How to Buy Blinds Without Spending a FORTUNE

Purchasing blinds or shades for your house can be an overwhelming task but, in this video, I’m going to explain everything you need to know so you can buy window coverings for your house with confidence. First, let me say there is an easy way to buy window coverings for your house and that is to use a custom blind or shade company. They’ll come out to your house, they’ll measure everything, they’ll make everything custom and they’ll even install it. It’s so easy and it’s incredibly expensive.

I’m assuming if you’re watching this video, that is not the sort of budget that you’re working on.

So, I’m going to tell you how to buy them yourself on a more reasonable budget. Before you start shopping for blinds, you should probably have a general idea  of what you want. The main categories of blinds and shades are mini blinds which are about a one inch wide, and they’re usually made of vinyl or sometimes aluminum. The next major category is wood or faux wood blinds. They’re thicker and usually about two to two and a half inches wide. And then there are cellular shades. Cellular shades are made of a paper-like material and they  don’t have any gaps. After the type, you’re also going to have to choose your light level. Blinds  and shades are divided into three categories: light filtering which just lets the light through  like sheer curtains, room darkening which takes out some of the light but still lets some through,  or blackout which truly make the room completely dark.

The next major consideration is whether you want to mount your blinds or shades inside the window frame or outside the window frame. Usually inside mount is the preferred option because it looks a little flusher with the window but that isn’t possible with every type of window. You have to have enough space inside to mount it.  You can also mount the blinds or shades outside the window. One advantage is it’s easier to find  blinds or shades that fit without having to cut them to size. You can also generally block out  more light by putting the shade around the window instead of inside of it because there’s no gaps. As you’re looking at the different types of blinds and shades, one term that you might need explained is cordless.

Seems like it’d be obvious, but it doesn’t mean that it has no cords in it. They might have cords that separate the blinds, but they don’t have the long cord to lift the whole blind up. If you have children in the house or even children who visit occasionally, I will strongly recommend cordless blinds or shades. It’s just so much safer with kids around. So, after you’ve decided the type of blind and the type of mounting you want, you need to measure your window frame.

There’s really no such thing as a standard window size so you’re going to have to measure. If you’re mounting inside the window, you’re going to need to measure the width of the opening of the window and I would recommend measuring it in three different places – top middle and bottom to make sure that you’re getting the correct width because sometimes things aren’t quite straight in a house, especially if it’s an older one. And for length, you’re going to measure the height of the window from the top of that opening down to the windowsill. You definitely want to measure the height correctly, but the width is the really critical measurement so make sure you get that one right. If you’re going to mount your blind or shade outside the window, you’re really just measuring where you want it to land on the wall. You want to have at least an inch and a half width on either side of the window so that you have enough space around the window and then for the height you want to measure from the sill to where you want it to land on the wall.  Make sure you check out the directions for your specific blind or shade to see how much space you need for mounting that bar above the window.

Now that you have all your measurements, it’s time to go to the store and see what you can find. As I mentioned the width is the most critical measurement if you’re mounting it inside the window but just to make things a little more complicated, the measurement you see on the box is generally not the measurement of the width of the blind or the shade. They usually list the measurements in what they call a common width and then they’ll list the actual size. The actual size is generally one-half inch smaller than the common size they list.

And this is because one half inch smaller is generally what you need to fit an opening of that size. So, for example, the blind might say it’s a 42-inch blind but it’s actually 41 and a half inches and this is because it would fit a 42-inch opening. You need a little bit of space for the hardware of the blind. But not every company does it that way and actually the Allen and Roth brand from Lowe’s actually says the exact measurement of the blind on the box which means it won’t fit in a window opening of that size. When it comes to length  for blinds, you generally can shorten the length so it doesn’t matter if the blind is longer than  your window.

Now you don’t want a blind that’s shorter than your window or that would look silly.  For cellular shades, you generally cannot shorten them but it’s fine. They just gather up at the bottom.

But you don’t want one that’s too long. You generally don’t want to go longer than about one and a half the length of your window. So if your window is 40 inches tall, you wouldn’t want a shade longer than about 60 inches or it’ll be too much fabric gathered up at the bottom.  When you’re walking around the store looking at the sizes of blinds and shades, you’re probably  going to find that they don’t have the exact size that you need. Thankfully, there’s an easy  solution to that. Stores will generally cut the width of the shade for you and make it smaller. If  it is one that can be cut by the store, they will tell you on the box what the range is that they  can cut it to. Your other options are to cut it yourself or to order online a more precise size.  Generally, when you’re ordering the precise size, you’re really just ordering one that’s already  been pre-cut for you.

Cutting blinds and shades yourself is not a terribly difficult DIY project but it does require using a large saw and not everyone has the equipment to do it, so I generally think it’s easier just to get it done at the store. Home improvement stores are generally the best places to find blinds and shades but there’s definitely a difference in your choices. At Lowe’s, they will not cut their own Lowe’s brand blinds in the store.

They’re only called “trim at home” blinds which is really pretty silly. They will cut the fancier blinds but that cost literally twice as much as their store brand blinds. If you go to Home Depot, on the other hand, they will cut the majority of the brands of their blinds in the store so you can get a lot cheaper blinds and have them cut at the store. If you’re on a really tight budget, Walmart does have blinds that are a little bit cheaper than Home Depot, but it is only a few dollars less than Home Depot and you’re losing out on the convenience of having them cut at the store.

I have also found some good options on Amazon.com but I have found that it’s hard to find enough blinds to fit all the windows in your house that coordinate from the same seller that are going to match. So, Home Depot has become my go-to for buying blinds and shades. I’ll include a link down below to the ones I’ve used in all the bedrooms in my house, and I think they’re a really excellent value for the money and I’ve been really happy with them.

I hope this video helped you out choosing blinds and shades. If it did, please help me out and give me a like, hit subscribe, and leave me a comment down below and tell me what your plans are for your house next.

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