Wednesday, September 16, 2009

(no longer) blinded by the sun

Well, you may remember we were realy stuck on finding appropriate window coverings for our dining room patio doors.

I really wanted to do a panel track system and really fell in love with the following fabric for said system:





Unfortunately, not only was the price tag a LOT higher than I wanted to spend... but we soon realized that we needed something a lot less sheer.
At the peak dinner hours, we couldn't even sit at the dining table, and working in the kitchen was incredibly hard.

(this picture doesn't even do justice at explaining how sunny it was.... it only turned out this dark, because every other picture was so sun-filled, you couldn't make the picture out!)


The only other reasonably priced option, was available via catalogue only, and since the color was "mushroom", I was a little wary of purchasing it, sight unseen. That. and the retailer is on my "never shop here again" list.


My next thought was to go with draperies, at least for the meantime, but I couldn't find anything I loved enough, that was black-out lined. Plus, I wasn't sure if the look would be a little too formal or not.

Anyhow, Cory (our resident cook) finally got so fed up this weekend, he dragged me out to buy something ASAP!!! We hit up a couple stores and came up empty! Pretty much everything we liked, was super expensive, and/or needed to be custom ordered. We needed something immediately!!

After a long temper tantrum and (almost tears), we ended up going home with some coverings on Sunday. Unfortunately, they are exactly what I did NOT want to come home with....

Yes, that's right, we got vertical blinds!!! (GASP....) Oh, and it gets better..... they are PVC!!!

How? WHY? - They were white, they were $47, and they could be brought home and installed in an hour!!! SOLD!!

When I came downstairs, and saw them installed, I have to say, I smiled. It was dark in the dining room. It was also a lot cooler inside. Plus, Cory did an amazing job (lined them up with trim on other windows and everything) and the white looks alright.
I'm still searching high and low for a replacement, but these will definitely do the trick for now. Plus, they were cheap enough that we won't be out a ton when I replace them...and I'll try and sell them online anyhow :)
Please don't judge me!! :)

3 comments:

Kasey at Thrifty Little Blog said...

I never knew that they were that cheap. No wonder everyone installed them in the 90's! I think it was probably a good idea to go ahead and get them while you wait to find the perfect covering in your price range. Good luck!

Pretty Little Things for Home & Life said...

Well these were probably as cheap as you can get lol. We looked at other fabrics and they can be very pricey! But this is an alright temporary solution.

Britt said...

I know I am a week late but I just stumbled upon your blog and noticed your dilemma with the blinds.Have you looked into Ikea,(i hope thats not the store on the "never shop here again" list) they have slide systems that are so cool and really cheap. Like $20 for the tracks and the panels are $10-20. I just double checked on there website to make sure i was telling you a bunch of junk and getting you all hyped up..but they have TONS of types of fabric panels..I can imagine they would have to have a store somewhere in your area. Hope that helps out a little. Enjoyed reading the blog.