Measure and install window and door blinds with Lowe's How to Measure and install window and door blinds with Lowe's Host Mike Kraft, a Lowe's home improvement expert, demonstrates how you measure windows and doors, so that you can properly install new window and door blinds. You will learn what tools and materials you need to complete this do-it-yourself home project, as well as how to decide whether you need to use inside or outside mounting blinds, and how to measure and lay out your measurements in both cases. Knowing how to correctly measure your windows and doors for new blinds will aid you in choosing the correct size of blinds to purchase for your project.This morning I slept in until 9am. That’s a good 90 minutes longer than my normal wakeup time, all thanks to a project I just finished yesterday: adding a blackout liner to our bamboo shade. I love our bamboo shades (we have them both in the kitchen and in our new bedroom—we bought these and they are currently unavailable, but there are lots more on Amazon).

They look great, came in a ton of custom sizes and were inexpensive. However, they aren’t lined and let a whole lot of light in: Don’t get me wrong—we love our little lake view (as does Susie)… But some days I just wanna sleep in. Or take a nap at 2pm. Treeing Walker Pups For Sale In MichiganWe had blackout curtains in our old bedroom so I wasn’t used to all this light and was getting tired of covering my face with a pillow.Used Furniture For Sale Bangor Maine Simple fix: a $10 piece of fabric and some hot glue.Best Steam Mop Under $50 I must have wandered the aisles of JoAnn’s for nearly an hour looking for the perfect liner. I later found that blackout liner exists and can be purchased, but I didn’t see any there—guess I wasn’t looking hard enough?

I finally settled on this velvet-like taupe colored material that I thought would be camouflaged nicely by the bamboo blinds. Demonstrating its light blocking power… Next I had to trim it to the exact width of the blinds. This was a challenge because it wasn’t really a perfect rectangle—the bamboo slats kept shifting and it was hard to line everything up perfectly. I used a big ruler, a cutting mat and an Xacto knife and just carefully trimmed, one section at a time… I could have used regular scissors but I didn’t have any sharp enough to cut a smooth line. The Xacto knife paired with some tension on the fabric did the trick. With trial and error, it was finally cut to size: I decided not to run the fabric the entire length of the shades because the window wasn’t tall enough for it to expand all the way, so the bottom of the shade was bunched up and didn’t need liner. Before attaching the liner, I untied and removed the drawstrings so that they would run on the outside of the liner and it would roll up properly.

I just had to poke holes where it looped to the back, and then cut slits where the rings were. Attaching it was easy—I just placed a dot of hot glue on each of the large slats, right along the edge: I repeated along the top, on both edges and added a few beads of glue along the center for good measure. Then I poked the rings through the slits I had made, threaded the string and tied it back to the bottom ring. Then I held my breath and crossed my fingers…I was a little nervous that the fabric would be too thick for it to roll back up properly, but it was no problem at all. See how dark it is when I turn the lights off? We also decided to remove our center light fixture and swap it out for a ceiling fan. Flashback to a few weeks ago since this is the best photo of the old fixture I could find… We wanted something small and simple to fit the scale of the room. We love the fan in our sunroom… So I checked back on Amazon to make sure it was still available, and sure enough, it was!

We (well, Brad) installed it this morning. Switching pages here… it’s about time for an office update! Here it was the last time you saw it:I got myself a little present: I shouldn’t say little. This thing is massive. And it’s the whole reason for the room switch. Of course… if you follow me on instagram or facebook you would have known this a while ago 😉 We also set up a temporary workstation… but then we had cover it up so we could do our next project… For this project, Brad tried out some new lights: He said it was the easiest recessed light install he’s done and highly recommends these kits. For the bulbs, Brad bought seven 10 watt LED daylight bulbs (the brightest he could find) for $11.88/ea on Amazon. We decided to remove the chandelier (it would get in the way) and put our old office light fixture back in its place. I can flip it on when I just need a little light for a more cozy work environment. That’s all gone now and we’re going to remove the electrical boxes and patch over the holes since I have other plans for that wall.

After the lights and new printer were in, we made a trip to Lowe’s to pick up some materials to build a much needed large desk for cutting my big ‘ol posters. Unfortunately, Ikea didn’t have any wider desks to match my existing setup, but fortunately, Lowe’s had some melamine panels that was a close match to my desk tops. On a recent Ikea trip, I picked up a handful of extra desk legs so that the new desk would be the same height. The panels were 4×8 feet and 3/4″ thick. I needed something more substantial so I bought two to stack them. I also had Lowe’s cut them to 4×6′ to work better with my room arrangement. It was $38/panel, so not exactly cheap, but then again you can’t beat a large custom desk for less than $100. We laid the panels out on the floor and made sure they were aligned: Then Brad installed the legs: Finally, we inserted some screws that were long enough to grab both boards to hold them together, and it was ready to go: