Looking Out My Backdoor

Now that the kids are back in school, I’ve been taking some time to pretty-up the house. It’s hard to do with so many people always underfoot. In fact, sometimes it’s quite overwhelming, especially because there’s just so much to get done. That’s why I decided to pick a project and just do that one thing. I’ll bet you’re just dying to know which project I’m going to discuss first, aren’t you?

When we built our house I really wanted french doors in the back. I like them so much better than sliding doors. They’re expensive, though, and we were on a budget. That’s why I opted for the french doors with just one opening. The other is stationary. Between kids and dogs, the draperies on those doors have been destroyed, though, and I really wanted something that would withstand both my granddaughter and my dog. Something like Vinyl Vertical Blinds.

I found these really nice blinds at BlindsChalet.com and Brian agreed that they’d work out well since they have a side pull opening. Brian helped me measure and we decided to measure from where the old curtain rod had been mounted. (Mistake #1) I couldn’t decide on a color and was leaning toward the Savannah white but Brian thought that we should go with the wood look instead. Our house is trimmed out in oak so Brian thought that would look good. Honestly, I hesitated because I didn’t think it would be a perfect match but I relented and ordered the oak look vinyl. (Mistake #2)

Even though my blinds were a special size, they arrived within a week. I was impressed. There were no instructions in the box but the online instructions were very detailed so I just printed those off. Brian and Nick had no trouble installing the hardware in less than 15 minutes and I quickly attached the blinds. I loved them!

Oh, but remember those mistakes? Well, those were all my fault. I didn’t pay attention to the height of the valance when measuring so now, when open, the valance doesn’t come down quite far enough. You can see a little of the wall between the top of the door and the bottom of the valance. Live and learn.

And my choice of color? Why did I listen to my husband? I love the man and he’s a talented brick and stone mason, but his sense of color coordination has never been his strong suit. He’s the kind of guy who bought all beige reseptacle outlet covers and lightswitch plates to put on our white walls because “beige is neutral and goes with everything.” Seriously, he did that. And yet, knowing this, I still sought his advice and then took it! I’ll blame the high heat and humidity during that week for my temporary loss of reason.

Nevertheless, despite my poor measuring and my husband’s choice of color, I really do love these vertical blinds. They open and close with no effort. Kendyll has pulled on them and hidden behind them and they’ve stayed put. Someone even splashed some chocolate milk on them and they wiped clean easily.

In fact, my husband likes them so much (he thinks he chose a perfect color, by the way) that he wants me to order blinds for our picture window in the foyer. I wasn’t sure if we could special order vertical blinds to open in the middle instead of to one side so I called the company to inquire. The girl at BlindsChalet.com who helped me was so nice and did a little checking to discover that I could order my blinds with a center open. Wow! That’s going to be great! I’m so tired of long, heavy draperies there. I think I’m ready for the more sleek look of vertical blinds. Of course, these will be white.

So, what do you think? Aren’t they nice? Wouldn’t they be nicer if I’d ordered the white ones like I initially planned? And aren’t you anxious to see how nice the ones on my front picture window will look when I get those? Stay tuned!

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