Our New Blinds & Shades from Budget Blinds

This post was sponsored by Budget Blinds, all opinions are my own. 

 

I was thrilled this spring to have the opportunity to work with Budget Blinds for new custom drapes and Lutron shades for our living room. This is the main living space in our new home, and it is visible from all areas of our home so it’s been high on my priority list to get squared away. The addition of custom drapery and the automated shades have made a big difference in this space.

 

 

 

 

For this project, I had to use some vision and am grateful that the Budget Blinds design consultant I worked with, Cassidy, was able to understand what this space WILL look like down the road as we worked on the window treatment product selections.

 

 

In the future, I would like to replace the gray carpet in this room with the hardwood from the adjacent hallway and kitchen.  While I like the comfort of carpet in these “living” areas it has not been a practical solution (it’s already dirty after just a year) and the darker gray floors we have in the house will look much better. We’re planning on adding two new sofas in this space as well, they will be a neutral white so we kept all those things in mind when designing the window treatments for the room.

 

 

 

 

Budget Blinds made the design process so easy. Cassidy, my Design Consultant (above) came to my house, brought tons of samples and her computer and we got to work. We selected the Lutron Automated Shades that go up and down with the touch of a remote (my kids have a new party trick for sure) AND we designed custom fabric for the draperies that was perfectly matched to our space. Having a design consultant that listened to what we were looking for and helped us come up with customized solutions made this process simple and easy.

 

 

 

The DesignINK™ program (that is exclusive to Budget Blinds consultants) allows you to pick from over 1,500 stunning designs, six high-quality fabrics, use any color you would like and even manipulate the size of your pattern until it’s just right for you to create custom fabric. Don’t think for a minute this part wasn’t so much fun, especially for two design-minded girls! Thankfully Cassidy has a great eye and was able to help me narrow down a color, pattern, and print to some I loved fairly quickly. We designed several patterns and she had samples made so I’d have plenty of options to select from. The samples came in a few weeks later and you can see the different patterns printed right on the fabric to help finalize your selection

 

 

 

 

Once the fabric sample came in I finalized my color choice for the Lutron window shades. We have a nice lake view out the back of our home so I didn’t want anything that was too dark or dramatic covering it up. These lightweight Lutron shades were perfect. You can see below how we made sure everything coordinated perfectly.

 

 

 

While I loved all the fabrics we designed (including this gorgeous blue damask (above) that I’d love to use in my bedroom down the road), in the end, I went with a simple gray cheetah print. Perhaps if I didn’t blog about home decor for a living I would have selected something with a bit more of an impact, but I kept in mind that I need to be able to transition this room for the seasons. With home decor blogging having a neutral backdrop is important, plus I know I’ll love this pattern for years to come.  I also like that it is stepped up just a bit from a solid color. As we always say, leopard can be considered a neutral after all!

 

 

 

Once we finalized the shade and fabric selections, Cassidy came back with an installer and they quickly got everything hung up.  They even tweaked my curtain rods so that they would handle the weight of the fully-lined, custom drapes. One thing I really don’t enjoy is hanging curtain rods and such, so having them handle simply everything made my life so much easier.

 

 

 

 

 

Once the ivory curtains I’d had up came down and the whiter, brighter curtains were hung up the room looked so much better. I struggle with getting enough light in here thanks to our wooded lot so these light, bright white curtains really help. That was the beauty of the DesignINK™ program.  We could tweak everything from background colors to fabric and then match the shades perfectly to the other elements in the room for that custom, designer look.

 

I wanted to show you the “before” quickly (below), this is the best shot I can find, I had hung these ivory IKEA curtains up to tide us over when we first moved in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below is the new brighter, better look.

 

 

 

I love how this fabric and drapery style works with the brass rods, and the white background of the drapes matches perfectly with the shades.

 

 

Above you can see the shades halfway down. I keep them up most of the time, but we especially appreciate the shade we had Budget Blinds install on our stairway window. This side of the house does face our neighbor, and while I like the light during the day, I prefer privacy in the evening. I can quickly press the button around that time of day, or even better, I set up a time in my Lutron App so it automatically comes down at dark.

 

 

I went with a semi-transparent and not a full light-blocking shade because we don’t really need privacy in the living room thanks to our heavily wooded backyard. When we watch movies we’ll occasionally put them down, but for the most part, I keep the shades all the way up or maybe partially down on hot days. As I mentioned these are fully automated so they go up, down, or stop halfway with a touch of a button (see the remote below). You can even set up Alexa to operate your shades, honestly, it’s all really very high-tech but still easy to use!

 

Of course, now I can’t wait to complete the rest of the room, but I am so happy we got off to such a fabulous start and that the shades and drapes are such wonderful quality they will stand the test of time. I can’t recommend working with this company enough, they have options for every budget and you can get a FREE consultation in your area with a Budget Blinds design consultant to get the process started in your home.

For more information on Budget Blinds, to find a consultant or the DesignINK™ process please click HERE. 

XO,

For sources for this room, please click HERE.

A special thank you to the talented Susan Seidel Photo for providing many of these images. 

XO,

 

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