The Window Treatments Racket

[Anonymous]

Someone please enlighten me - why does a simple roller shade from, say, the Shade Store or Next Day Blinds or Hunter Douglas cost a minimum of $400 for a normal sized window? If you want a cassette to hide the plastic at the top you're easily at $600+ per window. That's $1200-$1800 for a normal, colonial bedroom, I'm not talking about a floor to ceiling wall of glass here. And then if you want anything fancier like roman shades or woven wood blinds, you're at $1000+ per window. How can the industry get away with that? What does everyone here do for window treatments?

[Anonymous]

Just go to IKEA.

I don’t have any shades like that but I made my own curtains (properly, lined and interlinked) and they are not ripping you off for those tbh. The material costs are high and there’s a fair bit of labor (obviously I was slower than a workroom but still). I really only saved money because you can buy a lot of fabric close to wholesale online without a decorator now. So Roman shades would be the same deal and still a couple yards of fabric even with the single width. Woven wood blinds are cheap - get them at Home Depot.

“Conrad’s” are the really fancy woven blinds.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP. Learn to sew.

[Anonymous]

$40 a window at Lowes

[Anonymous]

try stevesblindsandwallpaper.com. Installing double honeycomb shades that were literally 20% of nextday blinds price took less than 5 minutes. Quality is the same. Don't get ripped off!

[Anonymous]

Try Costco!

[Anonymous]

Measure your own and go to Home depot or Lowe's (or check for deals online once you find a brand you like). We spent something like $50 per window.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Measure your own and go to Home depot or Lowe's (or check for deals online once you find a brand you like). We spent something like $50 per window.

Home depot will measure your whole house for like $100.

[Anonymous]

We have bamboo blinds from JCPenney and they were $30 a window. I also got some roman shades from amazon and they were perfect. Lowes and Home Depot are better too.

[Anonymous]

You can get custom sizes for all types at Blinds.com for very reasonably prices. I would just recommend that you talk to one of their customer service reps when ordering to confirm you are measuring correctly. Their measurement instructions are very unclear.

[Anonymous]

These are a steal - you don't cut them to size, you can order in 1/4" increments and as long as the length is compatible with your window they're awesome.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Decorators-Collection-Cut-to-Size-Shadow-White-Cordless-Blackout-Fade-resistant-Cellular-Shades-18-75-in-W-x-48-in-L-10793478729388/306744623

[Anonymous]

Wait for a 40% off sale at Smith & Noble and get very nice made to measure ones - you can install yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can get custom sizes for all types at Blinds.com for very reasonably prices. I would just recommend that you talk to one of their customer service reps when ordering to confirm you are measuring correctly. Their measurement instructions are very unclear.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Measure your own and go to Home depot or Lowe's (or check for deals online once you find a brand you like). We spent something like $50 per window.

This is what we did, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try Costco!

I got estimates from them and almost fell on the floor with sticker shock. So so so expensive! More than next day blinds!