Few things say Happy Thanksgiving like a turkey home improvement project – and this year we decided to put some blinds on the windows in the kitchen. After spending all day in the kitchen last Thanksgiving, with two ovens and 4 burners running all day, being able to screen out the sun just to shave off a few degrees was a requirement.
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To solve this problem, we decided to install some roller shades … could you have guessed I wasn’t a curtains person? We looked around a while but I decided to go with an online providor – The Shade Store. They have about 1,000 options and selections and they will send you samples of the all the different fabric material options. Their website is a great resource for finding and looking through different options – almost too many options for most people – but since I have pretty specific tastes when it comes to my own house, this was more about finding what I wanted.
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You can order samples from them for anything that you want – I couldn’t tell you if there was a limit on the number of samples or not. If there was, we didn’t hit that number and I think my wife requested around 15 different swatches to look at (eventually we’ll get around to doing more than just the kitchen).
I knew that I wanted a roller shades and that I did not want a blackout shade or printed fabric shade. I also knew that I wanted the material to be dark – our kitchen window faces South and it really get hammered by the sun and if I went with a lighter color, I’d have a glare issue. Even knowing what I wanted still left me with an unbelievable number of options; I’ve included a screenshot of the materials page but I cutoff probably 80% of the materials that are available.
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Once we selected our material and measured our windows, it was time to submit our order – which we did completely online. The one tricky thing (at least for me) was figuring out where to order my shades on the website – there isn’t a page or button that reads “Order here” – something their web designers should change. You have to actually order your window treatments from within the section of the treatments you are going to buy – meaning, if you are getting roller shades, you have to be within the roller shade section to be able to submit your order. Other than that one particular issue (for me) the website is easy to navigate and the process of actually ordering your shades is very simple and direct.
I ordered 3 roller shades and since none of the windows were particularly large, I didn’t have to pay any sort of premium. All told, my shades cost me just over $400 and I didn’t have a separate charge for shipping. I received a confirmation that my order would be filled and sent out to me within 10 business days.
Pretty good right? I mean, we didn’t leave ourselves a lot of room for error in our schedule if we were to actually get these shades installed in time. I placed my order approximately 14 days before Thanksgiving so if all things went as planned, I should have a few days to install them.
But did they come in 10 business days? Of course they didn’t. I received my shades 4 days after I ordered them! Cha-Ching! I am all about the customer experience and so far, everything went better than I had expected.
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This is a shot of the tools you need to install your new roller shades. It’s a pretty straightforward list of tools, most of which everyone would have on hand.
- Drill
- Level
- Phillips Head Screwdriver
- Socket Wrench
- cold beer (not shown here, it was already in my belly)
I will tell you this – the reason most contractors are better at installing things than you are is because they have the right tools – this is very important. I used a socket head wrench even though the instructions told me to use a Phillips head screwdriver. I could have used a screwdriver to install the screws but the area the screws go isn’t all that large and a socket wrench allows me to get my deceptively large hands where they need to be. This means I won’t end up putting the screws in at an angle nor will I strip the screws (makes removing these screws easier down the road if needed)
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This is a closeup of the end bracket for the shades. The brackets themselves are not metal but a plastic that is coated with a finish that you can specify (I chose chrome). Once I got out all the right tools, I don’t think I spent more than 30 minutes total installing these shades. Yes, it was that easy and the action on these babies is smooooooth. They seem totally pro – I suppose it’s because they are.
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This was an incredibly easy process and makes our kitchen space significantly better and vastly more enjoyable. If you want to know what I specifically ordered, it was:
Roller Shade – Light Filtering / Specialty – Nature Concept – Grassweave Bark (price group A) – Inside Mount – Chrome Brackets – Regular Roll type – Sewn In Bottom Bar – with no additional features (no valence).
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