Once in a while something about our house will just start to bug me, and I feel compelled to immediately act on it. In this case, it was deciding I didn't like our kitchen curtains anymore and desiring a cleaner, more streamlined look. Enter: bamboo shades. I also decided the living room could benefit from bamboo shades as well--- I'm with Tracey, I love the look of bamboo shades and light curtains.
A stop at Walmart on my way home one day, led to the impulse purchase of 5 bamboo blinds. The hardest thing was waiting the full next day for Luke to help me hang them up. I'm really not a fan of having to rely on Luke's skills to complete projects, like I had to with this one. Rather, I prefer being able to stay up until midnight completing a project if I want to, like this one. I really should learn how to saw and drill...but I'm not sure if that would be safe for anyone.
The shade selection process was easy, Wal-Mart had a limited selection of only these shades, but I liked the way they looked and luckily there was just enough of all the right sizes. I had taken the measurements of all of the windows prior to my "spontaneous" trip for shades, and I wasn't too concerned on getting perfect, custom-sized shades. I knew I could mount the shades for the odder shaped kitchen windows either outside or inside the window trim, depending on the fit, and I'd be happy with the look. For example, the living room windows measured 28" inside the trim, so the 27" shades would leave a half-inch gap on either side, but I was fine with the slight gapping since it would be hidden by the curtains on either side anyways.
The cost was $23 for the 27" shades for the living room, and $34 for the two larger 48" shades for the kitchen. The total cost was $150 for all 5 shades - which is a lot to spend all at once by
It took us about 2 hours to hang them--with some of that time spent goofing off and me not being the greatest assistant to Luke. I did the measuring, marking, and taping of the handy guide provided, while Luke did the drilling and installing. While Luke stepped outside for a moment, I grew impatient and tried to use the drill myself -- very unsuccessfully. I kept letting the drill slip and completely stripped the screw, surrounding the mount with tiny little marks that look like badly aimed, misfired bullet holes. We all have our strengths.
Once they were up we were both excited and loved the way they looked, and both agreed it majorly changed the way both our kitchen and living room looked. I love that I am married to a man who appreciates these types of things!
So here is the living room with regular, white blinds before:
And after:
A couple other little changes were made, in addition to the addition of bamboo shades, mainly because I can't stop rearranging picture frames everywhere all the time. But I think the shades bring such a nice added texture to the room. Something about the room kept nagging at me but I couldn't put my finger on what it was-- I couldn't even make a To Do List for it! There wasn't anything in-your-face horrible about the room, but replacing the plastic shades with bamboo made me realize that I think the room was just too flat. I think the shades are a nice step to adding more dynamic and texture to our living room.
And as for the kitchen....
I sadly can't find a before photo, but the bamboo shades replaced floral curtains which I had actually made from 3 Target tablecloths. The curtains ended up not really being a look I enjoyed in the kitchen.
And after- a definitely more polished, sleeker look than the big, billowy curtains before.
We also both agreed it was a victory that we completed this project without killing each other-- that's they type of loving relationship we have :) Small victory, compared to a slight yelling match that took place during our mirror reframing project in which at one point I actually said to him: "John and Sherry do NOT act like this when they work on DIY projects together!!!!"
Looks AWESOME! I love the new frames in the living room too. :)
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