Features: The Ultimate Philadelphia Dream House: Get That Special Touch

We asked designers where they go to make their homes one-of-a-kind. They didn’t want to tell us, but we wormed it out of them. (We have our ways …)

Windows

DEL Motorized Solutions,
the Atrium, 2075 Byberry Road, suite 108, Bensalem, 215-639-3880; motorizedsolutions.com

SPECIALTIES: Affordable high-end motorized blinds, shades and draperies; home theater shades that reveal the screen at the push of a button; remote-controlled skylight shades. They can even rig motorized drapes with a timer so they’ll automatically close during strong sun hours.
COOL PROJECT: Ed Snider’s entire manse.
WHERE YOU CAN SEE IT: The cafeteria windows at the Constitution Center.
WHO LOVES THEM: Architect Marc Pinard called on DEL Motorized to rescue windows in a loft that were 14 feet from the floor. “There was no way for the homeowner to even reach the shades,” says Pinard. The client had too much light: “DEL was able to come in and provide us with sleek electric roll-up, room-darkening fabric shades on all of the windows. It’s a neat, futuristic and accommodating feeling to push buttons like you have a dimmer switch on the sun.”
PRICE: Battery-operated skylight shades are $500, including remote; a 12-by-five-foot theater window with side channels for maximum blackout is $1,000 to $1,200.

Draperies by Design,
289 Lancaster Avenue, Frazer;
610-644-0888
SPECIALTY: This small custom workroom with its six-person shop offers individual, personalized attention and one-of-a-kind window dressings. Choose from their high-end fabrics, or bring your own. (Or bring a swatch of a fabric you like, and the company’s scout will hunt it down for you.) Owner Maddie Hamilton can advise you on what’s best and most functional for your room; she’ll send out an installer to do the measuring, and even do a muslin mockup for tricky designs, so you can see and approve before a single thread of your expensive fabric is sheared. 
WHO LOVES THEM: “It’s hard to find a workroom that’s consistently good—that delivers a quality product on time,” says Linda Wiley, of Linda Wiley Interiors in Malvern. “They’re about to begin a 33-window home at the Shore for me.”
PRICE: Swags are $50 for labor, plus the fabric cost; a pair of jabots is $70 for labor, lined; single-width lined, pinch-pleated drapes run from $40 to $50 for labor.