Whilst house hunting I was very excited to move to a new place with lots of windows, or a normal amount of windows anyway. My old apartment only had two, one very large patio door in the living room which lead to the balcony and one average sized window in the bedroom. There was no natural light in the bathroom, kitchen or hallway.
This house has a window in every room, so exciting!
The previous tenants left me with some very crooked, nickel coloured curtain poles and two battered, black Venetian blinds. All had to go.
I knew I wanted roman blinds for the kitchen-diner and turned to John Lewis. They had the simple lines in the lovely linen fabric I was looking for. I chose their Croft Collection Roman Blinds. I liked the colours and the fabric although some more colour choices would have been nice. I was happy with the price too after choking at the cost of made to measure ones I’d gotten quotes for.
I decided to go with Storm. This is a lovely grey colour that keeps the tie between the grey tiled floors and the subway tile on the back-splash. It’s a little darker in real life than it looks on the website which was perfect for me. As i’m a hoarder collector I like to keep most curtains, blinds and walls quite neutral as It’s all a bit too much to look at for my brain. I don’t dislike vibrant curtains and walls but I do love a bright white, blank canvas, it always feels so fresh to me.
Those old, black metal Venetian blinds were headed for the skip. They had been fitted to the inside of the window so I just unscrewed the fixings and filled the holes.
I wanted to hang the new blinds on the outside of the window. I like to be able to put plants and other junk interesting objects on windowsills and having the blinds on the inside would mean I wouldn’t be able to close them all of the way.
Cooking is not my strong point so I wasn’t concerned about cooking smells lingering or clinging to the fabric. I know hanging fabric blinds in a kitchen may be an issue for some of you but you can un-clip them and gently wash them by hand.
The reviews on the website were mixed, some complained about the fixings that came with the blinds but I had no problems. They went up easily.
Just a few holes to be drilled and the blind simply clicks on the fixings.
I especially like the metal chain for opening and closing as opposed to the fabric rope you sometimes get which always ends up a little grubby. The chain is a nice finishing touch.
I have no small children in the house so I didn’t need to worry about securing the chain out of reach to avoid any disasters, this is super easy to do though if you do have curious little ones at home.
As it turns out I very rarely close these at night as I’m not particularly over looked and I only sit in there in the evening if I have friends over for a Gin and Tonic or two, which happens more often than I should admit.
Over all? I love them. Good colour, nice fabric and well priced. Well done John Lewis!
I did buy more of these blinds in a different colour for other rooms, we’ll get to those in good time!
Over by the back door I was unsure if I should put anything at all there and then the warm weather came and so did the flies… and spiders. I decided to put up a small matte black curtain pole, IKEA did the job nicely and the whole thing, rod, brackets and curtain hooks cost only £9. Can’t argue with that. I chose some white cotton curtains with a subtle herringbone weave called Tibast
I’m not great with a sewing machine and I didn’t want to pay someone to alter them as I felt like I was hemorrhaging money at this point so I just washed them, turned the tops over and used those cute little grippers that come in the curtain rings sets from IKEA. All IKEA curtains come in a length of 250cm, so it’s likely you’ll have to alter them unless you live in a fabulous house with gorgeous high ceilings.
Eventually I will trim them down and hem them but for a quick fix to keep the wildlife outside, it works a charm. I also bought the £5 a pair plain nets to keep closed during the day when I want to keep the door open.
This is not a sponsored post. I bought the blinds online and paid full price. This is just my honest, humble opinion of a product I would recommend.
Mia Charles Design 