A few months ago I went to look out the window in my music room and three of the vertical blinds strips fell off at my touch.  Since they were not the first to go from that window and since I have never been that big a fan of the vertical blinds, I decided it was finally time to do something about it.

I shopped around, met with a few “we’ll come to you!” designers, compared prices, debated going the DIY route, and finally decided it was time to pay someone else to do it instead of going the Ikea route again.  Especially since I “donated” most of my tools to Mountain Town High School’s theater department when I left.

Since apparently these things are tailor made, it took about a month for all of the components to arrive.  Happily, though, I dashed home after school yesterday to meet the handyman who had everything quickly installed.

Living room before:

 

Living room after:

 

Semi-sheer panels on the door for privacy and quick access:

 

And semi-sheer cellular blinds in the music room with bonus top-down action:

 

In my bedroom I had to explain over and over again that the key here is darkness.  Living on the first floor of a building with many security lights means that my bedroom can be as brightly lit at night as by day if I don’t block the windows.  It’s a fight I’ve fought since moving in and previously I had four blackout curtains meshed together across the sliding door in my bedroom to block the light.  I also had some sheers and some regular curtains on top of them, but the blackout drapes were such a pain to move and to put back, I rarely used it.

The designers kept suggesting vertical cellular blinds with double tracks (“for easy door access!”) but I assured them that I had no interest in using this as an actual door.  Frankly, I’m not even clear why this door exists in the first place.  Plus, while I did not explain this to them, despite the many photos of vertical cellular blinds they showed me, they only reminded me of the dividers in church buildings between the chapel and the cultural hall and on front of baptismal fonts.  In other words, they just feel far too utilitarian 70’s to me.

So instead I went with a basic blackout roller that is indeed far easier to manipulate.  I still don’t think I’ll use the door as a door, but I definitely can appreciate letting a bit more natural light into the room.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

As you may recall, I made a blackout Roman shade early in the summer.  That went along with the vertical blinds on my bedroom hallway:

 

…and they were replaced with cellular shades that can be sheer or blackout, depending on how they’re pulled.  Woot!

 

Finally, I also had them install a blackout roller shade in the library/guest room.  Justin, I was especially thinking of you here and the time you, Jason, and I spent thumb-tacking a quilt over the window to get the same effect.

There is this odd little window in the music room:

 

It had a set of mini-vertical blinds on it that I had the guy pull down while he was at it.  It didn’t seem worth installing anything new since I’m not worried about light pollution in this room.  “Why don’t you put some interesting glass vases or jars there?” suggested the designer.

Jason?  Are you travel/shopping sensors tingling too?