The Handy Homeowner Girl

When I moved in to my new house, I felt very fortunate that I had blinds already installed because I knew that they could be a costly investment to start out with!  But that good fortune turned to disappointment when I realized that the previous owner had never cleaned them.  Because they are not my style and because she had three cats living here (and I’m allergic – and I suspect that’s part of my dog’s allergies too, poor guy), I decided to replace them room by room.  I particularly love the bamboo shades I replaced them with in my bedroom and bathroom – they make me happy every time I see them.

However, my excitment over the shades was tempered when I realized that although aesthetically pleasing, they weren’t exactly private.  My parents have similar shades in their living room, and pointed out to me that particularly at night, with the lights on, you can pretty much see everything in the room.  Definitely not ideal for a bedroom and bathroom. Particularly, when the house behind me is where my creepy neighbor lives and I’m not entirely sure he doesn’t spend his days attempting to look into my house.  I finally picked up some privacy liners for the shades this weekend, and after some careful review of the instructions and installing them, they gave me an incredible measure of relief!

I started by taking the shades down (in a future post, I’ll talk about installing them, hopefully when I put them up in my office!).  It’s a fairly easy process – I just lift up the bamboo flap covering the top brace and there are two nuts and bolts holding up the shade.  I just loosened the right one a little…

…and then took off the left one, so that I could remove the shade. 

The next step is to lay the shade on a flat surface, with the side of the shade that faces into your home facing down.  It’s probably easier to work on a hard surface like the floor or a table, but I used my bed since it was convenient and my sheets were in the wash.

Next, I took the liner out of the packaging and read through the instructions.  I first had to remove the velcro tab from the liner and carefully affix it to the top of the shade.

Once it was attached, I used the included nails to further secure it to the shade, starting three inches from each side, and then spacing them evenly across the top.

The next step was to attach the liner to the velcro strip, and stretch it evenly over the shade.

Then, it’s necessary to affix the bolster strips on the liner to the shade itself, so that it correctly folds when I open it. I rolled up the liner to reveal the top bolster strip, made sure that it was properly stretched and flat, and then, about three to four inches in from the side, I planned to attach it to the bamboo blinds.

To attach it to the blinds, the liner comes with several plastic ties.  The tie is pushed through the blind to the front…

…and then pushed back through another slat to the back. 

Then, you push the tie through a small loop on the bolster…

and push it together.  It doesn’t work like a zip tie, in that the end doesn’t push all the way through so that you can tighten this. 

(Sorry this is a little blurry - I got a little closer than my little camera was happy with!)

I assume that’s to allow for some give, so that the shade doesn’t pull.  For larger shades, they say over 37″, you’ll need to repeat this process for the middle of the shade, as well as the other side.  Since I was working with small shades, I only needed to repeat it on the other side.  I continued for the remaining three bolsters, smoothed out the fabric again, and re-hung the shade.  You can really see the difference between the shade in my guest room with no liner, and the shade in my bathroom!

Guest room, without liner

Bathroom, with liner

So now I can be comfortable in my own home, without worrying about my creepy neighbor.  I plan to replace the shades in my living room and dining room eventually, and will definitely be getting these privacy liners to keep would-be peeping toms guessing!