Its time to replace the temprary $5 Home Depot blinds I have in my new place. Had someone from the blinds store come in tonight and I am left a little confused.

In my kitchen, I have a wall with two large windows and a french door going outside. I'm pretty sure I want to go with shutters here. Everywhere else, I'm not sure.

Do I go horzontal blinds everywhere? Or shutters? What color, white everywhere? Or should I consider matching walls or furniture.

Lastly, are curtains back in style? Should I consider them as well.

 

When were curtains out of style?

There's definately a place for blinds only... like the kitchen.

However curtains/drapes go a long way towards softening and adding drama to a room.

You're not going to find a decorator or decorating book that speaks against curtains.

Key is, find a style you like and forget the image of your grandmas paisleys.

 

Instead of curtains, we did Roman Shades with a thermal backing to counter the TX heat. They look great and were dead easy to install.

Although the backing may not be needed in your neck of the woods, they look grat and perform the same aesthetic funtction mentioned

 

Ya I guess they werent out of style, but I was seeing alot of blinds only in magazines.

So when you go with curtains, do you go with blinds and curtains, or just curtains?

 

Don't ask me, I haven't even finished trimming in most of my windows.

But, if doing curtains or drapes, they typically go over blinds, I believe. If doing shades/panels then they take the place of blinds.

Check out Smith & Noble or Country Curtains or something. Pottery Barn used to have good window decorating guides on their site too..

I've a decorating book by Nate Berkus, Oprah's pal, that has a bunch of window decorating info... I'm sure some of his crap is online somewhere. (Plus he makes some bad ass curtains for sale at Linens & Things)

 

We did the Bali Cellular shades. Some are room darkening for the bedrooms and top down bottom up for the rest. That means we can open them from either direction and stop where we want. They also keep cool in and heat out.....

They come in all colors. 23 windows from Lowe's, installed, for 2600.

 

I think the top downs are a great idea, but they look kinda weird to me, especially from the outside.

 

I will try to take some pics. I think it looks great.

The part we enjoy the best is.....we still get privacy when they are half way down from the top, but we still get the outside view....

 

fdl, don't tell me you went to Blinds to Go?

 

Hell no.

 

We have horizontal blinds thoughout the whole house. Went with white since all of the windows and trim are white (wanted them to blend in, not stick out). Think we had 34 or 36 of them. This was the easiest thing to do to control the sun and add privacy. My wife is now going room by room and adding window treatments to dress them up...

 

Hey FDL,

We just installed 2" real wood Hunter Douglas in our house "Linen" is the color. Anyways, we got them from Stardecorating.com. All 12 blinds were shipped in less than a week and the sizes were right on. I think we paid about $1400 for all of them. Anyways, I highly recommend them!

 

I'm looking at Hunter Douglas stuff as well.