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Home Decorating Windows Design Dilemma

Best choice for cellular blinds color?

last year

Hello! I'm moving my dad into assisted living and while that's awful in some ways, I get to take down all the old dusty drapes and yellowed mini blinds in his house that have been hiding the lovely windows all these years! It's a modern architecture house with a bit of a Scandinavian flourish in places. However, the living room windows face out to the street so unfortunately need coverings of some sort. The walls are all white and the window trim is a lighter finished wood. I need a quick, easy, off the shelf (not custom ordered) top down/bottom up cellular blind I can have our handyman install this week. I can't decide if I should just go for plain white if the walls are all white, or grey, to give it a little contrast. Or, any other ideas to freshen it up after 35 years? The picture shows the windows after taking down the drapes but with the yellowed mini blinds still in place.

Featured Answer

apple_pie_order

last year

For renters, use new white mini blinds. Cellular shades cannot be easily cleaned if they get splattered with something or get finger grimy. They can be vacuumed and spot cleaned, but not washed clean like mini blinds.

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Comments (10)

rrah
last year
White. Gray will look dated very quickly.
meghan4803 thanked rrah
Amanda Healey
last year
Some shade of white. When we had ours installed, someone came to the house with a swatch/sample book so that we could see how the colours looked with our trim and wall paint. See if that's an option, and if it is, get all your painting done before you set up that consult.
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One more question ... for an outside mount, would you measure slightly larger than the width for your measurement and, if so, how much would you add to each side? I'm concerned about the windows not being completely square and having the trim showing if the blind hangs down straight and the window is slightly off, exposing some trim along the sides. Thanks, again ....
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We have a 72" Hunter-Douglas cellular blind on the slider between our DR and the deck. It almost completely covers the woodwork when it's down. I strongly suggest that you go with cordless. I did this to protect my back, but another plus for cordless is that the blind will always open and close smoothly and perfectly. It always hangs just right. If it's a special order and you can wait, it's worth it! As to color, I matched ours to the dining room walls, which are rather rough old plaster and painted Navajo white. The color matches very well and the blind has a slightly rough texture that looks good against the wall. There are two archways and a door and the slider in our DR, and a lot of furniture, books and art, so I wanted the blinds to simply blend into the background.
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We have cell shades on all of our windows. I ordered some from JCPenney's (Bali) and some no-name brand from an online site. I wouldn't recommend the latter. They just are not the same quality and DH and I curse them every time we lower them (they don't have the weight that the Bali do and need help lowering all the way). We have blackout shades in the master. We debated about that one but are extremely happy with them. All the rest of the shades are light filtering. June is our moth season but, after two years of living w/our cell shades, I haven't noticed stains from the moths. Our shades are only down at night so aesthetics isn't really an issue for us. If we needed light control during the day, I'd probably have gone w/some type of blinds. We have no doubt the cell shades help w/insulation given our heating bills with and w/out the shades.
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jck910
last year
I would match the trim. White will be too bright. Off the shelf might not be possible due to window sizes
Rachel Lee
last year
White
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
My question is what do you need from the blinds i like solar shades to control heat , UV let you keep the view and give you day time privacy then I use drapes or roman shades for nightime privacy if needed . First get all the cleaning and painting done then come bask with pics of th spaces and maybe you only need drapes in a small number of those spaces . A puc of one window is just not enogh IMO to answer this question
meghan4803
Original Author
last year
I'm trying to just get something simple and easy done this week before we start showing the house to potential renters, so it sort of has to be an off the shelf solution we can do quickly. From what I've seen, that means an off the shelf product from Lowes or Home Depot in either White, Grey or Alabaster. I think we just need light filtering and preferably double celled if I can get it to help with cold winter months. I'm not as worried about heat. I'm also trying to avoid drapes to make the house more open and light and airy but also get privacy from the street.
grapefruit1_ar
last year
White.
meghan4803
Original Author
last year
Look how nice they came out!!
TBL from CT
last year
Meghan, where did you end up getting them? Brand? Thanks

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