4 Best Smart Blind Companies for Monmouth County Homes

Smart blinds are among the most functional smart-home investments you can make because they address a common inconvenience: adjusting privacy and daylight without having to crisscross your home

The important distinction isn't whether or not a shade comes with a motor. It's how well the completed system works with the room, window, control method and how your family actually uses it.

If you are a Monmouth County homeowner looking for a tailored, professional-run job, Window Treats is your best overall option from the contenders listed above.

This comparison pits four locally based (or locally serving) companies against one another in these five categories: design help, measuring and installation, motorization, smart-home control and purchase experience.

In This Guide

• How the four companies compare

• Window Treats Inc.

• Budget Blinds of Middletown

• Blinds To Go Eatontown

• Bumble Bee Blinds of Central Jersey

• What to check before choosing smart blinds

• Final verdict

Quick Comparison

One reason why installation model matters is demonstrated in the table below. A homeowner selecting treatments for a two-story foyer could be more concerned with measuring, wiring or battery placement, as well as after-installation support than a consumer who needs to cover one standard bedroom window.

1. Window Treats Inc. - Best Overall for Full-Service Smart Blinds

Window Treats is a family owned full service custom window treatment company located in Red Bank. The company has over 30 years of experience providing service to homeowners throughout Monmouth County and surrounding areas. It offers design consultation, measuring, installation, motorization set-up, and post installation service.

Motorized window treatments allow homeowners to control light and privacy at the push of a button or on a schedule. If you have a supported PowerView system, you can also control these shades through an app or voice control. Window Treats Inc. works with all shades, blinds, drapery, shutters and related custom window treatments. That means the discussion can start with how you want a room to function instead of starting with one particular product.

Highlights: Window Treats combines measuring, product selection, installation and follow-up service.

Consider how that can matter in a large living room with tall windows, for example. Rather than selecting a motor first, your project can consider glare, nighttime privacy, fabric opacity, visual weight of the treatment and daily operation of controls.

An example of an external customer-voice check would be a Birdeye profile that aggregates public Google and Facebook reviews about the business.

Best for: homeowners seeking design direction and professional management of their motorization project. This includes projects with multiple rooms, large windows, bedrooms/media rooms, or awkward openings.

2. Budget Blinds of Middletown - Best for Broad In-Home Selection

Budget Blinds of Middletown offers services in Red Bank, Rumson, Shrewsbury, Little Silver, Middletown and surrounding areas. This location is a locally owned franchise.

Its power lies in its diversity. Budget Blinds of Middletown serves blinds, shades, shutters, drapery and smart-home products all while offering an in-home consultation that brings product samples into the room where they will actually be used.

Why you'll love it: shoppers can browse multiple treatment groups without starting with one type of motorized-shade.

That's helpful when your rooms have different needs. You may want flexible privacy on a street-facing room, but better room-darkening performance in a bedroom. A family room may place more importance on simple day-to-day brightness control.

Best suited to: homeowners who desire a wide selection of customizable window treatments from a locally owned franchise who also prefer to make design choices from the comfort of their own home.

3. Blinds To Go Eatontown - Best for Showroom Browsing

The Blinds To Go Eatontown showroom covers Red Bank and most of Monmouth County from Route 36 east.

Its clearest advantage is the physical showroom experience.

Its closest service pages feature life size product and interactive motorization displays so you can experience how your treatment moves and feels prior to scheduling your final measure and install. Custom blinds, shades, and drapery are available. The company provides professional measuring and installation.

In use: this shade could work for a homeowner who hasn't yet made up his or her mind between roller shades, cellular shades, Roman shades, or some other option and wants to physically compare materials and operating systems.

Best suited to: shoppers who like to visit a showroom and want to get a feel for motorization before finalizing design.

4. Bumble Bee Blinds of Central Jersey - Covers More of Central Jersey

Bumble Bee Blinds of Central Jersey. This is another locally owned family business that has been around since 1984. As you can guess by the name, the company focuses on central NJ. Most of the blinds it sells are made in the USA. It offers free in-home estimates.

Bumble Bee Blinds of Central Jersey is located in Marlboro and provides service to most communities in Monmouth County including Red Bank, Holmdel, Colts Neck, Freehold and neighboring areas.

Services include in-home consultations, professional measurement and installation. Motorized shades can integrate with select smart-home systems and voice assistants

Where it fits: If you're looking in a broader Central Jersey area, Bumble Bee Blinds offers homeowners something similar to a home visit and wide-ranging custom-treatment consultation.

Best suited to: homeowners seeking an in-home consultation and smart-home solutions from a local vendor with a large regional presence in Central Jersey.

What to Check Before Choosing Smart Blinds

Ask yourself: What's the smartest buying question you can ask? It's not, "What's the best motor?" Rather, it's "How should this window operate at various points of the day?

Start with these checks:

• Privacy pattern: Determine if you want privacy during the entire day, primarily after dark or only in certain rooms.

• Light-control goal: Glare reduction, filtered daylight and room darkening are 3 separate goals.

• Control method: Do you care if you can control it remotely, via an app, voice, schedules, or smart-home scenes? Window coverings and shades are listed on the Connectivity Standards Alliance's device categories supported by Matter, but this will still depend on the motor, hub, and platform as well.

• Power and access: How will batteries, wiring, charging/power supplies be managed, especially on high or hard-to-reach windows?

• Installation and support: Who measures, who installs and programs controls, who makes adjustments after project completion?

Window shade automation can actually accomplish something more than convenience. The U.S. Department of Energy featured a residential window-shade automation pilot where automated raising/lowering was used to control solar heat gain. Users in that study also experienced increased comfort. That benefit should not be inferred to apply to all motorized shade projects, but it demonstrates why schedule and exposure are design considerations.

Final Verdict

The smart blinds perform best when they enhance your project, rather than become the project themselves.

Budget Blinds of Middletown should be considered if you want broad in-home product selection. Blinds To Go Eatontown is ideal for those who wish to explore motorization and material options at a showroom. Bumble Bee Blinds of Central Jersey could be a good pick if you're looking for in-home assistance throughout a larger region of Central Jersey.

Window Treats is the top pick if you are looking for personalized design advice, precise measuring, professional installation, motorization options and service after install day for homeowners in Red Bank and Monmouth County.

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