Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Quest for a mini-blind free house

In my severe nesting phase, I've finished up work on the window treatments of my house. If you've ever talked about home decor with me, you know that I absolutely loathe mini-blinds, and since I bought my house I've been attempting to rid myself of decades old mini-blinds room by room.

My hatred of mini-blinds goes back to my time as a teenager when I would clean houses to make a few extra bucks. I mostly cleaned family homes and helped others with spring cleaning projects. These almost alwa
ys involved cleaning mini-blinds. You can use special cloths and tools to clean them. You can take them out to the clothes line and spray them with a water hose and then let them dry. You can clean them in the bathtub and then hang them up to dry. Any way you cut it, it's a pain-in-the-you-know-what to get all of the dust off them.

I'm not sure what designer came up with them and thought they were a good idea, but I think they are absolutely ugly. That pretty much sums it up.
So, room by room over the past year and a half, I've been redoing, taking down, sewing, and sewing some more. I loathe sewing too, but I can do it and it's cheaper than buying curtains.

This is the breakfast nook
of my kitchen, the site of the mini-blinds last stand. I redid the kitchen to reflect a french quarter type of feel with wrought iron detailing, and I'm pretty proud of it. We painted the white kitchen 'tea cake' with white-white cupboards. The curtains were actually shower curtains I found on sale that I sewed a fabric border on. We got rid of all the brass fixtures, handles, and faceplates. When I get rid of the ugly fake green marble countertops, I think it will be complete. I love the way my kitchen looks on a sunny day.

To top off the kitchen, I have a memento from my Grandmother Dale's kitchen. My mom embroidered this
wall hanging years ago, and it hung in my grandmother's kitchen for several years. I took it, cleaned it, and had it reframed to hang in my kitchen where I hope it stays.

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