I don't have faux wood, but I have the JCPenney basswood blinds and have been very satisfied with them. They look custom. When they are onsale, they are good deal. You can easily shorten them for your preferred. I kept the extra slats because the cats have broken them, and I"ll occasionally have to unthread them to take out the broken.

Don't use curtains, just the blinds.

I have ones from Better Homes & Garden (walmart) and also the inexpensive ones (not custom) from Lowes. I think they're the Style Selection ones. I've had all the blinds for years now with no problems. Ok correction, the Lowes ones, to open and close the slats I have ones with a wand and with cord. The cord ones broke - the actual cord mechanism kerplunked and I can't open the slats on those. All my wand ones are great. I don't raise and lower any of the blinds much but I do open and close the slats daily.

All mine are 2" white faux wood blinds. I think they look nice. I think the ones that are considered out of style are the tiny mini blinds with the thin slats.

BH&G

http://www.blindsforless.com/

I used blinds for less when I needed blinds for my condo. I have two 93inch wide windows which were hard to shop for due to their width. I had mine split in 3 to match the split in the window. I would use them again in heart-beat. I think you should be able to get the cut to size from Lowes or Home Depot with your size. Mine were too wide.

I used to love the blinds you could get from JC Penney. I bought probably 15 of various kinds of their blinds through the years - the real wood ones, as well as the faux wood ones. They were (notice I said WERE!) solidly made and well-priced.

So when we bought a vacation home about 6 months ago I turned to JC Penney for blinds again. What a disappointment! The quality has gone way downhill. Everything about their blinds now feels cheaper. The slats when fully closed don't even overlap so there are thin strips of light that come through....

Long story short, save yourself the hassle of JC Penney blinds. They used to be awesome but they are no longer worth a darn.

I have both faux wood and real wood blinds. The faux ones are nice, but heavy. If you plan to raise them on a regular basis, go with wood. This type of blind provides privacy even with the holes, but they are not room darkening.

I found my faux on Amazon for about $21.00@ w/free ship

I bought mine at www.selectblinds.com , but, boy, do they collect dust. I prefer my bamboo blinds.

Thanks so much for all the replies, everyone!

Thanks for the heads up, patriceny.

Bamboo blinds don't collect dust ? ? ! ? ?

I've had cut-to-width (and remove-slats-to-length) Levelor blinds from HD, one in wood and one plastic/vinyl/whatever due to size availability. They were indistinguishable (white). A faux wood stained one of course would look bad, but the colored ones are dandy.