Bamboo Blinds For My Dining Room
One of the to do items in my dining room has been to put up some blinds on my bay window. Being an old home, the windows are not a standard width but I am too impatient and too cheap to get custom blinds. Instead I bought some inexpensive bamboo blinds and tried trimming them down. 
The middle window is 32.5" wide and the sides are 22.5" wide so I bought a 36" blind and two 30" blinds. On the smaller blinds I needed to remove 7.5" which meant 3.75" on each side. I wrapped painter's tape on the end of the blinds and then in the middle of where I needed to cut. The tape kept the pieces of bamboo together while I was cutting. I made a mark on the tape where I needed to trim and then used my chop saw to cut down the ends. It was a good idea in theory but the inexpensive bamboo chipped a lot on the ends and it looked really bad. The blind was only $15 so it wasn't a very expensive mistake and I am glad that I at least tried it.
I took the remaining blinds back to the store and looked around for another option. I found some bamboo blinds that are pricier but that the store will cut down for you. They were also a nicer quality and had a privacy backing. At a total of $128 for the three blinds it was way more than I wanted to spend but still a lot less than if I ordered custom blinds.
Luckily the store had exactly what I needed left in stock, one 36" wide blind and two 24" wide blinds. I brought them over to the cutting area, gave them my window measurements and did some other shopping while I waited.
Unfortunately when I came back the machine had screwed up one of the shades and didn't cut it all the way through. They weren't going to have restock for that blind for another week but they were able to call the other store across town to hold the one that they had left in stock.
After a jaunt across town I finally had all three shades and I crossed my fingers that everything would fit and be the correct size. Luckily the install was easy and I had the shades up in no time. I just measured where the brackets needed to go, marked the hole locations, pre-drilled the holes, screwed in the brackets and then attached the blinds.
Getting blinds for my dining room ended up being more of an ordeal than I thought it would be but I love how they look and I am so happy that I have this item checked off of my long to-do list. I think that when I eventually paint the trim white the bay window will really look phenomenal.
Are you working on any window treatments for your home? Have you ever had something you thought was going to be simple turn out to be more trouble than you thought?
Friday, August 24, 2012 at 12:31PM | Posted by Lisa | 3 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article 
Reader Comments (3)
In the end the blinds do look amazing. Great when the store is accommodating. I had a painting job for the dinning go horribly "not as planned" and in the end I had to cover with wallpaper, which looks exactly like the paint effect I was going for and thankfully my husband is an expert at hanging wallpaper - no seams show. So my end result was I got the look I wanted just not the way I thought it would work. As for window coverings I have standard sized, if not boring, windows so I have been able to use pre-made (thank you Sears).
Mary-Lou- Thank you! I am happy with them. That is wonderful that your husband is so good with wallpaper and was able to get the look you wanted in your dining room. You are lucky that you have standard sized windows. I am jealous!
Nice Post! I really like your blog. Very useful information.
Bamboo is the most sustainable option for home window coverings. Not only are bamboo blinds eco-friendly, but they also last longer than other types of window coverings. They're also easy to clean, and they're resistant to fading. Bamboo is a natural resource that is harvested in an eco-friendly way and is completely biodegradable.