Wednesday

Bamboo Shades to make your windows look larger

Before we even bought our new home, I started filing away images of ideas for window treatments.  They offered to put blinds throughout the whole house for us (at an additional cost of course) but we declined because I knew I wanted something different, at least in a few of the rooms.  There are some rooms where blinds just make the most sense so we did install them ourselves in those rooms, but I wanted to do something different in the family room. Our old house had larger windows with pretty crown molding.  That was one of my favorite things about that house.  So when I walked into this house with basic, average sized, windows (even though they are great) felt a little squatty.  


(before we moved in)

So to fix that problem, I went on the hunt for some roman shades that would be slightly wider than the window and a little longer too.  I ended up going with these from Home Depot.  I needed them to be roughly 48" by 72" and I just couldn't find any that size in our local stores.  I had a little trouble finding that size online too, so I was happy to come across these.  I really like the color.  It's not too yellowish or too brown.  The color is called driftwood and it's pretty much the same color as driftwood.  Appropriately named I guess. :)  They actually match my dining room light perfectly.

I snapped a pic of the sample they had in the store and it's a pretty accurate depiction of the color.   


I hung them using the same method I mentioned here and it really made it much easier to hang them and get them all even.  I ended up hanging them about a foot higher than the window to give the illusion of a longer, taller window.




Don't judge my pictures too harshly, taking pictures of windows is quite the feat!  I've only noticed one negative so far with the shades.  They are a little see through.  I may end up adding a blackout lining if we feel like we need a little more privacy, but for now I'm loving them!

32 comments:

  1. i love the ones you chose! we need those for our bedroom!

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  2. These make the blinds look so much bigger! I love the driftwood color.

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  3. awesome! love this trick!

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  4. Love it, such an elegant touch to your windows !

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  5. Such a great trick! It's looking really good in there!

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  6. Love what you did! It works great. The trick to hang them a foot higher than the window makes such a difference!

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  7. Love this before and after!!

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  8. Thanks Cassie! They would be perfect for your bedroom!

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  9. Thanks Haley! I'm always a sucker for driftwood anything! :)

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  10. Thanks Jennifer! Slowly but surely we are getting there!

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  11. Thanks so much! I think so too!

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  12. Our living room and windows are so similar! I've been wanting to do this forever and couldn't find blinds long enough! Thanks so much for sharing this!! :)

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  13. love these Bethany! I love the look of bamboo and roman shades actually. Im considering them for our laundry room. I love how you mixed them with fabric panels for a custom look. :)

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  14. Genius Bethany, I always thought your windows were so much bigger than they actually are!

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  15. I feel your pain on window shots!! They look great though- I love that color!

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  16. Everything looks so gorgeous! And the shades are perfect. Such pretty architecture too.

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  17. Absolutely love the way this came out! Great job girlfriend! Smooches!

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  18. Where did you get your curtains?

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  19. They are the IKEA ritva curtains http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80063833/#/40111992

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  20. I love the look of your window!! Can you tell me how you hung the blinds over the windows? Did you have to buy additional hardware? Thanks

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  21. They are white but have just a hint of ivory.

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  22. How/where did you mount curtain rods in relation to blinds? Do curtains still close?

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  23. Sorry, I'm just now responding. I just used the hardware that came with the blinds to install them. They come with everything you need to either mount them inside the windows or outside.

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  24. I mounted the curtain rods slightly higher than the blinds. I used back tab curtains and there is a rod support on either side of the middle window. You can't see it because it's covered by the curtains. Hopefully that makes sense. The curtains do still close but we leave them open and just close the blinds.

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  25. Great idea! That room looks so comfortable and inviting.

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  26. I love it! What color are your walls?

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  27. So did you use 2 curtains per each window then? the brackets in the middle of the center two and a curtain on each side?

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  28. Yes, 2 pairs of curtains total, one on either side and then the two in between the others

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Thank you for your sweet comments, they make my day!