Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Adding Bamboo Blinds To The Office

Notice anything different when you peek into the office from the dining room?

Shades Final From Dining

Hint: check out the window region.

Shades Before

We got these guys at Home Depot for $22 each (they’re 35″ bamboo blinds with the name Miranda on them if that helps identify ’em in the store) with the hopes that they would finish off the windows in the office and tie into the thick wooden desktop and the jute rug that we have in there. In our first house we had bamboo blinds in a bunch of rooms and always planned to bring them into this house as well (we mention them a lot in our Listy McListerson posts like this one) – just for the awesome texture they add.

When it came to installation, they had little metal ring hooks at the top of them, but we were going for an inside mounted look and those ring hook hanging things were messing with the “perfectly fitted” effect that we wanted, so we just used needle-nosed pliers to pop those hanging rings off the top, and few screws through the wooden brace piece at the head of the shade (4 spaced out equally) to secure them right into the window trim instead.

Shades Installation

The result is a nice polished look (it’s amazing how window treatments in general can take a room from “in process” to “looks pretty complete to me”) and the wood tones tie into the desktop just as well as we hoped.

Shades Final Vert

Eventually getting the floors refinished in a slightly darker tone (like the desktop) would be the ultimate dream…

For now we’re just enjoying the textured-meets-tailored vibe that they add to the room.

Shades Horiz Straight

And it’s a total bonus that they tie into the woven chairs and the dining table in the adjoined dining room.

Shades Final From Dining

Anyone else adding blinds, shades, or curtains? Whenever someone asks me about the change that surprises me the most (by making such an unexpected difference) I always say it’s curtains and blinds. It’s weird how a naked window with sun flooding through it can be so pretty that you think it doesn’t even need anything else, but then when you finally slap some breezy curtains or textured bamboo blinds up there you end up thinking “oh man, that makes me wanna dance.”

Comments

  4. Kara says

    Curtain wise – I did buy two blankets from the clearance racks ($10 each for a 50×50″ throw!) at TJ Maxx and threw them on clip rings that I had on hand from IKEA, and put them up on a curtain rod. Not bad! You’d be proud of the fabric choice, I hope. Too bad I can’t insert a teeny pic in here. But I’m still working on the layering patterns look in the room though. There’s a little table that I’m itching (send your weather up here, will ya??) to redo because I think it competes with the curtains too much in the “large pattern” land.

    Reply

  5. Caroline says

    Love these! I’ve been wanting to do the whole bamboo blind thing for a while, but it’s rather cost prohibitive given that we are in a rental right now and have three rather large living room windows. I will check out the Home “Despot” though.

    Reply

  6. Renee says

    I added some window treatments to a window I thought looked better without any and did that same happy dance!!!

    Reply

  8. Kelsey says

    We just put up 2″ wood blinds on all of our windows, and the difference is incredible. When we moved in there was a mish-mash of varying window treatments, including some astoundingly ugly curtains. It’s so nice to have everything clean and coordinated now.

    Reply

  11. Stephanie, Sandpaper and Glue says

    I love those- I’ve been seeing bamboo blinds all over blogland and I want some so bad! What is your opinion on layering blinds under curtains? I’ve got burlap-y curtains (hung high and wide) in my bedroom with just white slat blinds on the windows, and I wonder if it’d look awesome or weird if I layered bamboo blinds on there instead?

    Reply

  13. Crystal @ 29 Rue House says

    It is amazing how they do take a room up a knotch! They look great with all the wood tones and the wicker chairs. I’m going to be making some curtains for our girl’s room soon. I have the fabric and the iron on hem tape…just need to do it!

    Reply

  14. Amanda says

    We have lived in our house for three years now. For the first year we lived with the remaining curtains the previous owner left (she was 96 so they weren’t really our style). Then a year with nothing because we couldn’t pull the trigger on anything and agree. Then I found a picture of your windows from your first house and we agreed it would be perfect. Did you read that WE AGREED! (first time since picking wedding colors:) Now that we have blinds and curtains up it finally feels like the house is ours and not just keeping it warm for the next buyer!! THANKS for being such a wonderful inspiration.

    Reply

  15. Christy says

    I’m sure you posted about the light fixture already, but I probably wasn’t in the market for a light fixture then and didn’t pay close enough attention. Well now I’m on the hunt and that’s exactly what I’ve been looking for! Please share where you found it! Thanks, guys. Love the bamboo blinds. Adds just the right amount of texture and interest.

    Reply

  16. Joy says

    We just put light, airy curtains up on our living room and on our kitchen windows. We used curtains with grommets so we can fling them open easily and let in the view. The kitchen now has sheers on them, also to retain our view. The rooms now look finished after 3 years of being curtain-less. (we’re in a rural area)

    Reply

  17. A says

    I took that tip from you guys for our house and I can’t even begin to tell you how many compliments we get on our windows. I make all our curtains out of quirky fabrics and the bamboo shades make them look so much classier. We had a realtor over last weekend to prepare for getting our house on the market and she kept commenting on how great they look!

    Reply

  18. Leigh Anne says

    Looks great! Glad you posted this, I need lots and lots of these. I need 41″ though and I see the closest one they have to that is 43″. Do you know if Home Depot will trim? Seems like I’ve heard of that before…

    Reply

  19. CJ says

    We actually bought these this weekend! We got the Maple Providence ones, as they go with our floors better. Put one up in our master bath (sure the neighbors are disappointed) and one in the guest bedroom. We’re loving them!

    Reply

  21. Vanessa says

    We need a new curtain or shade in our bathroom. We have a sheer up now but someone just moved in behind us. Yeah. Welcome to the neighborhood…

    Reply

  23. Traci says

    Can’t wait to see what yall do with the floors. We are in the middle of refinishing ours on our own right night. (So fun but so scary!)

    Question – do you have a suggestion for the best window treatments/curtains for 6ft sliding glass doors that sit in the corner of a room (with no room for a curtain rod to attach to the wall). We are trying to figure out what to do with our door, that doesn’t include expensive plantation shutters or cheap plastic curtains! Would love your take!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hmm, no room for a rod throws me for a loop (we used curtain rods with the sliders in our living room and are so happy with them). Maybe you can do roman shades or a long bamboo blind or something? I just don’t know if you don’t have room for a curtain rod how you’ll have room to mount anything else. Good luck Traci!

      xo
      s

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Ooh great idea! Ikea sells ceiling mountable rods and cable wires (meant for curtains with ring hooks to slide on) too! And we don’t use cheap plastic curtains we use regular fabric ones (they’re washable, and they’re mounted wide on each side of the slider so they don’t encroach on people walking).

      xo
      s

    • candicemcc says

      I’ve seen folks hang the rods from the ceiling. Looked good and may be an option if you don’t have crazy high ceilings or have curtain-swingin’ little ones around.

    • Amanda says

      What about hanging the brackets from the ceiling? Ikea has a few options of brackets that you can hang from the ceiling.

    • Traci says

      Thanks for the suggestions everyone! There is a soffit box right above the door (go figure), but that might make a perfect place to attach the ceiling mounts. I also will check out Ikea. I am hoping we find something long and sturdy enough to hold the weight through the middle too. :)

    • Susan K says

      What about removing the finial from the rod and installing a closet bar bracket on the wall? In the closet section at home depot, there are round pieces with a little “cup” along the bottom edge that would support the bar. Not sure if that makes sense!

  24. Cara D says

    My husband doesn’t like curtains and we have those built in blinds in the window so th main part of our house does not have curtains…yet. Our room and the nursery have curtains with blackout liners to block light and I am getting ready to make drop cloth curtains for the guest room.

    Reply

  26. Lisa says

    I just put up 2″ wood blinds too! Mine are in white in a couple bedrooms and a bathroom and I’m still swooning over them. I get a little giddy opening & closing them everyday. Such an improvement over dingy old roller shades.

    Reply

  27. Sadie says

    I’m such a fan of bamboo shades. They look amazing and are so inexpensive. We had them in almost every room of our old house (bonus: they helped hide our super old, unattractive windows). Do you still plan to add French doors between the dining room and the office or are you digging the openness?

    Reply

  28. Elizabeth says

    I don’t know why, but I just cannot stand bamboo blinds. They always scream starter-apartment to me, rather than something aspirational. It might be the fact that you can see through them in parts. Also I have a cat – so they would become a scratching post in no time! I love the curtain in your guest bath, something like that would be pretty too.

    Reply

  29. Katy@RICE says

    This makes me think of eyebrows. Sometimes I like to look at makeup tutorials, in hopes that I might take the time to actually try what they teach. And it’s the eyebrow tutorials that I always want to try. You don’t realize the difference a ‘done’ eyebrow makes until you do it (or see it). Kinda like hanging bamboo shades. You don’t realize the difference of a ‘done’ window until it’s done. That’s my analogy and I’m sticking to it! (But I still have yet to try one of those eyebrow tutorials…. maybe next date night!)

    Reply

  34. Jamie says

    This weekend, I’m resolving to buy some faux-wood blinds for my living room windows. We’ve been living with too small burgendy roman shades in there for the last year and I really hate them.

    Reply

  35. Alex says

    I love the look of these and have considered them for my bedroom, but I’ve heard they aren’t great in terms of providing privacy at night. What’s your experience?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It took us years to realize this but we’re just not bamboo-blind drawing people (we do close the white faux wood shades in our bedrooms to block light and for privacy though). But in the common areas like the office we’ll leave them exactly in their place day and night (they’re more like hanging art on the walls to us, they finish off a room but don’t actually block the view). I’m not sure how they’d fare at night for 100% privacy since some light filters through them in the day, although we have driven by homes in our neighborhood with what appear to be bamboo blinds that are lowered and you can’t make out anything going on inside (not that I’m trying to snoop, ok I totally am). Haha! Hope it helps! Anyone use them for privacy with tips for Alex?

      xo
      s

    • Phyllis says

      Alex, I was pondering the same question myself as there are two windows in our home that would require some privacy if we go the bamboo shade route. I hopped on over to the Home Depot site to see if they offered anything to solve this problem and this is what I found:

      http://www.homedepot.com/Decor-Blinds-Window-Treatments-Blinds-Shades-Privacy-Liners/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbuf0/h_d2/Navigation?catalogId=10053&Nu=P_PARENT_ID&langId=-1&storeId=10051&currentPLP=true&omni=c_Privacy%20Liners&searchNav=true#/?c=1&browsestoreoption=2

      The nice thing about this option is that if you have windows along the front of your home, the white lining provides a uniform look (on the outside), as well as privacy. Hope this helps!

    • Laura says

      We have similar blinds in some of our windows, and honestly, alone they aren’t great for privacy. I realized that when I was driving down our gravel road one evening, close to home, and I could clearly see my husband folding clothes in our room, even though the blinds are drawn. We added curtains, too, which actually proved to provide a nice juxtaposition of textures.

    • Rachel says

      I had those bamboo shades with liners and they worked great for privacy, along with making the room slightly darker when the shades were closed. Highly recommend getting the liners if privacy is an issue!

  36. Cali says

    Down here in sunny Florida we like the 2″ white vinyl blinds; they’re great for a nice bright look. We have them on every window in our house! I do love the bamboo, though; unlike the bamboo on your windows, we have bamboo on our floors :)

    -Cali @ domesticdockerty.blogspot.com

    Reply

  37. Tonya says

    I love the new blinds and how they tie in to everything! This post was perfect timing. I was considering making a burlap roman shade for our newly renovated bedroom, but these would look so much better to tie in some of our furniture.
    Window treatments are my arch nemesis – I don’t feel like I ever get them right and then give up :)

    Reply

  38. Renee says

    We have so many windows that need window treatments. I’m just so indecisive that I can’t decide what I want. Like in our bedroom we moved into our house 2 years ago and still have blankets hanging on the windows :/

    Reply

  39. alisa says

    How timely! I just installed woven blinds all by myself (without any assistance from DH…I’m working on building my confidence in tackling projects without always relying on him). It was so easy. I painted the guest room BM white dove, added pecan-colored woven shades and am adding accents of navy, white, and coral. Your blinds look great!

    Reply

  40. Allison says

    I’ve been wanting bamboo shades for the 1.5 yrs we’ve lived in this house, but I didn’t like the unfinished look of the miranda shade and didn’t want to spend the $40 for the finished looking ones. I never thought of altering the cheap shades! Did that wooden brace piece come with it? All supplies for this alteration included? You have no idea how much this excites me!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, it was already there! We just popped off the rings on the top with a needle-nosed pliers and held the wood brace piece in place while the other person screwed it in from below like we showed in that picture. Four screws (we did pilot holes in the wood brace first to make it easy) did the trick!

      xo
      s

  41. Christine says

    We just added bamboo roman blinds to our family room! It is painted a color very similar to your kitchen and we have an awesome slate floor and a chocolate brown sectional. I love the texture and depth they added to the room!

    Reply

  42. Kristen says

    Beautifu! We did the same thing and even got insulated ones. When we listed our house the buyers loved them too, they even wrote them into the contract….so we had the leave them behind (boo!). I guess it’s time to buy them again for our new house so we can say goodbye to the rose colored vertical blinds (gross!)

    Reply

  43. Lija says

    Love the blinds. Totally finish the space. What do you do with the cords? I end up wrapping a twist tie around and them hide them but it makes them a pain to ever use.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Ooh a twist tie is smart! I just sort of wrap them up in themselves and tuck them behind to hide them since we have learned we’re not really bamboo blind users (we pretty much leave them in the same spot for years, so they’re more like how you hang art in a room to make it look finished and less about lowering to block the view. We do close our white faux wood blinds in the bedrooms for less light in the morning and privacy though :)

      xo
      s

  45. Nancy S says

    I feel the exact same way – and it surprised me more than I thought it would also. For 3 years I had the same (from HD) bamboo shades in the bedroom. I didn’t need anymore privacy since 1 window faces the back yard and I was very happy with the inside mount look. Then one day browsing the TJ Maxx clearance section I found a pair of breezy linen see thru embroidered curtain panels and just fell in love with them. I decided to hang them in the bedroom and couldn’t believe the differance they made! Now I am so in love with the cozy feeling I get every time I enter that room!

    Reply

  46. Robin says

    We live in a rental that is from the 30’s so I cannot find standard size blinds or shades anywhere! We have the weirdest window sizes! They’re huge (which I love) but impossible to cover for cheap.

    We’ve have those uber cheap paper shades that you cut yourself for far longer than I care to admit. They were suppose to be temporary…

    Reply

    • Lauren Nicole says

      We have a bunch of weird window sizes in our house. I highly recommend selectblinds.com. Everything is custom but it’s very affordable and they are constantly running sales. Promise I don’t work there or know anyone who does. Just a really happy homeowner who has used their products!

  47. Christina says

    Hey Sherry! I love the new blinds but I’m super coveting that ikat throw pillow! Do you mind sharing where you found it? Thanks! :)

    Reply

  48. Henna | HENNA BLOSSOM BLOG says

    I love that you and John have your desks side by side. Just looks like such a lovely place to work.

    Nice little finishing touch…and ha, yes, added bonus that they related to the wicker chairs! It’s funny how things like that happen. Icing on the cake! ;)

    Reply

  49. Megan says

    Love it!! I was debating between this look and fabric roman shades for our master bedroom. I finally decided on roman shades, that I was going to make from cheap mini blinds. I would be having buyers remorse, if the roman shades weren’t turning out so well. I will share when I am done!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, the way most bamboo blinds are made, they have a header flap in the front that hangs down (that’s what hides that wooden top piece that we drilled through and all of the cords and systems that raise and lower the blinds :)

      xo
      s

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