A couple months ago I read a piece of home buying advice that I wished I had heard back before we bought our house in 2006. The author of the article was talking about the hidden costs of buying a home and at the top of her list was “count the damn windows”. Her point being that lots of light may be awesome during the day, and may even be the reason you fell in love with the house, but at night and during early morning, window coverings are going to be essential.
Obviously, I did not follow her advice before we bought, and it wasn’t two days into home ownership that I was kicking myself. Thousands were spent on window treatments right when we were already strapped for cash after moving. Once we had all the blinds, shades, and drapes we needed for the necessary rooms, we decided to wait on the rest. But, then when the guest room became a nursery in 2007, and we realized we would eventually need a solution in there, too. By 2011 I was still scarred from the window treatments shopping that I still hadn’t gotten around to getting a permanent solution for controlling the amount of light that was now waking my toddler far too early each day.
A few weeks ago Blinds.com came to my rescue, offering me a chance to finally complete my baby nursery – for my now 3 year old! After spending some time on the site I thought I knew what I was going to order and was ready to buy some white faux wood blinds when I started debating about whether I wanted to go with a contrast cotton tape, cordless, or traditional corded blinds. Because my daughter’s room has a very specific color scheme and already has white furniture in it, I decided to take the advice from Blinds.com and order a few free samples of the wood colors and cloth tape colors we were considering.
I was so excited when the samples arrived promptly, and even more so that they came in a plastic portfolio case {great for taking shopping or when decorating} and with a coupon to use for your order. Can I just say how awesome that is? I’ve ordered blinds samples before from other window treatment companies in order to match the wood grain in our upstairs TV room and never have I been so impressed with a company’s delivery.
After seeing the wood samples and cloth samples, I was incredibly happy I ordered them. It’s hard to get the nuances of wood grain and color schemes when shopping online, especially since computer monitors can vary so greatly, hence why they recommend ordering samples before committing to purchasing.
Once I had the samples in my daughter’s room, we realized that the color we had originally decided on was not the best match for the rest of her wood furniture and that going for a matching cloth tape instead of a contrasting color would probably be the best for her to “grow” with considering she might eventually grow out of her garden mural {sniff, sniff} and want a different color scheme entirely. Having a more neutral palette would definitely be preferable to having to replace a perfectly good window treatment on color alone.
After we figured out the perfect color and measured {twice}, it was just a few minutes on the Blinds.com site to choose all the features we wanted on our new window treatments. Once ordered, we got the blinds promptly and couldn’t wait to get them up to stop the early morning wake ups. The blinds were easy to hang and it was minutes of prep before they were secured in place, the cord child-proofed, and valance installed.
As soon as we got the blinds up in her room, I know we made the right choice in terms of color and type of treatment as the blinds blend seamlessly into her room décor – not distracting at all, but still very elegant and clean. As beautiful as they looked once installed, I really wasn’t expecting my daughter to love them as much as she does. She has a pretty adorable room, complete with custom mural and HearthSong Pink Wooden Kitchen, but once those blinds went up she was over the moon excited and was raving about her “special room”… had I known that new blinds would make her adore her room this much, we would have ordered from Blinds.com years earlier!
Thinking about getting some new window treatments for the New Year but not sure what to buy? Check out their handy Blind-Finder, which can walk you through all of your choices and help you find the best fit for your house. Bonus: you can get some great deals on Bali blinds and shades through the rest of this year. Wouldn't 15% off look wonderful in your bedroom/bathroom/kitchen/livingroom?
A big thank you to Blinds.com for sending a blind to review as part of the Blinds MOB group. All opinions remain 100% ours and no form of monetary compensation was received in exchange for this Rave Review.
