Quality, low cost window treatments

[kermit116]

I need recommendations for place to find quality, not horribly expensive window treatments. I've checked Blinds.com and thought their prices were kind of high. I'm also considering ordering from Costco, but I'm not sure.

We're buying a home that has no window treatments, and we'll likely need something simple like honeycomb shades for some rooms, and something like wooden/plantation style shudders in a few other rooms.

I am totally clueless on buying window treatments, so any advice on how to save money on them would be great!

 

[Gigi22]

Not sure about your area, but I was able to get a discount on the wooden horizontal blinds and valances I ordered for my house by using a store coupon (it came in regular mail to our house). My DSis was able to get some attractive inexpensive blinds for her new house at Pier 1.

 

[vwlizard]

JCPenney has sales ALL THE TIME. If something you like isn't on sale, just wait 2 weeks. I've done my whole house from there. Even though I was willing to spend more in some room, JCPenney always had the best selection.

 

[Pigeon]

I've also found JCP to be a pretty good value.

 

[Evi]

Honestly to get the best quality and value I recomend checking out stores at the end of each season. I purchased silk drapes for 4 rooms and payed less then a 1/4 of there retail cost by talking to the store manager when they were changing out there seasons stock. He informed me that they would have to send it back if they didn't sell it so he was happy to unload the merchandise for lower cost vs shipping it back. I would also consider DIY or even modifying something to make it work for you.

 

[MEM]

For really inexpensive window treatments, try yard sales. Just last week I purchased cotton tab-top drapes for six windows for 50 cents a panel. They resemble something from Pottery Barn.

 

[MickeyManiac]

We used Budget Blinds when we bought our house 10 years ago and our blinds still look great. We have wood, 2" white blinds. We have had no fading or yellowing.

I'm getting ready to call them to order blinds for our newly finished basement.

 

[disny_luvr]

I'd also recommend JCPenney. All the window treatments in my house are from there. Never pay full price. Like a PP said, they have sales all the time and if it isn't on sale wait a few weeks for it to go on sale. They also put out coupons pretty often. I think they look nice and have held up well. I get lots of compliments on them.

 

[cmjaffe]

Know that they'll be having LARGE sales on celular blinds in the next couple of weeks... have this annually and you CAN add in the % savings... really beats the box store prices

 

[angierae]

I've also found JCP to be a pretty good value.

I just bought wooden horizontal blinds at JCP at 50% off - they were only like $22.50 a window. (Of course, they still aren't HUNG, but by golly I got a good deal on them! )

 

[mom to minnie&mickey]

We just moved into our new home this summer and I had to cover 12 windows. After shopping around I went with Costco. Here in Canada they only deal with Hunter Douglas which is top of the line. The rep. came to my home and did all the measurements. They are custom made and their mechanisms are guaranteed for life. We went with a mix of roman shades, regular shades and blinds. The price was just under $4000.00. Expensive I know but it is quality material which will last for many years.

 

[TaraPA]

We built our house 6 years ago & I wanted windows windows windows. Silly silly girl. I have 29 standard windows plus 8 custom sized - I called a few places for estimates for window treatments. Let me tell you I almost died on the spot when those estimates came in! How naive I was about window treatments. I called a friend of a friend who made custom window treatments thinking certainly they would give me a better price. If I hadn't fainted before, I certainly about did when the custom estimates came in!

I had to have something on most of the windows so we went to Lowe's. Honestly I love the window treatments we got there - a mix of fabric shades, wood blinds & vinyl blinds. In 6 years I've only had one break & that was in DS14's room - and it was "user error" that broke it. My dad hung them easily in half a day.

As far as drapes, panels, etc. I got a lot of them at Lowe's too. I did have a few custom made because of the custom windows, but I found someone just starting her own business doing it & in exchange for some of her cost she would photograph what she did for me in my house for her portfolio. I've also gotten a few here & there at Boscovs (local equivalent of JCPenney), Target & Kohls. The only room I splurged on was my master berdroom because I was in love with a Croscill pattern - and lucky for me it was being discontinued & I found an outlet that had the whole set plus the bedding super cheap.

So don't overlook the home improvement stores - we've been very happy with what we got there!

 

[A and J's Mom]

I've had some good experiences with americanblinds.com. Free shipping and frequent % off sales. We placed wood blinds through much of our house and have been pleased with quality and the price we got!

 

[lisalis]

We moved into a new house over 10 years ago and had many windows to cover as well. Since we decided to put money into the landscaping, I did not have the money to do all the windows at once. The first week, we went to Home Depot and bought the inexpensive faux wood blinds to stick in all the windows. Then, I proceeded to get quality window treatments for rooms as we could afford them. Between that and the landscaping, it is a large expense of moving into a brand new home that many first time new home buyers(including us) overlook.

 

[DawnM]

If you live near an IKEA they might have some that will fit your windows.

We got wooden ones there and they are pretty good and very reasonable.

Dawn

 

[DISdreamin']

We built our house 6 years ago & I wanted windows windows windows. Silly silly girl.

Boy, I could have written that post. We'll be six years in this home next month, and although we only have 26 windows, covering them all and doing landscaping was waaaay more than we expected to spend. Naive, we were (in Yoda-speak).

We also went the big-box route, using Lowe's. I tried JcP and they didn't even come close, even with sale prices. I did some cut-to-size cellular shades that we needed immediately, and while I special ordered some Bali blinds we have been VERY happy with (top down/bottom up blinds that we love, love, LOVE for anywhere we wanted/needed privacy but also desired daylight) we put temporary paper blinds up in some rooms just to have window coverings for a few weeks while we waited for things to come in. The paper blinds don't actually look bad from outside (they pretty much just look like pleated shades) and they are super-cheap (cost was maybe $10 for three, I think) and they'll get you by while you save or wait for ordered things to come in.

The biggest thing for me was the install. Some of the wood blinds are super-heavy, especially the ones that are faux-wood (ie: plastic/resin). We ordered one that covered triple casements in our kitchen and holy moly, was that sucker awful to install. It must have weighed 30 pounds. And it was over 5 feet long.

Talk about a wrestling match! My advice is pick your battles. Get the shades in the sleeping areas up immediately, even if it means buying the paper shades temporarily (they're nice because they just clip up), and fight the other battles as you can. Good luck!

 

[tink2dw]

Do you have a Anna's Linen's near you?? They have deeply discounted prices on many styles of curtains. Which you could use till you can afford to replace them with what you really want!! I was looking at covering a sliding patio door and 2 panels the right size were $9.99 for both panels!!

see...
http://www.annaslinens.com/

 

[tvguy]

Another vote for JCPenney. They have options across every price range.

 

[Runnergal]

I bought plantation shutters from lowes and installed them myself in my bathrooms. It was actually pretty easy and I am not handy at all. All you need is a drill. For custom blinds, I was happy with Home Depot. They measured and installed.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I bought plantation blinds for out house at Lowes. They were fairly reasonably priced.