  that normally the consumers just tilt to opening and closing the lid on iris opening the actual shutter themselves correct right so function on these window treatments is important to understand if you want that full would blind to be pulled up and disappear it's not going to disappear it has a very big stack yep and the stack basically is the length of the blind including the head rail and the slats when you raise it all the way up to the top and in general on an average size so you're probably going to have eight inches of stack in a blind which is going to be covering part of the window actually eight inches of the wind right where if you do a honeycomb shade you have so so we're what else do you have there if you brought a lot of goodies today and i love sharing all of this with our consumers what i have here is a woven wood product  products are on court lists again i love her as the world war products are manufactured out of a lot of different materials and they are also available in a hobbled in a flat as well as top down bottom up they're available cordless and with a continuous cord loop this is also a product that is become very popular in the past few years yes and one of the ways for a consumer to see what is popular are to go into some of the architectural digest and some of those magazines and what you'll see in the magazines  words and products that are pretty much trending today yeah well you know it's funny when when i got married in the well the woods very very popular back then with a lot of macrame and all of that fun stuff that were attached and i'm so when i see them coming back they are close to my heart because i love woven woods and they've improved them so much they used to be made out of the match sticks yes you know and now they're made out of a lot of wonderful natural products so for those consumers who want to stay organic that's the product they want to go to and there are various different privacy levels right absolutely what are some of the questions that we normally ask our consumers that they need to know before they choose a product well i think the most important thing is what are you looking for are you looking for something to protect the sun when you're watching t v are you looking for more visibility or are you looking for a blackout or a room darkening product in the bedroom or if you have a movie room where you need complete darkness right so those are some of the questions that we want to ask along with what type of product as far as the availability to see outside are you looking for as you had mentioned with a blind you can tilt the slats which gives you the view through  that's also available with a sheer horizontal and with a shutter most of the other products available are going to be something that is either raised all the way are or if you go with the top down bottom up again you can lower down from the top or raise it off from the bottom right right you know and i've gone to many homes and consumers think that they have to put the same treatment on all the windows is that it is that right  not correct not correct no no i know and i know some some people are very symmetrical and they want you know for the windows from the outside to all look the same but it really isn't anything can go today is that correct absolutely each room should be held as its own individual palace and you go in and give them what you think is going to look best in that particular room and i know that you have done a great job in doing that yeah i was going to ask why is it so important to have a shop at home service then i'll go into a store and just pick something out my experience in the past thirty three years is that when you go into a store on fortunately not all of the people are trained as well as we as manufacturers would like them to be so i feel as though when you go with someone like anna who don't shop at home cizik stream we knowledgeable on the product season stream are you knowledgeable on the color schemes and everything else that would go along with the hard window treatments including the soft ones so it's important to really talk to a professional that really knows all of the ins and outs of all the products and experience has you know we have a lot to say for experience and you and i we've got plenty between the two of us so so in the you know i want to thank you so much for for being here and and sharing your knowledge with us today but i always say yes my guest a very important question and that is what in your home makes you happy because i do believe that my home makes me extremely happy and when i think about my home and i've shared this with my guest in the past my favorite thing is my dining room if i can tell you how many people we've served dinner on our dining room table as well as you've been on my dining room table many many times i've seen a lot of reps i've eaten a lot of meals i've even had a buddhist monk share a meal at our dining room table so it's  have a charcoal grill a gas grill and two weeks ago i purchased a flat top grill and i come home and i just go out on my deck relax and when my wife gets home light up the grill and light up the grill and you do all the cooking andy i do a lot of the cooking you do a lot of the cooking and of course you've got me because i we only have one one grill so you have three and i can't wait to come out some  steak on your grill and thank you so much for being a friend for teaching us about window treatments and for keeping on top of things and for just allowing us to be good friends throughout all these thirty years in business and again i'll never forget you were my first the first person who gave me an open account and i will be forever grateful thank you andy albert and for here's for more business in the future at our next soul scape living i hope you've enjoyed it thank you