Blinded by the Light

You might remember my window woes from last month. While I received some good suggestions, I still haven’t fully envisioned what to do with this wall of windows. However, I did decide that we needed to bite the bullet and at least get some real blinds up to replace the temporary paper shades. I figured it could be my Christmas present – that was all I really wanted, how boring is that?

Old paper shades. Ugh.

After browsing through the window treatment options at Home Depot once again, we decided that spending several hundred dollars for custom blinds was not going to be in the budget. That left us with the boxed blinds that you can cut to size. We chose faux wood, which hopefully won’t be a decision that we regret in the future. We got white to keep the room lighter, plus we also have other white doors and trimwork in the house, so the blinds don’t look out of place. Luckily, we found a size that matched our windows almost perfectly (35” x 72”), so we didn’t even have to trim them!

But before we could put them up, the two-year-old paper shades had to die come down. Initially I was worried that they would stick to the trim and leave gooey paper residue, but they peeled off pretty easily. I must say, removing them was quite satisfying!

Nekkid windows

The installation process for the new blinds went surprisingly smooth as well. Luke worked on that while I touched up some paint in the bathroom, providing assistance as needed (and taking photos of him hard at work, of course).

One down, two to go!

About three hours later (including a break for lunch), our blinds were installed!

We still don’t have the valance pieces up yet because they need to be trimmed down a little bit so they’ll fit inside the window frame. But I just couldn’t wait any longer to post about them! It’s amazing how much more natural light we can get; I got so used to the temporary shades which always covered the top half of these south-facing windows. And at under $30 a pop, these blinds were pretty economical, so I don’t know why it took us so long to finally get some.

Phoebe approves.

Our living room feels almost like a “real” room now, but it’s still missing the warmth and homey-ness of curtains. I’d like to try making my own if it means saving money, so I think I’m going to take a field trip to Hancock Fabrics to see if I can find some inspiration there. Anyone have any suggestions on colors, patterns, types of fabric, etc? (If I do make them myself, I’ll be using the no-sew method and ironing the seams!)