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The Best Budget Wood Blinds

Hello friends! I know it’s been a long time since my last post, but we went on a little mini vacation, and to be honest, summer with 3 kids at home doesn’t allow much time for projects or writing about them. On top of that, our kitchen renovation has hit so many bumps along the way, that I don’t have much to share there yet either. Soon! One small update I made this summer is to the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom. Years ago, I searched for the very best budget friendly custom bamboo blinds I could find for our old house. I bought that first set, but I was so thrilled with what I found at Blindster that I asked them to partner with me on more bamboo blinds for that house. Now that we are in a new house, it was time for some new blinds, but bamboo wasn’t going to work for us, so once again, I searched for the best budget custom wood blinds and Blindster delivered. Today I am going to share one of the updated spaces with you, our master bedroom! (I will also be sharing Emmy and Wilder’s rooms soon, but summer and a tween bedroom don’t mix, and neither do napping and photo shoots!) Thanks so much to Blindster for partnering with me on this project and providing the blinds for our new home. I was not otherwise compensated. All photos and opinions are my own.

How pretty are those blinds though? The last time I showed you our master bedroom, it looked like this:

You can’t tell because I let the windows be blown out on purpose, but the blinds that were in place were cheap plastic and sort of grimy… like dusting alone wouldn’t work because there was a film. Gross, right? Good quality custom fit blinds can be a challenge to find, so I am so glad that I’ve found Blindster and that they had just what we needed this time around as well. As I mentioned, in our last house we used bamboo blinds from Blindster and I adored them. I loved the warmth and texture they added. You can see them in this photo from our real estate listing.

Our old house sat up on a hill with barely any neighbors in sight. We could easily roll open the blinds and not worry about anyone looking in while enjoying the light streaming in. However, our new house is in a charming neighborhood with smaller lots, and neighbors on either side. We are fortunate in that our house faces a treed back yard and we don’t have neighbors directly across from us, but we definitely needed something that would add more privacy while letting light flow into our home. I absolutely loved the warmth and texture that our bamboo blinds had brought to our home before, so I opted for wood blinds which could be opened, closed, drawn up or down.

After looking over all of the wood blinds that Blindster carries, I opted for the 1″ wood in Carmella because I wanted them to be open at times and allowing a lot of light in, but also close for privacy. I chose the color Carmella because it is a warm medium brown which suited all of the wood tones we have in our bedroom. Below you can see how the color pairs with Chris’ dresser, the color block on the wall, and our bed.

I also snapped this shot to show you the exact same view of the room with the blinds open.

We are thrilled with the difference they make in our space, and I love the warm glow they give the room. It feels so cozy! These blinds are made of basswood which is a nice light weight, and they are coated with a UV resistant topcoat so that they won’t fade over time which is really important for where they sit in a home, directly in sunlight.

Our new blinds were super easy to install as well. They came with brackets that get mounted into the corners of the window (if you choose inside mount like we did), and then the custom fit blinds just pop right into those. Our window frames, as it turns out, aren’t very deep, so I wasn’t able to use every screw hole and they stick out a little, but that doesn’t bother me. I knew that was going to happen when I measured for them hot I still preferred the look of inside mount. You can, of course, choose outside mount as well. Once you place the blinds into the brackets, there is a magnetic valance that just pops right onto the metal piece at the top and hides it, so when you look at the window you see the beautiful wood and you don’t see the metal piece. This shot was taken looking up so you can see the metal the wood is clinging to.

One other thing I want to mention that doesn’t have to do with the actual blinds directly is the Blindster story. I am a huge fan of business stories and love listening to podcasts that share how people started their companies or found their way to success. Kyle Cox, founder of Blindster, shares a brief tale of how they started with just $5000 and no experience in window coverings! You can check out their story and see a photo of the Blindster crew here. I definitely think companies are much more relatable when you hear their stories and see the faces that make up the family behind the business.

Thank you so much to Blindster for helping us create a cozy retreat that has the privacy we need. If you are looking for affordable custom window treatments, I cannot recommend them enough. I am a customer turned partner because I love their products, affordability to regular people, and their wonderful team.