Massive mistake re window blinds

[MiniCooperLover]

We had horrible yellow wood blinds from IKEA up for 18 years in the front of our house. Have gone on a bit of a decorating spree. Beautiful dark green walls in the hallway so it was all going well. DH wanted grey carpet and I wanted hessian as it's warmer looking. In the end went for pale silver/greys and it's horribly cold looking with the white woodwork and before the carpet went down we'd ordered new wooden blinds for the front of the house. Wanted shutters but they were twice the price and we had 5 big windows to do. So we went for off white in large slats fitted into the recess.

Big mistake ... the whole thing together is so cold and stark looking and office(y). Am so disappointed but need to make best of it but don't know how 😞.

We have sheer curtain panels from Ikea over a plain white blind in our bedroom. They are cotton/linen even though they were cheap as chips, and they look lovely- they have a bit of an uneven texture to them that looks and feels so much more expensive and luxurious than you could get in a polyester voile. They completely soften the plain blind and diffuse the light really nicely. Also as I couldn’t be arsed shortening them they pool on the floor, which softens the effect even further. And easy enough to wash fairly frequently if the pooled bits get grubby.

Living room was painted today, huge difference already and curtains arranged to sit next to the blinds too.

Both rooms love lovely! Thanks for the update

Looks great OP!

I’ve just done the opposite to you. Replaced white (slightly off white) blinds with wood colour. Just the living room thankfully. And it doesn’t go with my slightly cold pale green paint! (Neither did the off white blinds). I’ve now got to repaint the living room a warmer colour. I can’t add curtains as it’s a dark room with small bay window.

Your good outcome gives me hope that all is not lost!

@Fedupofdiets

i like your reply! & I love your window. What is the blind behind the voile?

I have a very difficult window & I think your combination could work.

@MiniCooperLover

thanks got the updates. I'd love to see it again with the curtains!!

Curtains are going in today, am ridiculously excited. We went for Dunelm made to measure in the end and picked a William Morris pattern. Will put update picture later.

We've got to keep them tied up for a couple of days for the pleats but am very pleased with them, though I think they cut down the pole too much for the patio which is annoying 🙈

First picture is small window second is big window

They are lovely! Looks great.

Random question, but is that small bowl on the floor in your photos a dog bowl?

Yes indeed it's the water bowl for this hairy hound 🐕

😍

Beautiful, beautiful curtains! I really like them and your flooring, and basically your whole room.
If the blinds are still bugging you then the two rows of tape that run down some blinds would improve them.
Maybe also painting the radiator the same colour as the wall?

I'm thinking of having the white slatted wood tape blinds, they look better than voiles & can be angled to let light in but still retain privacy. I'm having heavy thermal lined curtains as well due to my council windows being draughty.

Annoyingly now we've drawn them for the first time we've realised the measures who came didn't do as I asked which was make them wide enough to sit outside the window so both sets of curtains when loose are blocking window light. Initially I said to Dunelm I thought the pole was the issue, cut down too short but now we see he cut the pole to suit the curtains. They're coming out to look at it Wednesday

We put Luxaflex blinds in all of our windows but I hated how stark it looked. So we've added curtains to all the upstairs rooms and roman blinds down stairs. And we just put a simple wooden pelmet board up in the bathrooms just to make it look more finished.

They're looking amazing on the main window, hard to remember how cold and clinical it looked when the room was a pale blue and the white wooden blinds were first put in ☺️

Am definitely going to get curtains after seeing your recent pictures. We have Venetian blinds ,look lovely from the outside but inside they just look bland and covered in dust. We have bay windows so not sure how to measure the curtains.
Doggie looks absolutely beautiful.

What will you do in the winter when the radiator is behind the long curtains?

Can I have your dog please! I'll look after him really really well- promise!!

it's all coming together & looking lovely. Hope you get the other ones sorted!

@RichardsGear I was a bit concerned about that but that radiator doesn't give off loads of heat and we have another (bigger one) the other end of the room 👍

Apologies if bored by this reappearing ... to update it turned out the measurer hadn't quite measured correctly, the pole fitter then made the poles too short ... eventually another fitter came out, longer poles went on and holdbacks too as they were blocking window light (originally supposed to have measured to avoid this very thing). Anyway despite the initial issues Dunelm worked hard to resolve and I'm ok with the fix of new poles and holdbacks 👍👍

A couple of pics

It's not boring! I'm glad you're getting somewhere, takes ages to get things finished. I think you've chosen well.