remember this picture?

i was so excited to show you the light fixture, and as soon as i posted the picture i was reminded, yet again, about the horrible pink mini blinds. it's not that i don't see them everyday, cause i do, but i think that i actually just hate them so much that i am able to tell myself they don't exist. but in picture form, on the blog, out there for the whole world to see? it's embarrassing. and i'd had enough.

while in chicago, we finally made it to ikea. and we bought replacement blinds. we installed them over the weekend and i love them. even though it was cloudy and rainy and gray yesterday, i'm posting this picture anyway.



we went with the enje roller blinds from ikea after reading about them on door sixteen and brick house. both blogs raved about how nicely they filter the light and how easy they are to make a custom size. they come with nice hardware and seem to be good quality. and the price, can't forget the price. luckily, the largest blind size fit perfectly in our dining room window. i will take a better picture when it is sunny. i'm amazed how much of a difference this has made to our dining room. the blinds are not all that private at night when the lights are on inside, but we can close the curtains if we need to. with the living room in the back of the house, and the first floor of our house actually being up a half story, i don't think that this will be an issue for us. but is something to keep in mind if you are looking at these blinds for your own home.

we also went ahead and installed two more in the den.

this smaller one fit perfectly (well, after some persuasion... in the form of a hammer). this window does not get much light, but it looks directly onto the neighbors house which is only maybe 4' away. and that window you see beyond is their bathroom window... their window is frosted so you can't see in, but i still feel better about installing the blinds. plus now it just looks like filtered light during the day instead of a brick wall.

the larger window in the den was more of an issue:

cause why would it be the same size as the window downstairs and the same size as the blinds when it could be 1-5/8" narrower? it really was easy to customize though. the most difficult part was finding my fabric scissors. i didn't take photos, but here is a step-by-step guide to customizing the enje blinds for those who are interested:

step 1: measure the window and determine how much narrower you need the blinds to be. our blinds are actually longer than our windows but that isn't a big deal, we just won't unroll them all the way. the width is the problem. for us, we needed to cut off 1-5/8".

step 2: remove the cap on one end of the bottom rail. this will allow you to slide the rail off of the blind fabric. mark the amount you need to cut off and saw off with a hack saw. set aside.

step 3: carefully unroll the blinds and use a hack saw to cut the same dimension off of the top rail. the fabric will be glued to the rail at the top, i just cut through the fabric that was around the rail as i cut through the rail. make sure to cut on the non-finished end. (one end of the blinds has the hardware already attached, the other does not. use the end that does not have attached hardware)

step 4: carefully mark and cut the same dimension off of the fabric. for this step, i would recommend using fabric scissors. the blind fabric did not fray though. i just started rolling the fabric back onto the top rail, cutting as i went. this took the most amount of time.

step 5: slide the bottom rail back onto the bottom of the blind fabric and reattach the cap.

step 6: follow ikea directions for installation from this point on!

i really like how these blinds look in both rooms, i might buy a few more next time i'm at ikea. i also like how the white blinds look with the white radiators in both rooms. the blinds also come in a nice dark gray color that i was tempted by, but i'm glad i stuck with the white.

total project cost: $105 for all 3 blinds. not bad at all considering i was looking at a custom blind for the dining room window that was more than that amount for just one blind.