Choosing bamboo blinds isn't an easy task, so I'm sharing everything you need to know to pick the best bamboo shades! From texture and color to the mount and cord, I cover it all! Even how to keep the neighbors from seeing you running around in your pj's!
I feel qualified to talk about choosing bamboo shades because it took me no less than 100 years to pick them for my home. Just kidding. It was about 7 months, but that's still a long time to choose blinds. I get the hesitation, though. It's a big deal and not an inexpensive change, so I didn't want to mess it up! Truth be told, I'm a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to decorating decisions and get analysis paralysis just like everyone else.
And a little more honesty: I'm a teeny bit of a perfectionist, so the thought of changing something and not liking it afterward terrifies me. (Hello, recent rug purchase that didn't work out the first time … eek!}
Well, I'll jump to the ending first. All of my hesitation was for nothing! I love these bamboo shades and I'm thrilled with how they look and work in my home, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.
I've wanted bamboo shades in my home since shortly after we moved in. I've talked about them for years whenever I share about my eat-in kitchen. I knew they'd look so good in there with the wall of windows. And I knew they'd look fabulous on my living room windows too, flanking my fireplace and mantel. And I was right!
So, let's chat about everything bamboo shades so you can feel more confident choosing them for your home!
Everything There Is to Know About Choosing the Best Bamboo Shades
Quality: First of all, quality matters. I got my blinds from SelectBlinds.com, and I can tell you right now they're high quality. I have some that aren't from SelectBlinds, and the difference is huge! So don't think you can skimp on this if you want a quality product.
Texture and Colors: Bamboo shades come in a wide range of materials, textures and colors. Every texture and color you can imagine is available, and they're all beautiful, but they may not all work well in your home. So it's important to decide which style you want. The good news is that with so much variety, there's something for every decor style!
Get Samples: The wonderful thing about SelectBlinds.com is that they offer free samples! It's an amazing service, and I took advantage of it twice! I picked out a bunch of styles and colors from the Designer Series collection. I literally sat with all of those samples for 4 months. I just couldn't decide. I'd think I'd made up my mind, then waver back and forth. I started to think bamboo shades just weren't for me.
But I got past my analysis paralysis, went back to the drawing board, and ordered new samples. This time there was a clear winner!
Don't settle for something just because it's the best of what you've got. Order more samples and keep looking until you find the best fit for your home!
I knew I wanted a medium-tone wood that would complement both browns and grays. I settled on Jute Wheat, because its texture is so pretty with the coastal farmhouse style I love. And the color complemented the wood tones I already have.
P.S. A lot of people ask how to match blinds to floor color. I'm not a professional designer, so take my advice with a grain of salt. When it comes to matching wood tones and shades, I just choose something that complements. It's so hard to get them exactly right. The same goes for cabinet color. You don't want to match, just complement. And since we're planning to change our flooring very soon, I was thinking about that new color, not the current floor.
Inside vs. Outside Mount: This is a fun little decision you'll need to make when buying bamboo shades. It's another reason it took me so long to finally choose mine. You can choose whether your blinds sit inside the window frame or outside it.
It was a no-brainer in my kitchen, because hanging all of those shades outside the window frame would look a little funny in there. Just too much. The back door has no window frame, though, so I had to go with an outside mount for that one.
The living room was trickier. If you've seen the old faux wood blinds, they were hung inside the window frames. Our living room ceilings are 11 or 12 feet tall, and because I follow the "high and wide" method for hanging curtains, our curtains sit much higher than the tops of the window frames. I'm not sure why the builder didn't just take the windows all the way up the wall, but he didn't.
The old blinds mounted inside the window frame.
So I had to decide whether the new shades should fit like the old blinds or mount outside the window frame and sit up next to the curtains. In the end, I decided to hang them high and wide as well.
And when I got the blinds up in the kitchen, I was so thankful I made that decision for the living room. See, bamboo blinds take up several inches at the top of the window, which is fine. But this way, in the living room, I can pull the shades down to the top of the window frame, and it not only makes the window look larger, but it doesn't block any of the light.
Here's the deal: I don't even close the bamboo shades in the living room at night. I just pull the curtains closed and call it a day. They're so long that they're a little heavy, so I don't want to risk them pulling out of the wall at the top by tugging on them every day. It works for us!
Liner vs. No Liner: In case you didn't know, bamboo shades are almost completely see-through at night. Someone standing outside your home while you have the lights on inside can see what you're doing. That sounds so creepy, and it would be. If you don't have close neighbors and don't have a lot of peeping toms, then it shouldn't be an issue.
But you can always add a privacy liner to the back of your blinds. Even though our windows face the backyard, we still have fairly close neighbors who could see in, so I felt more comfortable adding privacy liners.
SelectBlinds also offers a blackout liner option, which I think would be awesome for a bedroom! I'm thinking about ordering some for both of my girls' bedrooms.
One downside to the privacy liner is that you don't get much light coming in when the shades are pulled down. Just wanted you to be aware!
OK, I think that covers everything you need to know about choosing your blinds. Now let's talk about the pros and (very few) cons of owning bamboo shades.
The Pros and Cons of Choosing Bamboo Shades
Let's start with the pros, because there are quite a few, and they far outweigh any cons!
Half up, Half down: One of my favorite features of bamboo shades is that they can be pulled halfway down. Our eat-in kitchen faces east, so the morning sun is bright in there! But I can lower one blind halfway to block the sun while leaving the others open. It's so nice for blocking light.
Openness: Our old wood slat blinds were broken, so they couldn't be pulled up. That meant they were always down, whether the blinds were open or not. Even when they were open and light was coming through, it still felt like a barrier between the backyard and the inside. Now it's all open! I love how much larger the room feels now that the old blinds are gone and the new shades are on the windows. We've said so many times since we got them that we can't wait to put them throughout the rest of the house!
Size: This may sound funny, but I love how thin the shades are when they're pulled down. I think we gained a few inches around the perimeter of our kitchen now that they're installed. I love how much room they leave in a space that already felt small. Now it feels so much bigger, even when the shades are closed!
Cordless: This might be my absolute favorite feature! All of the blinds and shades at SelectBlinds.com come with a cordless option, which is AWESOME when you have kids. You never have to worry about them getting hurt on the cords!
On my shades, there's a little ring on the back at the bottom of the shade, and you just use it to pull them up and down. It gives me such peace of mind knowing my kiddos won't get hurt!
Feel & Texture: For me, one of the biggest design reasons for wanting bamboo shades was that they add much-needed depth and texture to balance out the flooring and all the white and bright colors. The way a basket or a rug adds another layer of interest to a room, the blinds do the same thing. I knew they'd complete the look in my eat-in kitchen and living room, and they did exactly that! They're the perfect complement to the rooms and finish them off beautifully!
Cleaning: I'm not a huge fan of cleaning, so I didn't clean my old wood slat blinds very often, which meant they were often dusty. But with bamboo shades, it's easy to wipe them off with a dusting cloth or a dusting wand. And if you lower them daily, they pretty much take care of themselves!
Light filtering: Bamboo shades let light pass through if they don't have a privacy liner. This is great if you want light coming in but still want some level of privacy. But, like I said before, you won't get privacy at night without the privacy liners. They're pretty much see-through. The privacy liners don't let much light pass through, though.
Easy Installation: Y'all. These are seriously the easiest blinds I've ever installed! They're so easy that I thought I'd show you in this short video …
I can't really think of any cons except one. And to me it's not even a big deal, so to me there aren't really any cons, but I thought I'd share this one thing in case it bothers you.
Shedding: My particular blind style {jute wheat} sheds a little, in that the natural fibers come loose. It doesn't fall out enough to notice on the blinds at ALL, but I just sweep up the ones on the floor when I'm vacuuming or sweeping, which I have to do anyway every night because of my kids. I think the other shades with slats probably don't shed at all, just the "wheat" ones.
Alrighty. That's a lot of information about bamboo blinds. Hopefully it's been helpful to know about the mounting styles, liner options, cordless choices and quality you want to have! If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or email me at Laura @ TheTurquoiseHome . com (no spaces).
If you've made it this far, thank you for reading!!
Laura
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