Our house gets really nice sunlight – especially upstairs and especially in the afternoon when the sun hits the front of the house directly. We love it for everything from hanging out to taking photos. And Burger, well, he loves it for just about anything: napping, grooming, sniffing things, more napping.
But the beams of sunlight streaming in also highlighted a shortcoming of this house: no window blinds. I think we took it for granted that the bedrooms in our last house came with nice white faux wood blinds, so it was kind of a shock the first night when we realized we had nothing for privacy or to keep the light from creeping in early the next morning.
So after way too many nights of undressing in the dark and waking up at the crack of dawn, we finally went out and bought a stack of these puppies. They’re Home Depot’s in-stock faux wood blinds. We splurged slightly on the “premium” version because they had wider slats (which means less window obstruction when they’re open) and they also promised better light blocking and had a break-away cord for added kid safety (no loops, just pulls, and the pulls break away under the weight of a child). Fortunately it was only a small upcharge, since dressing 11 windows quickly added up to over $350 (and that was with a coupon). Gulp.
But they were a necessary evil that each room needed (especially the bedrooms and bathrooms where a certain amount of privacy is not just appreciated, it’s expected). I say “evil” because we don’t consider them to be exceptionally pretty – even if they are an upgrade from vinyl blinds – but the function trumps any gripes that we have about form. And once you layer in some curtains the windows end up looking pretty great.
Installation was a bit tedious, but straightforward thanks to some good instructions. Having to hang eleven blinds and then make a few adjustments turned into a bit of a time suck (this project took about 6 hours total, broken up over two days) but it’s beyond nice to have privacy and early-morning-darkness in the bedrooms and bathrooms again.
Hanging them basically involved screwing two brackets into the side of the window frame, and then sliding the blind into place.
We were lucky that our windows were all standard sizes, so Home Depot had them on the shelf (they offer free cutting services if needed – but we were glad we didn’t have to stand there while they cut down 11 blinds for us). I did get to customize them for our house by adjusting the length, which I did after each one was hung. I just removed the bottom slat, cut the strings that held all of the extraneous slats that we wanted to remove, and then reattached the base slat to the shortened strings and tied that to hold it in place (this post shows that step in more detail if you’d like extra photos/info).
One new issue that we never encountered when installing these before was that the side pieces of trim that came with each set of blinds needed to be shorter to fit against our window frames for some reason.
So I broke out my miter saw to give each of them (all 22!) a trim so they’d sit flush against the window and still attach correctly at the corner. The pieces of scrap wood in this picture are just blocking that I used to keep the trim in place without risking my fingers.
Much better.
They just snap together, so shortening them on the end didn’t interfere with how they attach.
Then all that was left was to enjoy some privacy and some light control. They’re still looking pretty basic because we don’t have curtains hung in most of our rooms yet.
Although we do have them in Clara’s room…
We also hung the curtains that Sherry sewed for our last dining room in the guest room.
We owe you guys photos of how each room is looking these days, so Sherry’s planning to shoot some pictures for you this weekend and write a “one month in” post for Monday. And speaking of the lady wife, we were just talking about how the first few months in a house always feel like you’re bleeding money. Seriously, someone get us a tourniquet. So although this is our third house and we should know how this goes by now (addressing all those do-this-first items just seem to add up) we still find ourselves walking out of Home Depot saying things like “Over $300?! Are these blinds made of gold?!”
P.S. Since Google Reader is breaking up with all of us in four short days (aka: closing down forever) we’ve been forced to find a new reader, so we’ve converted over to Feedly (it imported all of our favorite blogs really easily and we liked its clean layout) but we’ve also heard good things about Bloglovin. So this is just a little “remember the milk” reminder, except it’s “remember to switch readers because Google’s about to dump us all.”
Rosie S says
I have to agree with the money issue…we bought a brand NEW house and I chuckle any time people say, “Oh, a new house! You don’t need to do a thing!” and I say, oh no, we need to do EVERYTHING!!! We learned that from the last new house we bought…this house’s money bonanzas include a deck, landscaping AND gutters! Up here in the north, some people do not put gutters on due to ice dam issues, so the builders rarely put them on new houses. We are getting them…a winter of sliding down the driveway’s melted snow refreeze was enuf for me to say I would rather chance a torn out eave than a torn out knee. :( We put the exact same blinds in our house and I love them…we will probably upgrade them in the future, but I could live with them indefinitely! We ordered them online thru e-bates to save a bit of cash. And we had to have almost every one cut…but we had a retired math teacher as the cutter, so he measured with extra preciseness! Imagine THAT luck!!!! Looking good! Can’t wait to see more!
YoungHouseLove says
So lucky! And oh man, I always forget ebates! I need to put a sticky note on my computer!
xo
s
Callie says
Looking good! My husband likes the privacy but I don’t like blinds, so we went mostly with curtains in our last house that we could open in the morning and close at night. I loved it :) I suppose for high sunshine spots it might not do the trick as well as blinds, but it keeps the windows looking so big and open!
Leah says
I’ve been spending a lot of necessary money lately, and I know it can get very stressful. Try to remember it’s all for a “good cause” and is going to make your house so much more functional and “home-y.” : )
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Leah! You’re so sweet.
xo
s
Mary | lemongroveblog says
It’s all those little things, isn’t it? We were lucky enough to inherit some nice blinds in our current place, but the last one certainly set us back quite a bit. Room by room, you’ll get there!
Kristine C. says
Blinds were our first purchase when we bought our home. We sprung for bass wood blinds because it’s a standard in our neighborhood and we paid $1300 for them (custom fitted and installed). I think $350 is a steal if you ended up with a final product that you’re happy with!!
Kristine C. says
^^That was for 11 windows as well.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Kristine! Yours sound gorgeous!
xo
s
Whitney says
Thanks for the Feedly recommendation! Just downloaded the app for my ipad and it seems pretty easy to use!
YoungHouseLove says
So glad!
xo
s
Stacy says
I would have loved wood or faux wood blinds for our windows but sadly our windows are all different sizes and the wood blinds were just too big. We ended up getting custom roman blinds for every room – 11 windows total. We put light blocking in the 3 bedrooms and light filtering in all the other rooms and went with a neutral beige linen shade for all the rooms. We usually leave them half up throughout the house during the day and put them down completely at night for privacy. I’m going to miss them when we go to our new home. I’m hopeful that the window treatments will stay with the new house – they have beautiful cellular shades in all the upstairs rooms and they look great! I’ll be sad if I need to buy window treatments, considering how much we had to spend on the ones in our current home.
Jackie says
“Over $300?! Are these blinds made of gold?!” Haha, this is our go to line for all things expensive.
Thanks for your comments about the money bleed. We moved in to our 2nd home, first fixer-upper in mid April, we actually couldn’t live in it for the first month and a half-it was that bad. I am starting to feel like our money bleed is coming to an end, hopefully, but it felt good to see in print that everyone goes through the same thing.
Belinda says
What a difference a country makes. I’m sitting here in Australia going “$350?? That’s the bargain of the century!”. Even on sale you’d be struggling to get 3 of those blinds for that price over here.
Meanwhile, blind jealousy aside, I’m loving the new house.
Fiona @ Jackadaw says
I was thinking the same thing! I like these blinds and am layering them with curtains fora beachy interior this time around but with three huge picutre windows and a double size kitchen window it’s definately not cheap. And I love that fancy finishing strip instead of the plain flat cover strips we get. Truth be told I’d rather have plantation shutters but they wouldn’t suit the style of our current house and I’m not anywhere close to being able to afford these.
Lili says
you’re famous in Brazil:
http://www.2beauty.com.br/blog/2013/06/27/nao-e-make-mas-e-demais-young-house-love/#idc-container
we love you… xo
YoungHouseLove says
No way! Amazing! We love you right back.
xo
s
Megan says
I swear you guys are in my head these days. I am just starting to shop for blinds myself and was thinking “darn, I wish YHL had a post on blinds but they’ve never done one.” Literally, this thought crossed my brainwaves this very day.
Here’s a “what would John & Sherry do” question for you – I have 3 windows side by side in my living room like one giant window that’s 86″ wide. I think I want one big blind instead of 3 smaller ones but it would be a special order and therefore more $$. WDYT?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, I agree that one big one would look awesome. Maybe check overstock.com or other online sites for a deal? Good luck Megan!
xo
s
Laura Jinkins says
Not to “butt” in here, but I would advise against doing one big blind for several reasons:
1. A blind that width is at risk of sagging in the middle over time;
2. A blind that width will be very difficult to raise and lower due to the weight of the blind;
3. The weight will put undue stress on the components inside the headrail; and
4. Manufacturers, as a rule, will not warranty a blind outside their recommended dimensions.
You could look at doing a 3-on-1 (three blinds from the same headrail, each with their own controls, but a common valance that pulls everything together — and it would have warranty coverage. You also might consider doing a roller shade — there are marvelous decorator fabrics available now, and a chain operated clutch control roller bar makes raising and lowering the shade easy peasy. The brand I sell is made by Mariak — they are to the trade only, but you could look at their website to get some ideas of what’s available. :)
Brenda says
Completely off topic, but not sure if you two watch Big Brother on CBS but omg Sherry, you look like one of the contestants, Kaitlin! I trued adding an image n couldn’t but please Google her! I know I won’t b the only one telling you this :)
YoungHouseLove says
Someone else said that yesterday. So funny! I’ll have to google her!
xo
s
Erica says
I WISH I could pay $350 for 11 windows! Not in my house! :-( I actually really like those blinds for my kitchen, but I am pretty sure that, if I recall correctly, they don’t come long enough for my windows. :-( I have to order everything custom made if I want ready-made blinds. If I were to buy 1 roman shade, it would be around $350. So I am totally thankful that my mom is a pretty amazing seamstress and knows how to make roman shades! We got the hardware online pretty inexpensively, and they go up and down really easily.
Originally, my house came with ripped up, yellowed roller shades that I got rid of ASAP even though most of my house still only has curtains and no shades or blinds! I have 4 windows with a shade, and 7 without, plus 4 doors. My house is still causing me to bleed money, and I’ve lived here almost 4 years! There is still so much to do! I totally feel your pain!
Fiona @ Jackadaw says
You guys are so lucky on the pricking and the fancy moulding. Here in Australia the cheapest I’ve found the smallest size of thes is about $70 each. We have 3 massive picture windows in our home and blinds for each window are about $250 … and the moulding is just a flat boring cover strip, not the nice fancy one that you have.
Katie H says
Just want to say that I LOVE your post titles. They always make me smile!
Sally says
Love the blinds and can’t wait to see the pictures Sherry plans on taking of how the rooms are coming together so far!
This may be a stupid question, but I’m fairly new to the whole blog reading thing…right now I get your blog via my email (Gmail) so I don’t know what the whole Google reader disappearing will mean for me. Will I still get an email? If someone can shed some light for me, that would be lovely!
Thanks:)
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, you should still get your email. Google Reader should only affect those who go to the Google Reader website to read our blog.
-John
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah, we realized that – we weren’t saying it was a mistake on the manufacturers part, just a hiccup based on our personal installation location.
-John
Meredith says
I know what you mean about “bleeding money” after moving into a home. When we moved into our first house last year it was awful, it really hurts!
Johonna says
Hey there….
I’m looking at and lovin’ that little white dresser/nightstand behind Burger in your blinds picture. I tried to find it on the resources in previous house #2 but couldn’t. Can you help a girl out? Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Sure! That’s from Joss & Main about a year and a half ago I think. Hope it helps!
xo
s
bethany says
“blinds made out of gold”: this is totally something my husband would say too…. I think we have turned into our parents! LOL
Vicki says
We did lot of these blind installs and found that if you are taking out slats for length adjustment you should trim the strings longer than the length you need and then twist the ends of the strings together and use some Elmer’s white glue or some fingernail polish (color doesn’t matter since they will be capped…
that drys and keeps the ends together so they don’t bunch up/fuzz and not go through the bottom rail…
don’t need much because a glob might keep strings from going through the hole in the bottom rail…just enough to make them stick together…
You can try wetting them with water but if they are still wet they can stick going though the hole and bunch/fray…
you want all the strings to be same tension…
YoungHouseLove says
Great tip!
xo
s
Wendy says
I echo the bleeding money! We’ve been in our fixer upper for six months now and just recently had to sit down and have a serious budget talk. I think the hard thing is that we have so many great ideas it’s hard to be patient and wait. We’re DIYers so no one thing is extremely expensive but even $50 here and there adds up fast.
Tracey says
I!m about to have a heart attack! For we less techy people,what do you mean Google Reader is dropping all of us? What do I need to continue reading my favorite blog?!!!! I seriously can’t live a day without you guys.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, sorry to freak you out Tracey! If you go to younghouselove.com to read our blog then you’re all good! That’s just a note for people who subscribe to a lot of blogs via google reader (and read them over there). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Celia Rodriguez says
Too funny! We just replaced our broken blinds with some sheer curtains. I just started a blog and I wrote a post about it.
http://lifeonmaplestreet.wordpress.com/2013/06/28/blinds-curtains/http://lifeonmaplestreet.wordpress.com/2013/06/28/blinds-curtains/
Thanks for the inspiration YHL, you ROCK!
Celia
YoungHouseLove says
Woot! Go Celia!
xo
s
Carissa says
I hear you on the bleeding money part. We just moved apartments (one bedroom to a two bedroom) and I feel like I’m constantly spending money. I don’t know how you’re managing with a house!
It’s really coming together though and can’t wait for the new pictures!
Becky says
New blinds are on our to do list five years in to the house. It’s always nice to see different options. Thanks for sharing!
Jackie Toye says
I just admire the way you guys are “dressing up” the house without having painted the walls the color you want. I’m actually *giggling* looking at the door outline on the wall from you painted them white.
I would need a straight jacket by now …. but that’s another post for another blog, preferrably an mental health one. haha
Great job and you’re such an inspiration.
Thanks for sharing (can’t say that enough)
Kate says
Love the white faux wood blinds! After we moved into our house, we added them as we redid a room. You do need to be careful about the slats up or down debate. In our second floor rooms, if the slats are up, you can see in. so we keep slats down for more privacy. I had my hubby go outside and do a check as i changed the direction. Slats up give more light blocking though!
YoungHouseLove says
So interesting!
xo
s
Kate @ This Wandering Life says
Hi Sherry & John! Is Clara sleeping in her big girl bed? And I completely understand about hemorrhaging money during a move… We’re doing the same thing! Definitely feel you on that one. -Kate
YoungHouseLove says
Her crib and bed are in her room but she still prefers her crib so we’re taking her lead :)
xo,
s
Jen says
Have you seen this?!!! I thought these looked familiar!
http://www.bhg.com/rooms/home-office/storage/home-office-storage/#page=1
YoungHouseLove says
So funny! Same curtains!
xo
s
Gee says
I love using blinds though you have to be careful which way you tilt them. My house is close to the street and if you tip them one way a passer-by could see in. Noboby wants to see me getting undressed!
Patricia Miller says
I just bought my first house in December and boy can I relate with the whole “bleeding money” concept! I also recently bought wooden shades (I went with bamboo though). I did a LOT of shopping around and I ended up going with SelectBlinds.com. Have you heard of them? They send free samples and cut the blinds exactly to your specifications. I couldn’t go with blinds from Home Depot or Lowes because my windows weren’t the standard sizes. I ended up spending 1/3 of what I was quoted for custom – and I’m really happy with the quality! Just wanted to share in case anyone else is in the market.
YoungHouseLove says
That sounds awesome!
xo
s
Rebekah :) says
Hi Petersiks!
I’m fairly new to the blog and have been catching up the past few months. You guys are amazing, the way you see things—amazing! I fell in love with both your past 2 homes. Amazing, amazing!! I love seeing how you see things and the beauty way beforehand… and how you think. I adore so many things about your taste, love for life, and fam. An inspiration through and through! So much love to you guys!
Thanks for sharing so openly about everything. The honesty and down-to-earth-ness is so relatable. I feel so connected to you guys and your homes! Seriously virtually hospitable!
Love it and am so happy for you guys in all your success and celebratory love coming your way…even how the bigwigs are recognizing your amazing transformational power to imagine and figure out a way to do it all! So cool how you guys are so made to do this-and so talented!
Just wanted to say all this since I’ve grown to just love, love this blog and you guys as such good people.
Best of everything! Love being on this journey with you guys!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much Rebekah! You’re so sweet!
xo
s
Rachel @ My Urban Oven says
I just bought these same blinds for my bathroom. Love the look! I never put up the side pieces because they were too long. Maybe I will get them cut down too… project for later.
I love the way these look, in your house and mine!!
Amelia says
Are those hung in old windows (ie, are those the old metal window tracks I see) ? Di this pose any sort of challenge? We have decided those won’t work in our house, but we would love for them to.
YoungHouseLove says
They’re metal storm windows that we liked dark so we left them unpainted. They just did the window trim and windowsills around them, which saved us money (taking them down and painting all the window millions would have been a lot more labor/time for them.
xo
s
Ariana says
Thanks for the very useful post! I’m thinking of putting these in our new house… Just dbl checking – for the look that you went for, you did the ‘inside’ the frame measurement to get the right sizes, yes? I think our widows are standard, but am going to measure again to be 100% sure!!
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, we measured the inside (from frame to frame on the inside of the window) and used that measurement to buy the shades!
xo
s
Zoua says
How do you guys feel about your wide window blinds not having a common valance? I originally estimated our blinds (total of 10) to be a little over $500, but with them being not-standard sizes, it’s actually going to be a little over $1000… ahh!! I guess I prefer the blinds to have a continuous valance to look seamless (as if they were really part of a 3-on-1 headrail blinds) and just wanted to see what you thought.
YoungHouseLove says
We love curtains hung on a nice wide rod but I don’t think we’re really valance people. It’s such a personal preference thing though!
xo
s
Amber says
Two questions: any reason why you went with white blinds vs wood tones? And any reason you bought inside mounting ones over ones that would extend past the window sides or top?
YoungHouseLove says
It’s all personal preference but we like the look of faux wood blinds in white that are inside mounted – but we love outside mounted bamboo blinds!
xo
s
Allisen says
Sorry for a comment on a such an old post, I’m catching up on my reading today. :)
In your first house, all of your bamboo shades were outside mounted higher than the window frame and in your second house you did an inside mount. I’m having trouble deciding which to choose for all of our main floor windows and was wondering if you have an reasoning behind which way you choose. Also, which way do you think you will go in the new house on the main floor inside our outside? Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
For white faux wood we like inside mounted but for bamboo we like high and wide like the curtain rod.
xo,
s
Ann Shirley says
Your new blinds look really great! It sounds like they were a lot of work, but worth it. I am going to be purchasing some faux wood blinds for my living room soon. I agree they aren’t the prettiest blinds, but you definitely get your money’s worth with them because of their durability.
Laura says
How far into the window did you mount the brackets for the the blinds? I like the look of inside mount blinds, but I’m not sure it will work for my windows. I only have 3/4″ of wood, and I found a website that says you need a minimum of 1.5″. From the photos in the post, it looked like your windows didn’t have too much mounting space either. Any tips?
YoungHouseLove says
We just went in as much as we could. Probably around an inch, and although they come forward a bit, they still don’t come forward as much as much as the windowsill, so they seem to look balanced.
xo
s
Anje says
When you shared this post I whacked my forehead and said “This has been driving me nuts!” and “I can do this!” Well, yesterday I took my tablet in the bathroom (where the blinds are) so that I had your trusty instructions (kind of like hand-holding) and got it done! The I proceeded to announce to everyone in the house while marching and high-fiving that I “DIYed!” Thank you!!!!!! I no longer have heavy, dust-filled blinds (8 years whole years they waited.