thanks for posting this. I'll be waiting for some recommendations as well as I will be shopping for cellular shades shortly.

You could look at levolor accordia. I've heard some bad things but most of the review summaries were decent. Blinds.com has a lot of reviews on that shade, I think. I just got mine the other day, and I'm satisfied with the quality. (I think many of the bad reviews were on top-down-bottom-up and I didn't get that option.) I got a fabric upgrade because I don't like the felt/paper-like fabric. I liked most of the upgraded fabrics. I think mine is called Designer Colors, or something like that. The simple cordless one was around $75 on sale online a few weeks ago, a little more at Home Depot where I bought them. (I wanted to return in person if necessary.) They have a 3-10 year warranty on different aspects - you should be able to find that online or you can call levolor and ask about the warranty.

Definitely order the free samples of the room darkening colors if you want to pursue this. They have several light colors and those look totally different in the room darkening versions. Some whites look gray and the cream looks really yellow to me. Suede sand is nice but has a definite pattern. The room darkening has a white interior vs the mirrored or black interior that other brands have. I don't know if that decreases the blackout effect or not. I just wanted to remove glare.

Call the manufacturers and ask them about repairs and warranty and specific features if you want to. Sometimes I get really good info from a rep. For example, I think she said the cord system (not the cords themselves) was the most in-demand repair and that was covered by the 10-year hardware warranty. But I don't remember exactly, so call if it's important to you.

I have purchased from both S&N (2 times) and a discount blind company--can't remember which. S&N's quality is higher, along with the prices.