We first brought home a pair of white faux wood blinds back when were decorating the nursery (since a nice dark room sounded like a good idea when it came to encouraging some serious pee-wee shut eye). The ironic thing is that literally for years we’ve been dying to bring them into our very own bedroom. See, the window above the bed was never covered, and although the sun doesn’t rise on that side of the house we knew it could definitely stand to get darker with the help of some sort of rolling or slatted blind. Plus the other window in the room had the original plastic roller shade that came with the house (it very well could have been 50+ years old- and it was yellowed and stained to prove it). Nasty.
But there was one great thing about the grody old roller shade: it tucked up under our more eye-pleasing white roman shade from Ikea, so we got the benefit of some light blockage and privacy when it was pulled down, and during the day it was up and 100% invisible. However, as we mentioned, we wanted to cover that small window above the bed- just for a darker night’s sleep. And we were also compelled to replace that crusty old roller shade on the other window while we were at it… which is where two more pairs of custom-cut-to-fit (it’s a free service!) white faux wood blinds from Home Depot came in:
But let’s rewind. Here’s that crusty old pull-down roller shade that we mentioned (after we removed the fabric roman shade in order to work some blind-switcheroo magic):
And here’s the window once we removed that nasty old shade and popped our new custom cut faux wood blind in its place:
But you might notice they’re a bit too long for the window, and any extra slats can make raising and lowering it a bit cumbersome since they add unnecessary weight and bulk. So John just followed the simple instructions that came with the blinds which indicated how to remove those extra slats for an even more custom fit:
And then he rehung our cheap-o Ikea roman shade back in place (so we can pull up the faux wood blinds to completely hide them during the day and lower them at night for privacy and a darker night’s sleep).
So that’s how we added a ton of very welcome darkness to our bedroom that can be pulled up (and totally hidden) so no one’s the wiser. It feels a whole lot more adult of us than the dirty old roller shade did, and we like bringing in common elements throughout our house (especially when it comes to the windows). So we love that we now have these babies in two out of three of our home’s bedrooms.
Oh and even though there’s nothing that we can tuck the blinds behind on the smaller window behind the bed, we’ve found that when they’re pulled up they’re virtually undetectable since they’re the same crisp white color as the molding around the window, so they really blend in. And of course we love how deliciously dark our bedroom is in the morning now. The difference really is night and day.
So that’s our latest tiny tweak in the bedroom. Have you guys been doing anything to block light, dress windows, or otherwise add function to your sleeping spaces? Any other window makeovers that you’re tackling around the house? Do tell.
Very nice!
Those are the same blinds we have (affordable, adjustable and functional- perfect!).
Such a simple solution! We have the same nasty old roller shades throughout our house–some are even duct taped because they’ve ripped! C’mon, really?! I’m sending your post to my husband right now :-)
nice choices — light and airy but will still provide the cave you need to sleep well. waiting for stores to restock their roman shades as I need a set–like Penny’s. Ikea is 8 hours away.
Nice. We have white wood blinds in our bedroom, although they don’t block a whole lot of light, I do like the look of them. Thanks for tip on shortening them to make them easier to pull up.
Well done with your new blinds! We have a guy from Smith and Noble coming to measure our windows today. We’re doing some cost comparison between them and Lowe’s custom order natural woven shades from Levolor. Our windows are such that we could buy right off the shelf (no strange sized windows,) but we need a top down/bottom up option on one set of windows, so that means custom order. We also can’t decide on whether to add the white privacy liner for from-the-street uniformity.
Oh, and totally off the subject, I just bought those brown/blue/green ring hand towels from Target that you showed in your Spring Target-hunting post. I love them in our downstairs bath because: 1. They don’t show dirt; 2. They match the current pale blue bathroom color; and 3. They will still match the new pale green color that will be on the walls once we paint the bathroom to match the kitchen color (Sherwin Williams “Ancient Marble,” which I know you guys like.)
I have to give these a good review too. My husband an I have the exact same blinds in our master bedroom. They only took about 10 minutes to “custom” cut them @ the Depot and they were waaay cheaper than the real custom blinds. Our windows are both about 5 feet wide so it only cost about $50 each from what I remember. They are pretty thick so they block a ton of light. I finally figured out how to clean them, too. I used to open them and wipe each slat but that took f-o-r-e-v-e-r so now I just close them and wipe the entire thing down with a towel. Easy peasy.
Thanks for the great cleaning tip Liz!
xo,
s
I love your breezy white roman shades. Does anyone know when more roman shade options will become available again in stores? I assume they’re so scarce because of the recalls. Target doesn’t have any and neither does Ikea, and I haven’t found any I like at JCPenney.
Oooh, I love these blinds!
Can you explain a little more about the custom-fit (but free cut) part? I’d love to replace all of our equally crusty roller shades and/or metal mini-blinds in our upstairs rooms but have been hesitant to because I knew they’d all require custom sizes! This looks like a perfect solution.
Kara- It’s pretty simple. Home Depot sells these blinds in a bunch of standard sizes but for free they’ll shave them down to fit pretty much any window with a big blind-cutting machine they have on hand… just like a custom shade (but it’s free). Visit your local Home Depot for more details!
Jen- Yup, it’s all due to those cord recalls, but companies are usually fast about adding in an adapter kit to allow them to hit the shelves again soon. Stay tuned…
Carol- Pillows migrate around our house so while none of the ones on the bed are new, they all get switched around so you’ve probably never seen this combo. We just try to keep it interesting!
xo,
s
Love the white wooden blinds! And, is that a new pillow on your bed?
Love them! We have the same ones in our living room. I’d love to add them throughout the house; guess I need to do some research!
We put up room-darkening curtains in our daughter’s bedroom when she was a baby (she’s 18 months now!), and it made a huge difference in how long she slept in the morning and for naps! They’re a gorgeous springy green that I can see us using for years, even as the palette in her room changes. Bonus, they’re heat blocking as well, and really help regulate the temp in her room.
those are the same blinds we have too, and they come with a funny story. when we moved into our house, my boyfriend was convinced we had to wash and salvage the blinds it came with because they were real wood and really expensive. they were FILTHY, btw – had never once been cleaned, ever – caked on dirt, etc, plus he forgot to take them down before he sanded the hardwood floors, yuck! so after we move in i get tired of having no blinds on the windows and go to wash them. i scrubbed one 16-inch wide set with an entire mr. clean magic eraser, down to the nubs, and it still wasn’t bright white. as i’m spending quality time with them, i look closer…. every 4th slat has the exact same wood graining. interesting. i look at where the former owner’s dog chewed on a corner of them. just an indentation… no sign of splintering… INTERESTING. i re-hang the one and inform boyfriend of my suspicions. he is sure i am wrong and explains the same patterns to the slats being cut from the same tree. I laugh out loud and cut off a corner of one to reveal… styrofoam. HA! victory is mine! off to home depot we go to get replacements – the exact same kind as the original ones, but ones that we will clean. unlike the previous owners.
yay home depot faux wood blinds! so realistic they fooled my boyfriend, haha.
We have the black trash bags, taped up with painter’s tape, that we slapped up the day we moved in… almost 2 years ago. I wanted to wait until we replaced the windows (done, months ago) and painted (hope to get to this summer), before we chose window treatments. Bad excuse, I know. But they do block a lot of light!
I used the same blinds from Home Depot. They really do make a world of difference (which you can see on my blog here and here). I was surprised that the blinds managed to block plenty of light, and thanks to them not being actual wood, I won’t have to worry about them warping in the Georgia humidity.
I bought several eco blinds last year, but here in Oz they charged me $25 each to cut to size, and that’s just horizontally! I had to cut them to fit the length myself.
Nice!
Although I hate to sleep in darkness ;-)
(I mean, I like to wake up with natural light, it helps my body to feel the right “nauture” time.. sorry, this is too difficult for me to explain in english but I’m sure you got the idea ;-)
My husband and I have these for our house too!! We love them, but I didn’t realize you could cut out the extra slats to make them shorter….the packaging and directions are long gone – do you think you could do a post about how to cut them for a shorter length?!?! Thanks!!!!
Hey Katelyn,
Different models (even of the same blinds from Home Depot) have different instructions, but this post (and the comment section of that post) have the most in depth directions that we have on hand (our directions are gone too, and since they differ for every type of blinds they might not work for everyone anyway). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
What perfect timing! We JUST went to Home Depot on Monday night and bought those same blinds for our upstairs bathroom. We’ve been ‘getting by’ with a flimsy SEE THROUGH curtain that my MIL sewed for my hubby’s old house. We plan to put the blinds up tonight – which will be so nice for our privacy AND probably a relief for our neighbors… :) I wish I would have done this years ago!
I love how cheap the HD blinds are, we used them in almost all our windows in our new house. We threw the boxes and directions out and my husband tackled taking the extra slats off the bottom himself! Only one ended up messed up because he cut the string in the wrong spot. Good to know there were directions!!
Right now I am shopping for fabric to cover the top of the blinds for our dining room. We’re going to build a wood valance and cover it with fabric. here’s the post about starting it: http://reno366.blogspot.com/2010/05/curtains-round-3.html
They look great!
In my last rental apartment I replaced the ugly plastic miniblinds with bamboo shades – and it was worth EVERY penny! I saved a ton though by opting for the cheap unlined blinds. Then I DIY’ed them into insulating and light-blocking blinds in this handy tutorial: http://theborrowedabode.com/2010/04/privacy-please/
Thank you for sharing this post! I now feel like I have your permission or blessing to do this in my home. I’ve been struggling with what to do in our bedrooms to hide the sun in the morning, something that would tuck behind the curtains during the day and look cohesive and consistent from the front of the house.
As for Jen’s question on where to get the roman blinds. IKEA doesn’t seem to carry them right now. JC Penney’s and Lowe’s do. JC Penney’s prices were lower, however, by the time I added shipping, it cost the same as Lowe’s. So my preference was to go to Lowe’s and get some instant gratification of getting them in my little hands immediately.
I am embarrassed to say that in our “nursery” where my 3 and 2 year-old sons sleep, I have foil behind the blinds of the three small transom windows. And on their large window, I have a huge beach towel hanging from a rod over the blinds. I recently took down the beautiful, silk panels that the boys were attempting to destroy. So in the meantime, can you say GHETO?
Needless to say, I am in the market for some affordable, nice-looking and good-working blackout options. Either to go over or under the existing 2″ wood blinds.
Nice DIY Job, but I think I prefer the Roman Shades. I know about the safety issues, and all, but to me, Mini-blinds just remind me of all the cheap apartments I lived in during school.
I’m gonna start a crusade! Bring back the Roman Shade!
We have very similar blinds in our bedroom and actually our living room, and we love them!
Love it! Our latest update is curtains. After a lot of hemming and hawing over what curtains would look best with our hodge podge of furnishings, we picked up some cheapo brown ones with a sort of embossed texture to them from Ikea. $30 per set of two…but they look much nicer than you would think for that price! The curtains are really wide, and two of our windows in our living room are super narrow, so I didn’t want as much material on those smaller windows. Of course, Ikea curtains come in one size only. SO, I laid the panels on the floor, folded them over and pinned them and then cut ’em down the middle. I threaded my sewing machine with brown thread and sewed a long straight seam down the raw side of the curtains, voila! Four sets of curtain panels for less than $100! Can’t beat that!
I’m getting ready to make some roman blinds for my son’s room to block the light. Roman blinds are so expensive! So I’m making 2 for about $50 total.
Hi,
Love the bedroom.
I had an off the topic question…how difficult was mounting the “side-table lights” especially since they are coming from the wall. I love that look…but dont know if I could do it with a sleigh bed…suggestions?
Sadaf
It was easy! They’re just plug in swing-arm lamps that we hung using two screws and two anchors a pop. Then we used the sleek metal cord covers that came with them (even though they’re tucked behind the curtains so no one would see them anyway). You can definitely do it with a sleigh bed! They work with all types of beds- just mount them slightly outside the headboard instead of above it- check out a Pottery Barn catalog to see some examples. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Nothing doing in the bedroom right now, but just finished a post on my new cafe curtains in our bfast nook/dining room! And you would be pleased to know that I used a no sew option- Stitch Witchery. :)
On another note- why is it always so hard to cough up money for blinds/shades? All the big name designers talk about the “inexpensive natural fiber shades” you can buy at your local Walmart or Lowes. So I walk down the aisle at Lowes and think “Inexpensive?” Thirty bucks per window is still expensive in my book. :) Guess I’ll just have to save up.
Katie
I’m so excited bc we have the same exact blinds in our bedroom! We also went with the Home Depot white faux wood -you really can’t tell the difference from real wood when you look at them and they look so fresh and nice.
We have a huge orange light right outside of our window, so I have one of those double curtain rods and have black out curtains hanging on the back rod. That has worked well for us as we can hide the black outs behind our curtains during the day.
However, now my husband is working nights and the light that comes in at the top of the window is now and issue that he solved by stuffing blankets on top of the curtain rod. It’s horrible, but he’s sleeping better… Any ideas or suggestions?
Hey Brandi,
You could always hang a roman shade above the blinds like we did on our larger window. Plus it can be lined (or just made of thicker & darker material) to block even more light. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Here in Italy almost every house/apartment has (plain white ugly) roll-up shutters built in on the wall. In country houses or in villas there are external window shutters, and they look really nice, even if I my lazy side finds them quite uncomfortable.
I think it is only an Italian thing, like bidet, because I haven’t seen roll-up shutters in other European countries I visited till now.
Built-in shutters+bidet+dual flush toilets= sometimes (but only sometimes) it’s good to be Italian!
I like the addition of the insect(?) pillow on your bed, very snazzy!
My most recent window improvement was in the stairway, and it’s a huge change. You can see the pictures here:
http://40daysof.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/my-stairway-got-hit-with-the-ugly-stick/
The wood blinds look great!
Timely post! I was just complaining about how we can’t sleep in even on weekends due to the light coming thru our bedroom windows. It’s like we’re at the beach for gosh sake … problem is I already have cellular shades (mine offer no light blocking capability whatsoever) and they were too expensive for me to even think about changing, so I’m stuck. But maybe I’ll do like Carrie in SATC and get myself some night shades to wear. By the way, appropos of nothing, the SATC2 movie got one star in the NY Post today … bummer. But I’m gonna go see it anyway!
We have the same blinds too! I really like them and I think they add a polished look to any room.
Does Ikea still sell those roman shades? I couldnt find them on their website….all I could see were roller shades.
Thanks :)
Hey Andrea,
We remember seeing them recently (within the last few months) so maybe they’re not online but sold in stores? Maybe you can call to ask?
xo,
s
Those blinds suit your style so perfectly!
Our latest blind adventures involve those not-so-private matchstick bamboo blinds. We got one for our bathroom (I think you might have a similar shade) that provides virtually NO privacy at night. I checked… Thankfully the trees behind our house are leafed out right now so our backyard neighbors can’t see much of us in there. Perhaps a faux wood slatted blind would have been a better idea! I’ll look into that. I bought the bamboo blind on clearance for $12 at HD but knowing that my goods aren’t out there for the world to ogle will be worth the extra cost.
You made my day. Seriously. Trully. Let me explain. As a DIY home improvement/organizer/wanna-be decorator, I was always afraid to admit that I liked the clean lines of blinds as a foundation for drapes or valences. Somehow it didn’t feel like it stacked up to all of the decorating genius available on the internet. I have so much respect for your ideas and talent that somehow it made me feel…empowered that my window treatments are a-ok! :-)
I had a dilemma recently with the crown molding cornice boards that cover the blind housing (read kiddos that can’t help themselves.) I had a great time brainstorming a solution on my post here http://www.containchaos.com/?p=540
Next to you two, I feel horribly unimaginative!!
How DO you think of these things?
How do we think of blinds? You’re funny Barbara! We just brainstorm the problems that we have with our house and then we set out trying to fix them so our house works even better for us (as opposed to the previous owners). It’s all about shaping your house to fit your every need- without breaking the bank of course…
xo,
s
Love those blinds!
We actually have similar ones from JC Penny and they were cheap, cheap, cheap! (Our windows are standard size as far as width, so we just removed the bottom slats if we needed to).
I was SO happy to see you using the cord cleat even on your own bedroom window (you never know where those grabby hands could be), but seriously, those cleats are the best invention ever. We actually have them on all of our windows (since all of our windows have blinds), but we mounted them on the inside of the window to hide the cords from our two cats! No kidding!
We even used the same blinds on our sliding glass doors (sounds strange, I know), but we tried all types of curtains but curtains = cat hair since they love to sit there all day and look into the backyard. The blinds were the best solution we could think of and when they are open but down during the day, it makes our house look kind of “resorty!”
Love the shades, and they are definitely much prettier than the crusty roller ones! Do you find that they block as much light? I’d love to replace my rollers at some point (they’re ugly, get dirty, and tend to rip — quite sub-optimal), but I’m balking because they block so much light, and I do love my cave for sleeping in on the weekends. Do you find that the wooden blinds are as effective for that?
Hey Laura,
You can read other people’s reviews of them above (many have chimed in that they love how much light they block… and we agree!). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Looks great! I just ordered khaki colored blackout curtains for our almost 3 year old’s windows……this 5:30 am stuff is for the BIRDS!
Fingers crossed they do the trick (she was sleeping until 7 until a few weeks ago!).
-k :)
Would you mind sharing where you got your chandelier? We’ve been looking for one similar but haven’t found a perfect size match. The closest we found was one at West Elm but it was too long.
Your blog is great by the way! I get so much inspiration from it for my own home!
Hey Rachel,
It’s also from West Elm, but they no longer sell it. We’ve seen similar versions on ebay and at World Market. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
love the faux wood blinds… we’ve had them on all the windows in our house for years… i refused to have mini blinds…. actually had room darkending shades for a while but once we switched to the bali blinds i haven’t had any desire to change them!
It’s nice to have a dark room. Our bedroom is in need of a better solution. Our neighbor’s backyard porch light lets too much light into our bedroom at night. We’ve got blinds and one window has a set of curtain panels we can close but they don’t have any blackout fabric. I’m on the look out for a solution.
I have one of those old roller shades in our laundry room. It really helps keep the light and heat out during the day-it really is a must-have. A few months ago I found a $6 bran colored linen panel and hung it and a rod up above the window. I keep that single panel spread out, but can easily pull it to the side when I need to open the window. It has helped create even more privacy for that window and is so much more attractive now that the ugly roller shade is hidden. :)
BTW-Thanks for leaving a comment yesterday, I know you guys are very busy with everything and have so many readers that you respond to. I felt honored to have you visit my blog-glad you enjoyed the bathroom eye candy!
Have a wonderfuly day guys!
~Karla
Love the look. I am replacing my old roller shades also, but how do you determine what look for each room-woven woods or the faux wooden blinds (white)? I can’t decide which look to go with.
Hey Marilyn,
It’s all about personal preference! Our bedroom color palette is so soft that we opted for white white white, while we love the look of woven shades in our living room and den (with white sheers to keep things cohesive throughout the whole house). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
What is the fabric on either side of your bed? It looks like curtains – is there something behind them? Do they open up?
Hey Anna,
Here’s the post all about it: https://www.younghouselove.com/2008/02/over-our-heads/
Hope it helps!
xo,
s
We had these exact blinds all throughout the 1st floor of our home. We absolutely loved them. So did our cats. They chewed through every single one of them until they were beyond repair! We had to rip them all out, and now our window are naked (OK, there are still curtains . . . but!). Anyway, it’s nice to see them in other houses . . . too bad we can’t have them in ours :)
I’ve commented several times on YHL, and it seems like most usually it has to do with me being jealous of something you’ve done that we either have done/or wanted to do . . . that our cats have just ruined for us! I’m not a crazy cat lady, I promise <3
I’m currently trying to figure out what to do with our apartment blinds. We are forbidden to remove those awful hanging vertical slatted things. Maybe some sheers and drapes? That way we can just open the slatted things completely during the day so you can’t see them?
Dandy,
Yes! That’s one of our favorite tricks. Hang gorgeous curtains high and wide and tuck those vertical blinds right behind them. Gone!
xo,
s
We did the Home Depot blinds as well (but opted to have HD install them. we’re sissys when it comes to punching holes in our brand new home. i’m sure that’ll change as we get used to handling hammers and know our way around nails). We had the white blinds (I think they call the color “coconut”) in all our rooms except our master. Like you, we wanted less light in our bedroom, so we opted to go with a dark faux wood blind. It contrasts nicely with our newly painted Rain Washed Blue walls and tan trim, and it blocks out almost all the light! It’s pitch black in there now!