Your Mama Loves Bottom-Up/Top-Down Blinds

When Blinds.com asked our team to review a set of blinds, I got my tape measure out immediately. I live in a rental home and with the exception of the wooden blinds I installed in my kids’ rooms, my blinds suck. They’re cheap plastic, they don’t filter heat or cold, and they have really long cords.

After carefully measuring my window, my contact at Blinds.com ordered me a set of 3/8″ Double Cell Light Filtering Bottom-Up/Top-Down blinds. (Check out the website, you can order them in tons of custom sizes, right down to the quarter inch.) These particular blinds come in a ton of colors. I ordered “Parchment” to match the white accents around the windows and doorways.

It took my brother less than 15 minutes to install them. If you’re not handy, add another 15 minutes or so. The measurements were perfect and the blinds fit snugly in my window. I chose an inside-frame mount, but they’re also available in an outside-frame style.

I’ve checked out a lot of blinds.com and it looks like the prices are much lower than some of the big home improvement stores. Plus, no taxes. You can order free samples of colors to test them in your home.

Here are the particulars about the Double Cell Light Filtering blinds I installed:

Pros:

• The blinds have effectively insulated the window, blocking heat and cold.
• The blinds don’t have cords, making them much safer for kids and pets.
• It’s very easy to raise and lower them with a little plastic handle.
• These blinds can be lowered from the top, bottom, or both. Privacy is awesome.  I love working with the top half open so I can get natural light but people coming to my front door can’t peer in at me.
• They’re silent. I dunno about you but I hate the noise that noisy blinds make.

Cons:

• These blinds filter light but they don’t completely block light out. (If you need a dark room, choose a different type of blinds.)
• It might take some practice to get them snug against the bottom windowsill.

Discount Alert

The team at Blinds.com would like to extend an exclusive discount to our readers.  To purchase the child-safe cordless blinds featured in this review, you can get 10% off with coupon code “YourMamaReviews” until 2/28/10.

About the author:  Maria is surrounded by boys. She gets all aflutter when she finds good deals, new episodes of Gossip Girl, and big bold bottles of red wine. Read more from this author.