We haven’t talked about our Living Room in quite awhile. Ain’t nothing going on in this room but lots of blanket-tent-building, pretend picnics, and episodes of Daniel Tiger (hey, at least it’s educational-ish).
I’m still loving the board and batten, stencil, and curtains… even though it’s all a little more formal than my taste. I mean, maybe even bordering on Downton Abbey styley.
Ok, maybe not an exact representation… but you get my drift.
Anyway! I’ve been wanting some woven bamboo-type blinds FOREVER. I love the natural element and texture that they bring to a room. And the plastic white mini-blinds that came with the house have remained for purely practical purposes. I don’t like the idea of people seeing in my house at night… ew!
So! We finally fell into some money (wouldn’t that be nice?!) set aside some money to pull the trigger on this once and for all. Did you know that woven bamboo blinds can be quite expensive? And we weren’t doing ALL the windows… just the ones in the living room and dining room (4 windows total).
We found these at Lowes after doing lots of looking. We liked the texture and shade of wood, and were even willing to swallow the $87 (each!) price tag. But then we realized that the one for our bay window would be 4” too short. I know 4” seems small, but imagine if there was 4” of daylight at the bottom of your blinds? It would be weird and not cool. The sales person told us we could special order, but it would be $250 for THAT ONE WINDOW. No thank you!
A few more months passed, and we were at Lowes for something else… when we noticed a group of blinds that were clearanced. We actually liked the look of these blinds better, but hadn’t considered them last time because they aren’t the kind that can be modified and cut down at the store to perfectly fit the dimensions of your window.
That’s when Nick said ‘I can totally modify these at home’.
And I said ‘ Good, because they’re THREE DOLLARS each’ …WHAAAA?
These are no longer $3, but they’re still inexplicably affordable at $17 bucks each. Here’s the link.
We bought 4… enough for all the windows in our living room and dining room. Our total was $12. I still can’t get over it. Nick measured the width of each window and subtracted 1”. Then find the center between two strings.
Measure out from that center point, and mark half the distance of the window in both directions. This will ensure that your grommets are centered.
Then cut string to the third pulley in the section of the blind that you will be cutting off.
Bundle the blind real tight with your cut marks still visible. Make sure that there are no strings or foreign objects in the way of the blade. Using a miter saw cut the blind. We took several shallow cuts to keep the wood from splintering.
Next mark a 1/8 “ x 2” slot on the board that the blind hangs from and cut the slot out with a band saw, jig saw or scroll saw. (we had to do this because of how it mounts to the mount. Your blind might be different.)
Finally? Mount on your windows! Just use the enclosed instructions for mounting. Two minutes, lickety split.
Isn’t my lumberjack so cute? How about this one of him making use of some leftover bamboo shade?
Want to see these shades all hung and pretty-like? Of course you do!
And here’s the whole room.
Doesn’t it just add so much warmth and texture? I’m loving it pretty hard. Sometimes it’s the little things, right?! And you know I love a quick project!
I’ll be showing pics of the dining room soon too! I finally made a decision on curtain fabric, and will be working on them asap! Cannot wait!
Happy Tuesday to you!
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I have the same blinds in two bedrooms; however, the “Roman” shade aspect keeps falling out. Do you have any tips? THanks.
Your husband is making me laugh. Not sure how old this post is because I found you on Pinterest but I need these for my family room and kitchen so will be heading to Lowe’s. I usually have good luck there with clearance. LIGHT A CANDLE FOR ME.
Consider my candle lit. 😉
I could cry reading this. I’ve been looking for similar blinds and they are sooooo expensive. We need them in several rooms so I just keep putting them off but now at least I know when I find a decent price I can modify them if needed. Seeing this makes me wonder if I could use a paint sprayer to give them a light coat of white paint for the ones needed in my daughter’s room. I’ll have to try and let you know because the white ones are even MORE expensive than the regular ones!
Love your windows! Do you mind me asking where you get your curtains? Are they burlap?
Thank you! The curtains are from Lowes, but unfortunately they don’t carry them anymore. They aren’t burlap… more of an off-white linen type of material. Sorry I can’t give you a source link!
what size was the blade (thickness) he used?
Great buy! I should pay more attention to the clearing shelves. Thanks for the easy and clear tutorial. 🙂
We had those exact bamboo shades in our hold house, in the kitchen. And I loved them SO much. Our new house came with ‘a free upgrade for wood slat blinds’ which work really well. And they’re not as ugg-o as mini blinds… but still… I’m not like OMG IN LOVE with them. But back to your living room, it looks beautiful. I love the natural element of the wood. So pretty. Yay for no creepers seeing in 🙂
You know how some people love to read food blogs, even though they don’t
cook? That’s the way I feel about your DIY things–I just love gawking!
Thanks so much for pleasurable break!
My mom used what looked like these 15+ years ago to cover the fronts of two bookcases in the basement. Looking good!
I MUST tell you that last summer I bought these exact blinds from Lowes for my windows throughout the entire house EXCEPT for the kitchen window because we were planning on a major remodel and there were already white blinds in there. At the time, these blinds were marked down on clearance to $40 a piece for the 36×72 size and I thought I was pretty darn lucky to get them even though I had to drive about 40 miles to find a store that had any left. Now you tell me they are $3 a piece and I am wanting one for the kitchen. I had checked my local Lowes just last week and nada in the weird size I need which is 48wx36L. SO I see your post and think I’ll look online and there they are!! but at $23 but hey, still pretty great, but alas, none close by. So I expand the search a little and ta-da, 3 blinds left about a half hour away and for $4.73!!!! It’s a little weird how they “clearanced” them six months ago at about half price and now again at about $5 but I’m not complaining. So glad I read your post, not that I don’t always read it. However, instead of having to adjust the width of the blinds (altho I still may have to; last time they told me they advise getting them one inch shorter than your window for inside mount so they are not scraping against the paint), I do have to adjust the length but I googled and several easly looking tutes popped up. So I’m good to go. Thanks again!
I love Lowe’s clearance racks! We bought plantation blinds for 7 windows on clearance. New they would have been $400 and we paid a whopping $67. BAHAHAHA.
Thanks for this! I bought those same blinds in clearance for $1.86 moths ago even though they wouldn’t fut my windows!
I have had these for so long I have had to replace the pull cords! The temperature at the front of my house (brick) can vary by 100 degrees some days. I have one of these in my bedroom and another in the kitchen, but I have installed them on the outside of the frame, because of they were about 2 inches too wide, The sun has done a lot of damage to the cotton threads that weaves through the bamboo slats. I am now considering lining them (on the outside) with an opaque fabric.
I like what these have done for your windows. They look great!
Almost the same thing happened with us a few years ago. We ran across two bamboo blinds on clearance for $3 each. We needed 3 but figured we could make do with just the 2. They sat un-hung for a few weeks. Then we happened to run across another one for $7! They were all about 3/4 inch too wide for our windows. My hubby used tin snips to cut off the extra and they look awesome on our windows!