Ever heard the old saying, “the cobbler’s children have no shoes?” That applies to blinds as well. “The Blinds.com blogger has no blinds.” I meant to get around to getting new blinds for our home, but it kept getting pushed off, as so many home improvement projects do in favor of prime time TV & surfing the internet.
Like many of you, we are having houseguests for Thanksgiving, which we’re really looking forward to. My husband’s cousin Tiffany will be staying with us, and we wanted to make sure her stay was as comfortable as possible. Although our guest bedroom is cozy, it’s had light filtering shades in it since we moved in, which are not always ideal for bedrooms. They filter light instead of block it, and make it impossible to sleep late. I think anyone who’s stayed in that room before can vouch for how bright it gets in the morning. So to prepare for her arrival, we set out to buy some blinds.
I’ve installed blinds many times, but I’ve had a few mishaps over the years. In college, I ordered a blind for our college dorm room and accidentally cut the strings that run through the blind, making it impossible to raise and lower. On the plus side, since the blind never raised, it allowed us to sleep until 3 pretty much every Saturday and Sunday, like any good college student. This time, I wanted to make sure we ordered the right product and installed it properly.
We decided to go with Blinds.com 3/8″ Double Cell Blackout shades with Top Down/Bottom Up upgrade. I requested expedited shipping, which is an additional $5, and they arrived speedily, in TWO days. They were packaged well and came out of the box easily. I loved the color I chose; they matched the crown molding nicely. The instructions were clear. We set out to install.
We drilled the brackets into the ceiling, which took all of five minutes. The blinds came wrapped in a rubber band, which we left around them while we installed, so they didn’t hang down. As soon as they were snapped in place, we cut the rubber bands off and lowered them. They looked fab. One was a little shorter than the other, but I think it was because it needed some time to breathe. I checked on it this morning and it had relaxed a bit, making it the same length as the other one.
We noticed that the pull cords used to lower the blinds were REALLY long, so we cut the excess string and moved the tassel up about a foot. That took another two minutes.
All in all, the time it took to order the blind, take it out of the box and install it was about 30 minutes. Even I, as am employee of Blinds.com, couldn’t get over how surprisingly easy the process was. If my husband and I can do it, you can too!
