Danny Harun, Head of Window Shading at Ideaworks tells of his life and love of Window Shading.

The craftsmanship of making blinds all began for me while watching my father working. He had moved halfway across England and took a job in a high street curtain shop. When it closed down, he opened his own business.

I started helping him out after school and at weekends making tracks and blinds and helping install them. I liked the pocket money but was drawn in by the skills he had developed. 

I wasn’t a star pupil at school, so when I left, I decided to work full time in the business. I loved working with my father. Back then we were working in a converted shed, with barely enough funds to buy the tables and equipment we needed. But we worked hard and soon outgrew our modest surroundings.

We were flying; running several market stalls, working with local businesses and trade partners and we had weekly contracts with the MOD. A personal highlight was making blinds for HRH the Queen Mother’s home, which was a real honour. 

After a few years, my father suggested I moved to a much larger company as it would broaden my horizons and experience. It gave me an insight into different ways of working. It was brilliant advice.

While he was doing incredible projects like fitting over 14,000 curtains at the London Olympic Park, I wanted to push harder into the luxury end of the market. After a few years my entrepreneurial spirit got the better of me and I decided to go out and create a business of my own.

Starting my own business allowed me to concentrate on the smallest details; making everything as close to perfection as possible, ensuring blinds all roll down at the same time, and the same speed, so they line up exactly. This is easy if you’re using the same materials, but motor types, fabric thickness, stiffness and weight all conspire to make my job hard; I love it. I am now obsessed by fine tuning limit stops so all blinds align properly, using special tools to get into tight pocket spaces, making sure that everything is orchestrated to move together.

When Ideaworks first approached me, I wasn’t quite ready to leave my own business behind. But after working with them on a couple of projects as a partner, I was hooked. For the first time, I was working with a team as obsessed as I was about the final outcome.

Now, I’m head of Window Shading at Ideaworks and when I look back at where it all started, I couldn’t have imagined working on some of the most incredible homes and yachts around the world that I do now. I love that I still get to operate on such a personal level with clients and designers, and my Window Shading team almost operate like a mini-business; but part of something much bigger. Being part of that something bigger; combining light, shade and technology. That is what I love.

SEA OF DREAMS 

I love how every project is unique and presents its own challenges with unique window shapes, different fabrics and glazing. When someone says something can’t be done, I can’t help but want to prove them wrong. This reminds me of when we were asked to install all new shades on an 85m superyacht with just twelve days to do it in. I was on the next plane to Gibraltar. I hadn’t realised at the time the boat would actually be sailing to the South of France while I was installing everything! It added to the fun and I would never have imagined I’d be doing things like this when I started out twenty years ago.