The William Morris Project, Week 2

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." This is week two of the Pancakes & French Fries William Morris Project, happening every thursday in 2012.

Before we moved into this house, I swore I would take down the Venetian blinds immediately. They were badly installed, poorly functioning, ugly plastic strips. Why would I ever keep such a thing around? Function. Soon after moving in, it was Christmas, and purchasing something to replace them with seemed rather selfish when I could be buying gifts. Then it it was New Years, then my birthday, you get the idea. One thing led to another and I still had plastic car wash noodles in my window. I thought about them quite a bit, thinking about what could replace them. {this is where I start over thinking} The window ends about 3 inches from the front door, making curtains or drapes fairly impractical. When parted, they would just be right in the way of anyone coming in the door. Plus, it sounded tidier to have them up and away when open.

So I looked and looked for something that would fit. Bamboo blinds have always been my standby favorite, but it was looking like they would have to be custom, since the two side windows were a scrawny 17" wide. I was literally in tears pricing things out, going back to a regular curtain rod out of desperation only to find it wouldn't really be any cheaper, and the rod would likely be a piece of junk. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to check Overstock. {never having shopped there before, I supposed it to be full of things like micro-suede storage ottomans and terrible bakers racks. I am sure they have those as well...} Success! They had bamboo roman shades in pretty much every incriment of size, in the exact color that I was looking for, and instead of about $95 per 17" shade, I found these for $17 each. The middle one was around $35, and since they always have $3 shipping, I only ended up paying about $70 for the whole window. That was amazing. {and useful!} The worst part was waiting for them to arrive!

When the FedEx truck finally did deliver my package, I immediately set to work. I was so excited to put the new blinds up that only removed the 'noodles' of the old ones to begin with.

Remember last week when I warned you about the baggie of awful fasteners? Here they are. I threw them out. On the right you will see I opted for a 1.5" gold screw, since I was going to be attaching the brackets directly into wood. They could be a bit shorter.  Next I removed the wing nut and washer from each bracket, and without measuring {why bother when you can eyeball?} I just screwed 'em in!

One down, two to go! Here is the stack of old venetian slat things on my floor. They are currently stuffed up in the rafters of the storage room, because it was easier than dealing with them right away. I'll get there, someday!

You can see the track below, still hanging on for dear life...but doesn't the window seem friendlier?

When I did remove the track, I found an extra set of giant holes, probably left behind from an earlier set of traverse drapes, and some globby spackle. Nice!

There seems to be a tiny issue where I can see the metal bracket on just one side of the middle blind, which I think I can fix with a little bit of shimming between the blinds and the wood mounting bar.

Since I had thrown away the fastener baggie, I had no cord hook things to hang the extra cord on when the blinds are up. I stole some little brass cup hooks from our kitchen cupboards, since I don't use them {and actually scrape my hands on them quite often when using that particular shelf} All in all, it took me about 45 minutes to put the new blinds up, and take the old ones down.

Drinking Vitamin D Emergen-C, Alice

Week 1	Week 2	Week 3
Week 4	Week 5	Week 6
Week 7

Comments

[Alice]

I totally love Spiderman more than vertical blinds. Any day of the week.

[Liz]

I'm a sucker for bamboo blinds. Such a great option. I actually have a window in my living room that butts up against a wall unit, leaving no space for curtains. Maybe this will be my solution, especially with the great prices at Overstock!

The only thing worse than vertical blinds is when you drive by a house and see a Spiderman bed sheet tacked up as a curtain in a kid's room. And even then it's debatable.

[Monica]

Never understood why people put vertical blinds in their homes. They should come with a disclaimer "For commercial use only and then with reservation." Quite a score on the bamboo blinds and what a difference they make.

[Alice]

Jules, I was totally surprised too! After reading your post I put the little pile of 'returns' that have been hanging out on my desk into my bag...now I just have to get to the store!

[Jules]

Gasp! I didn't know you could find bamboo shades so inexpensively at Overstock! (By the way--micro-suede furniture and bad baker's racks? Hilarious.) I'm off to check RIGHT NOW to see if they have some for my huge picture windows.

Also, "car wash noodles." I laughed out loud with that one. That's exactly what they are! Great analogy.

[Alice]

Pam, Thanks! The car wash effect was the worst when you would close them, they would swing back and forth for a few minutes...it drove me nuts! ;)

[May]

I too love bamboo shades! All that light filtering through should feel nice too.

btw....Bohemian Hellhole???? Love it!

[Rachel]

I love bamboo shades, and those look beautiful in your window! Replacing ugly old blinds is on my project list, too :) Way to get yours done!

[Pamelotta]

Those blinds you installed look like they were made for that window. Good call!

"plastic car wash noodles" - hilarious!

[Alice]

Thanks Ms. Amy!