Fighting Blinds

Have I ever told you that I am not a fan of mini blinds? Particularly the 1" vinyl type, which is what the house had when we bought it. I despise them so much that I removed them from almost every room in the house. I have bamboo shades or roman shades on most windows now; however, there are a few windows that still had the dreaded one-inchers. It is time that those suckers hit the curb are donated to the Habitat Restore. 2" wood blinds are taking their place. Still not the best in my opinion, but far superior to what we inherited with the house.

I bought the blinds from Orange (use your imagination), since they were cheaper than Blue. I also received a cutting mini blind 101 lesson from a sales associate. They have a neat machine that does all the work and makes a clean cut. These are actually my blinds in the tray getting cut down from 72" to 71".

With my perfectly-cut blinds, I load them up in the Mini and head to the house. Yes, a Mini...affectionately named Stella. Who needs a truck when you have a Mini Cooper that easily hauls extra-long mini blinds...

First window to get the new-blind treatment is the one in the master bedroom. This window is the large 71-incher. This sad window only had solar shades that matched the wall color. As well as same-color furniture, and even a tan color bicycle, compliments of the hubby. It all made the sitting area a dull, color-less hole.

And after following the directions and installing the hangers, I was ready to install the blinds. (It actually didn't go as easy as I typed. There might or might not have been some screw-driver chunking and a few ill-words directed towards the anchors. I'll spare you the details.) Heaving those hefty things into the hangers was not an easy job for a little girl, but I succeeded and couldn't be more happy with the new blinds.

Warning, real life picture coming up. No staging or moving things around. This is how the sitting area in the master bedroom looks right now:

Next up is curtains for this space. One set of blinds down....four more to go. Wish me luck.

Operation "Remove Metal Mini Blinds"

When we bought our house, we were extremely fortunate to get 1" metal mini blinds....on every single window. We even had them on the side lights next to the front door. Gag! I am thankful that we had some window coverings, but operation "remove metal mini blinds" quickly began.

See those blinds by the door? Not the best option. I want light to filter in; however, I need some privacy and don't want everyone driving by to see inside the house. I really don't want to put blinds back up, don't really want curtains. Hmmm...

Etching? No, too permanent. Stained glass? No, too hard to match to changing decor styles.....but wait, what about clear stained glass??? Is there even such a thing? It's off to the craft store to investigate. And guess what - bingo. cha-ching. yes! I grab 4 bottles and head to the casa.

It is water-based (easy clean up if I mess up...which I usually do), and "simulates the look of cathedral stained glass...".

Sounds great, let's get started. I clean the windows so there won't be any hidden dirt or smudges.  The product comes out of the bottle looking like glue, so it is easy to see where applied. I just go to town on the windows, scribbling in circles and waves - no particular pattern - until I get the window covered.

After it dries, crystal clear, I love it! On to the other windows.

The entire project took 30 minutes, and the only negative side effect is a sore hand from squeezing the bottle. The finished pics were taken at night, so you can't see any light filtering in. But you can see the white mums in the bottom panes of glass on either side...and tell that the clear stained glass does a great job of adding some privacy.

Total project cost: about $15