A Master Bedroom post – could it be??! 
I took off time from working on the bedroom during the holidays and a insanely busy December, then I got bronchitis for 2 weeks in January and the winter blues sort of hit. And the master bathroom has been an easier-to-accomplish and easier-to-see-the-finished-pretty-after so I have been focusing on finishing that. Now that it is finished (final reveal coming next week), it is time to move back to the bedroom and finish it. I may talk a bit about this later but I think I have had sort a hesitation on working on the bedroom too because I have wanted a pretty bedroom for so long after never having one and I have this beautiful picture of what I want it to look like in my mind but wary of the fact of if I can make it happen. Yes DIY and decorating fear is real! And so many projects depend on other things or other projects – need it to be warm outside so I can finally paint the last dresser, need the shelves in corner to be finished so I can get the TV and other décor pieces out of bins and off the floor, needed new blinds before I could hang curtains, need to decide on what color curtains will be before I decide on headboard color/pattern or vice versa… LOL! And that’s just this room – let’s not talk about furniture that needs to play musical chairs all throughout the rest of the house. Please tell me I am not the only one that goes through this!
Ok… so I am back to taking it one slow step at a time… blinds were first on the list!
When my husband and I bought our first home (this house) almost 10 years ago we were just barely still newly weds, we needed to buy several appliances, install new carpet/tile in the entire house, paint the entire interior, buy a lawnmower, and we had no living room furniture either. So needless to say the money was stretched very thin… There were no blinds in the entire house so we bought the cheapest $2-3 blinds at Wal-mart or Home Depot and installed them upstairs in the bedrooms for privacy. We actually lived with no blinds downstairs for a while as I saved up room by room by having yard sales, birthday money, selling decorated cakes, or some kind of side job and bought 2” faux blinds one room at a time over a year’s time for downstairs. I really wanted to have quality, functional, pretty blinds throughout our house even if it took some saving and waiting to get them.
So now we have 10 year old cheap mind blinds upstairs and they all need to be replaced. They are yellowed, brittle, and the ones in this corner in our bedroom were broken and just trash. By the way – the faux wood ones I first bought 10 years ago in the living room have gotten more use and abuse than these and you can’t tell one bit. Faux wood versus plastic mini blinds is just no comparison.
I was introduced to Payless Décor this past year and really loved their products. Rhoda from Southern Hospitality installed beautiful roman bamboo blinds from them in her house which I just loved. Her bedroom post is here and kitchen post is here.
I would love to use bamboo blinds in a future house but for this one I am keeping it consistent with the white slatted faux wood blinds. Happy day when these boxes showed up on my door step!
Inside were beautiful white wood blinds.
I emailed them with the exact dimensions of my windows and they were able to make /cut me custom faux wood blinds sized perfectly for my windows. You can get other faux wood blinds cut to fit the width but the length doesn’t always match and I have never been successful at trying to take out the extra slats so usually have a stack of extra slats at the bottom.
I hadn’t even bothered to paint inside the window opening when I painted the room because I knew I had to replace these blinds. So I took the old ones down, painted the window opening, waited for it to dry, and then installed the new ones. I was able to install them all by myself, using my Ryobi drill, and they were all done in about 30 minutes – very easy!
Here is one of the blinds installed… but I wanted to show you the difference the finishing trim piece on the top makes…
Here’s after installing the top trim header piece – just so pretty and such a finished look! My other faux wood blinds that I have downstairs have a trim piece that you clip on too BUT it isn’t near as ornate or pretty looking AND the clear plastic clips that hold it on show on the top and bottom. These are held on the same way – with 2 plastic clips – BUT the clips are completely hidden in the back.
So here’s the before and after…
Before…
After! Sorry for the night shots but trying to take pictures of windows during the day is very hard.
Another thing I love is instead of having the plastic rod that you turn to open the blinds, these have cords that you pull to open/shut the blinds. Prettier and easier to use! I am an “open all the blinds in the house as soon as I step out of bed” kind of person – LOVE tons of light – so these get lots of use.
So I am in the midst of trying to decide on curtains now… And loving that the finishing trim is so pretty since it will show because I love to hang my curtains high and wide. And you can see the difference in how much light they block out from the open shade on the left and the closed shade on the right.
You can check out Payless Décor here to see all the different options they have. I found that their prices were very comparative to any of the big box stores BUT the quality was much nicer and the fact that you can get them custom sized and delivered right to your door was a huge bonus.
What kind of blinds do you have in your house? And you are welcome to weigh in on which curtains you like – I think I have picked my favorite but going to have to do a bit of a “project” to make them happen for my room.
Hi Christina, love the paint color, would you mind telling me what it is? Christine from Little Brags
It think the faux wood blinds are such a great impact. Last year we replaced all our cheep-o blinds in the house with faux ones from Lowe’s and I love the look!! Keep posting I enjoy your ideas.
Super lovely!!!
I vote for the sheer curtains in the last photo….. so pretty and “spring-y”.
You are definitely not alone! I think everyone goes through this to some extent (unless they have gobs of money) AND it can be anxiety-attack-producing when certain projects are dependent on the completion of others and the weather.
I like the first picture of curtains, the one on the right. I feel like it really goes with the rest of the room.
We installed faux wood blinds in all of the rooms in our house except the living room and our bedroom. (I wanted sheers in both of these rooms and will also use sheers in the loft bedroom in order to keep that same, soft look consistent with the all the windows that are on the front of the house.) However, I do love the chunky look of the faux wood slats. Classic and beautiful. Great job, Christina….now you just have to decide which curtain to choose. (I am awful with curtain decisions. Lol.)
The new blinds look a lot better than the old ones with the broken slats at the bottom. The one thing I love about new blinds is that they don’t have any dust on them. For some reason blinds are notorious for getting dust on them that never comes off. I had to clean the blinds the other day and it took me a while to clean off every single one. They looked amazing when they were done, but at the end I almost wished I just bought new blinds.
I can’t believe how much of a difference the wooden blinds made once they were installed. The quality of your blinds can really have an astounding affect on your house. They add so much value and appeal.
The faux wood blinds looks great Christina! Some great images too.. You have a beautiful home 🙂
Christina, those blinds are beautiful! I’ve been thinking about getting mine redone. My cat likes to hide in them, so you can imagine that they don’t look very nice. I like the blinds with a twistable adjusting stick; I don’t want my cat playing with the string!
Lily de Grey |
I have metal blinds like the ones you had previously. Are the wooden slatted ones really nice? My biggest concern is how well they attract dust. I really hope that they don’t accumulate dust very much.
I’ve tried placing faux wood blinds on both my kids bedroom and in our room. It feel so elegant and comfy to look at. But every morning, I would find the blinds on the floor or the strings snapped-out. I don’t know if my kids are thinking it’s some kind of a toy or they hate something hanging on the window. They love the morning sun and they are both clever. I think it’s a waste to place another batch of blinds in our home. Maybe in the future, I would love to try this.
These are lovely ideas! I loved the simplicity of white blinds. I’ll definitely try this one. Thanks for the inspirations.
I think wooden blinds look great in a house. To me it gives a warmness to the house. They do a great job open and shut. I do like the pullers you use to open them, much more reliable.
Just a year back, I purchased a totally wretched home which was looking quite awkward but I decided to renovate it and very soon I created the most beautiful home with excellent bedroom and kitchen design that actually made my place worth-seeing and worth-living.
And definitely next time I’m going to apply some of the above given ideas to my own bedroom.
Thanks for share!!
I really like the trim header piece you added to your blinds! I’ve always had trouble figuring what to do with the big block at the top of my blinds. However, installing a trim that just clips on sounds fantastic, and it makes such a big difference. Thanks for the idea!
Wooden shutters are much more beautiful and sophisticated. I have room in my house and love, combined with all the furniture and my style.
Hey, thanks for sharing such great tips, Gave me lots of amazing ideas for my bedroom
Nice job with the shutters! I just had plantation shutters installed in my home and I love the look of them.
I want to get some new blinds in my master and guest bathroom. It is good to know that fake wood blinds will be a lot more durable than plastic ones. That is great for me to know because I don’t have a huge amount of money to get new blinds, but I still want them to be durable.
I have read your blog its really good.