There have been numerous posts regarding window blinds over the past three months. So I thought it might be useful to share my experience.
My wife and I primarily wanted 2" wood blinds for our windows (we also have a few honeycomb). However, our windows' molding is fairly shallow. We have about 1/2" mounting space inside the window molding. And since we have molding, we didn't want to do an outside mount that covered the molding.
Most of the online sites said 1”-2” inches were required for 2” wood blinds. While that may be true for a flush inside mount – it isn’t necessary true for a semi-flush mount. Unfortunately – most sites didn’t list a true minimum mount space.
So being unsure what we could do with just 1/2", we had one of the local Hunter Douglas blinds dealers come out. We got a quote, and decided to go with the most critical rooms first (master bedroom and bathroom). The whole house quote was a bit much to stomach for people who were coming from a townhouse that had as many windows in the entire townhouse as their new master suite does now.
The local dealer got the blinds in and installed within two weeks. As they were installed, my wife watched to see if anything special was done. Noting that they took all of 5 min a window for the pro to install, we decided to try to do another room ourselves. So we found an online Hunter Douglas dealer and ordered the blinds for about $50-$70 less than the local dealer (per blind). We ordered 2” Chalet wood blinds (
http://www.hunterdouglas.com/hdg_pro...tail.jsp?id=44)
The install process was about as easy as it looked. The only tools required were a pencil and a drill/screwdriver. Everything including the blinds are shown below:
The before of the window (our lazy dog loved the sun from the unadorned window):
Next I took the right bracket and put it up against the molding. With a pencil - I just marked the two holes that lined up with the molding. Hunter Douglas says to put a screw in the side and top of the molding. This isn't possible with only 1/2" of space. So like the pros did on our other windows, I just put the two screws on the side.
Then with the drill I made two holes
I repeated the process for the left bracket and then screwed them in place:
Next was the really easy part, you just slide the blinds into the brackets:
Once they're in - just push down the top tab which secures the blinds in place:
Now it's time to assemble and install the wood valance. The valance comes in 3 wood pieces: the long front piece and the two short side pieces. They are held together by plastic joint pieces that slide into the grooves in the back of the wood. My wife was kind enough to assemble the valance while I was drilling the holes and fastening the brackets.
Once the valance is assembled, plastic fasteners are attached to the back of the valance. The fasteners then clip onto the metal head rail of the blinds.
Now just clip the valance onto the blinds head rail.
And that's it - the blinds are installed.
So here are the lessons learned:
1- Don't buy the whole house at once - pick a test room. The pictures above are from our test room and we learned a few things that make us more comfortable making the big purchase for the rest of the blinds.
2- Order the blinds length a little longer than you need. We measured the blinds length exactly how the online site told us to. The blinds came the exact length. When the blinds are open - they look perfect, but when you close them, the bottom slat doesn't close fully. When we compared it to the blinds the professionals ordered, they allowed for one extra slat that allows them to fully close. So the lesson is to order the blinds 2-3 inches longer than you need (about 1 slat). Not sure if this holds true for brands other than Hunter Douglas.
3- The side pieces of the valance can be tricky. We measured them the way the online site instructed us to - but they came longer than needed because Hunter Douglas applies the measurement from where the piece intersects the long valance piece of wood and not the exterior length of the side piece. So you have to reduce the measurement a bit. Now that we've compared our first order to the professional order, we're pretty confident on the size to order next time. My wife is calling the company tomorrow to see if they will send some slightly shorter side pieces. If I was handier - I'd cut the piece down myself.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Overall the process is very simple - it took longer to put together this post than it did to install the actual blinds.
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