Drape and Cellular Shade Install

The drapes and cellular shades for our office are up.  Here is the thrilling photo documentation of the install.

The drapery rods were re-used from before the re-do.  We didn't feel like fooling around with a level so Dan and I simply eyeballed them to make sure they were straight.  I used some of those plastic anchor and screw things to hang the brackets.  They enable the rods to hold up to 50 lbs. Not that they need to hold that much weight but you never know when one of the bad cats might think it a good idea to a half pike off the drapes. I worn you cats now....don't even think about it.

We picked really simple inexpensive white 100% cotton drapes to help lighten up super dark walls.  And they can be thrown in the washing machine when they need it.

Drapes!

Here are the cellular shades in their boxes that the mail guy dropped off.  We ordered these from jcpenney.com because they cost a hell of a lot less then Levolar or Bali blinds.  Man, those things are tres cher.  And, we were able to order these in exactly the size we wanted.

I was a little worried about the difficulty of installing these blinds because they are the top-down/bottom-up variety.  No problem though, it was really easy, no more difficult than installing a mini blind.  But, it is kind of hard to hold the electric drill up over your head when your arms are fried from the many push ups and pull ups cranked out earlier in the day.

Here is all the stuff out of the box.  I hope you find it as interesting as I do.

First thing to do was install the brackets that hold the blind so I started by measuring.  We wanted an inside mount, meaning the blind will fit into the window frame instead of outside of it.  Each blind has 2 brackets that had to be screwed into the window frame.  For each bracket I measured 3 inches in from the side, and one inch in from the front of the window frame.  Than I marked the screw holes with a pencil and used the drill to drill the holes.

Here is one of the brackets ready to go.

Four windows, 8 brackets and 32 screws later, I popped the blinds into the brackets, and voila!  I love them, especially the up/down feature these have.  And they still let a lot of light in when they're closed all the way. Pretty great. 

Plastic handles to lift and lower the blind are included and snap on to the blind. 

We are pretty happy with the blinds and drapes.  It's kind of sad, though...I used to spend my money on clothes and vacations.