When we first moved into our house a few years ago we knew that we had our work cut out for us. The previous owner was an older gentleman who hadn’t lived in the house for over a year. Before he left he went through and painted the whole house a nice dark tan color. The first night we moved in I took a photo of the bay window in our bedroom, covered in clutter from the move, and was so happy to be in a quiet country setting. I look back on that now because I definitely had rose colored glasses on when it came to the status that we purchased the house in! Today I want to show you how we took an ugly, outdated bay window in our master bedroom and turned it into a gorgeous bright room complete with new white custom wood blinds from Blinds Galore, a fresh coat of paint, and new craftsman style woodwork courtesy of my dad! It’s AMAZING what a little TLC can do to spruce up a room….let’s check out the before photos.
This was the first night in the house in November 2015. The trim was honey oak, the blinds were metal and so dirty that dust stuck to them. They almost had a yellow film to them they were so disgusting. Sometime in 2016 I tried painting my bay window myself with chalk paint, which, I should add, was a horrible idea. It looked awful, but I just left it until this year when my dad stepped in to help. So here’s the February 2018 photo of when we got started working on the window….
Notice the woodwork was smaller, the curtains overwhelmed the window and made it look smaller, the paint job on the window was just…well, awful. And the blinds were unspeakable, abominable, atrocious, hideous, embarrassing, all of the above.
So we got started, we pulled the blinds down, took the trim off, and got to work!
I’m very blessed to have a father that is a contractor, so dad came to the rescue and re-trimmed out the window for us. Then he used Satin Impervo Oil Based Paint to do two coats of paint and one coat of Kilz primer on the bay window.
(Excuse the crappy before photos…)
Once we got the window trimmed out with gorgeous craftsman style trim and fresh paint, then we got to work on choosing wood blinds. I looked all over online but ultimately settled on using Blinds Galore because of their great selection, awesome prices, and amazing customer service.
What I really liked about Blinds Galore was that I sent them ideas of what I was looking for, then they sent me all the samples of the colors and styles that they thought were in line with what I wanted. In some cases, the ones I thought I wanted online ended up being exactly what I didn’t want once the sample arrived!! So samples truly are a MUST when ordering custom online and Blinds Galore provides them FREE!!
Once I decided on what I wanted, the BlindsGalore Design Expert, Robert, spent about an hour on the phone with me walking me through ordering and measurements and all the special things you need to know when ordering custom blinds. You truly don’t know all the things that go into ordering blinds and Robert helped me understand all of it along the way. I even sent him photos while we were on the phone so he could help me choose what we needed correctly!! I cannot imagine having ordered correctly without his help and the end result was GORGEOUS.
Our bedroom is so much brighter and happier now. We still have some decorating to do with the walls, but the overall aesthetic is very simple, clean, and peaceful, which is just what we wanted. The Wood Blinds that we chose from BlindsGalore are perfect for the day because they allow just the right amount of light in and then at night we close them for privacy.
The whole look of the room has changed since we fixed the bay window. What was once dark and dreary is now bright and cheery!
We liked the look SO much that we decided to lose the curtains and just go with a gorgeously trimmed out, bright window. I feel like getting rid of the curtains really made the room look SO much larger too!
I just LOVE how it all turned out and I cannot wait to show you guys the other products I ordered from BlindGalore in my master bathroom and living room, as well (coming soon!).
The whole room is finally in a place where I can start decorating it and styling it a little bit…it’s truly the perfect blank slate right now.
I feel like sometimes we all focus too much on the decor before we start evaluating the “bones” of a room. Start with fixing structural and overall aesthetic issues in a room BEFORE you start decorating because you’ll be surprised how much a room can change by doing a few DIY’s with extra TLC.
Check out BlindsGalore if you’re in the market for new custom window coverings. They ship fast, have great prices and sales, and provide AMAZING customer service!
Blinds Galore provided me with free products in exchange for this blog post. All thoughts, words, and opinions are 100% my own.
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