Any advice on good place to get blinds? Hunter douglas? other brands? (price, stores)

[lioil]

So I am going to move into new construction end of July and one thing that I need to do is put up blinds. I have been doing some research and I think the honeycomb, horizontal blind (maybe faux wood?) and roman blinds (maybe for bedrooms since they block light better?) are some choices I am considering. I dont want to mix styles too much so at maximum i would have bedroom floor (3rd floor and 1st floor) be all Roman if i select that and the 2nd floor (living room/kitchen etc.) be the honeycomb/horizontal blind.

With that said, I have done some research on blind brands and it seems hunter douglas seems to be the best and i also see levlor, graber mentioned too. My brother in law uses hunter douglas and he said he had them for 15 years and no complaints. He did say it might not be worth it if I plan to move out of the place under 10 years though.

With that said, I counted the floor plan and i have 13 windows (lets assume regular windows) and 1 deck door which I am assuming needs blind too. Just kind of curious what folks here recommend brand wise and if it is Hunter douglas or another brand, any good distributors/stores to go to to get best deal? I do see a couple of hunter douglas dealers - windowdecor, blindsforless, snyder's shdes and shutters. I guess i could shop around those 3 and have 3 consultations and bargain on the price? But if anyone know of any special dealer or other great brands please advise!

Since this is a brand new place I think initial cost is ok so as long as quality/longevity is there.

Thanks!

[CLfan1977]

We installed Hunter Douglas 15+ years ago in our house and they have held up well. One large honeycomb shade had problems after a few years and the company stood behind the product and replaced them. I think real wood blinds might be heavier than faux wood and therefore heavy to raise, but I’m not up-to-date on their current products. We have a mix of blinds and honeycomb shades on our windows. I’ve been very happy with them.

[BOS2IAD]

Also, look into Next Day Blinds. They will make an appointment to come to your home where you get to choose which type of blinds you want, and what colors you want. Then they will measure every window that you want to have blinds.

Despite their name, it isn't a "next day" process. Yet, we were happy with the ones we got. When we sold the house 20 years later, all but one of the blinds was in good shape. We did have to replace the blind in the window over the kitchen sink as it had taken a beating over the years.

[lioil]

would you recommend "shopping around" in terms of having multiple stores come and do measurement etc and get best quote? or do the same dealers usually have same price? i heard one guy said its almost like buying a car..

btw, checked next day blinds and they are out of business...

[Mayvenne]

Years ago when we moved into a very large new home, I had someone come out and measure and install for blinds. ( If I recall there were over 40 windows. It was worth it to get it done right, quickly and over.
After about 20 years I changed them out ( originally, back in 1990 the cool thing was the micro mini blinds made of metal. they did not wear well) and room by room selected Home Depot or Lowe's faux wood blinds. Honestly, they were wonderful. When we moved out they were still looking great.
I don't know if the same is true for the honeycomb blinds, but it was a fraction of the cost and I would definitely look into that .

[Take a History Class]

One of the best things I ever did was hire a lady that installs blinds for a living. She came out and measured for custom blinds for both sides of a duplex I own and had them installed in about 2.5 hours, because she knew what she was doing, and had seen everything that could go wrong before. I would have spent the entire weekend cursing at them and myself. Well worth it to hire a professional.


Also, both sides were mirror images of each other, but I was shocked at how much variation in size there were on the window openings. My installer said this is very common and why she only installs custom blinds that she has measured herself.

[ocnjgirl]

We got ours online from a site called Select Blinds. We got 4 pleated bottom-up/top-down blinds (you can open them from the bottom, top, or both at the same time) for 4 windows 69" wide by 45" tall. We paid $463 for all four, which was a bargain compared to all the brick-and-mortar stores I went to. Blinds to Go I think quoted us something like $1100. My husband put them in easily. Before we bought them, I requested about a dozen samples to pick the right color, which they send free. We have had them for just about 3 years now and they look great.

[lioil]

i did checkout Hunter Douglas dealers and graber and I do like HD blinds. It felt so easy to lift. My brother-in law said the price hike is due to the pull system (ease of doing it).. so maybe thats part of it. Will definitely check out nearby installers to see best price.

[Crazy4Chickens]

We bought new blinds a few years ago when we moved I to our current house. We went with blinds.com. Within several months the blinds started having issues. We talked to the company and they sent us new blinds, but one by one the same issues happened to each blind. We pretty much had to replace them all. My advice is think twice before you use blinds.com.

[reubenray]

I ordered Levelor blinds from Lowes and installed them myself. It is very easy to do.