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Can anyone give me suggestions as to where I can buy blinds for my new house? I love the plantation shutters but I know they are very pricey. I am planning to get 2" horizontal blinds. Has anyone used Budget Blinds or Blinds To Go or should I just plan to get them at Lowe's or Home Depot? I like the idea of someone else coming in to install them but would like to save some money as it's going to be costly to cover all the windows we have.
Can anyone give me suggestions as to where I can buy blinds for my new house? I love the plantation shutters but I know they are very pricey. I am planning to get 2" horizontal blinds. Has anyone used Budget Blinds or Blinds To Go or should I just plan to get them at Lowe's or Home Depot? I like the idea of someone else coming in to install them but would like to save some money as it's going to be costly to cover all the windows we have.
I'd appreciate hearing of others experiences.
We did wood shutters. They seemed child friendly and we have two little ones. I love them, but in retrospect, I probably would have done 2" wood blinds because we'll never recoup the cost of the shutters (we paid about $20/sq. ft.). CNN Money has a good article which recommended the faux wood blinds from Home Depot. As far as installation goes, if you're somewhat handy and have or can borrow a cordless drill, it's pretty simple. In fact I think measuring is the trickiest part if you do it yourself (make sure you're very accurate).
My wife and I used Buy Rite Blinds (mail order) for 2" plain white faux blinds and installed them ourselves (well I did it). Easy to install, great prices and great quality. www.buyriteblinds.com We have absolutely no complaints and saved a ton of money. We were going to get an enclosed blind set for our patio door from Home Depot (did not fit) so I went with their 2" blinds and I would say Buy Rite has the better quality IMO. Good luck.
We bought 2-inch faux wood blinds at Lowe's and installed them ourselves. Lowe's will cut-to-size free of charge. Installation was pretty simple. It took about 10 minutes for each window.
I lucked out, at least for blind installs, as my house has 27" windows throughout for inside mount. I just go buy the cheap 2" faux at HD or Lowes, hang each bracket with 2 sides screws and 1 upper screw, and 5 minutes later VIOLA! Takes longer to shorten the blinds than to hang them!
"They" say that the more expensive blinds won't yellow or sag like the cheap-O from HD/Lowes. However, my house has some expensive actual white painted wood 2" plantations that have been there between 1 and 8 years and they're yellowed slightly, particularly when compared to the new white HD ones. We'll see how the cheap faux's hold up over time. But at $22 a pop I can replace them 2x-3x compared to the price of one expensive competitor.
we wanted planation shutters for our new home, but they were too pricey for us. then we looked at faux wood. that would have cost us $400...
so we went with the regular 2" plastic. they do the job and i am covering them with curtains anyway!
And if you want to go extremely cheap you can get 1" PVC mini-blinds for close to $3 each at Target, and probably other places. They don't block light well at all, and they're extremely thin, but they don't kink like the aluminum ones. And they're cheap. I installed them in my kids room as they're cheap. Did I mention CHEAP?
I can't say enough good things about the Blind & Shutter Warehouse in Raleigh. A very nice couples owns it. They came to our house with samples, to measure, and gave us the free estimate. We thought the price was very good. Several days later, a crew came to install. They were done within several hours. We got 2 inch wood blinds and I thought we got a very good deal. Within several days we went from no blinds to completely installed blinds (we bought about 30 sets of blinds). I think they're worth a call.
I just got a bunch of 2" faux from Lowe's tonight, actually. With the right tools they'd go up easy - but we just moved in and I can't find my drill bits....even without the right tools I put 5 up in the span of an hour and a half.
Some of my windows are going to be custom width, so I'll order those on-line, from what I've seen the prices are better than HD/Lowe's - but I only have a few days before I have to go back to work and I wanted to get the bulk of the blinds up ASAP, so off the shelf was easy.
They are the advertised provider for "Extreme Makeover-Home Edition". I found them online and ordered a bunch (15) of 2" faux wood blinds from them. The price was right and the quality is good, but the customer service has been BAD BAD BAD.
First, they shipped the blinds with the wrong valances. (We had them shipped to my Mom's when we were between houses). One of the blinds arrived so badly damaged it couldn't be hung. We requested a remake at no charge which they agreed to, and instructed them to ship to our new home along with the valances. The valances came to the new house within a week without a problem, but the remade blind arrived at my mom's address 6 WEEKS LATER and DAMAGED AGAIN.
I called and very politely explained the situation, and they begrudgingly agreed to make the blind a 3rd time. I AGAIN corrected the shipping info with the rep on the phone,
This time it only took two weeks to receive the new blind, and it miraculously arrived intact. The only problem? they shipped to the wrong address YET AGAIN. I had to drive 20 miles to pick it up at my mom's.
I placed the initial order on November 15th. I finally got a complete undamaged order at my home and hung up YESTERDAY. Over two months.
I have had great luck with Smith and Noble (not cheap though) and with decoratetoday.com. Should have stuck with them.
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