How to ... fit a blind!

Full disclosure here guys ... I'm not the biggest fan of blinds or curtains. I see them as kind of an unnecessary evil and so shoved them to the very bottom of my 'house to do' list, like what's more essential a toilet cistern or a blind? My point exactly!

We have been getting along pretty well without them, with wooden shutters in our living room and some ATROCIOUS green inherited curtains in the bedroom - all important rooms were taken care of in terms of window concealment ... that is until the Bear's brother & new family decided to pay us a visit. The visitation will include an ADORABLE toddler and so it became apparent that the lack of blinds in the spare bedroom was not going to fly and hence this 'how to' blog post!

YOU'LL NEED:

• Screw Gun and appropriate head

• Spirit Level

• Hack Saw

• Blind (IKEA obvs)

• Tape Measure

• Pencil

• Scissors

Music to work to: Harper Lee by Little Green Cars - nothing to do with blinds or anything window related - just a terrific Irish band which are rather delightful to listen/drill to.

Awesome Femme we are channelling: Helena Bonham Carter's character Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View - she coulda done with some blinds...just sayin'.

Take your 2 metal brackets and drill them into the window frame using your trusty screw gun ( we decided to drill directly into the frame as we want the blinds flush to the window). Use a spirit level to ensure that the brackets are on the same level – otherwise your blinds are going to look whack. Yo.

The rather fabulous thing about IKEA blinds are that they can be cut to size. Before you cut anything – take your tape and measure the space between the two brackets that you have just fitted. Not before – AFTER! If you measure before, the blinds will be too long as the brackets add bulk.

Once you have marked the correct measurement, find a space to cut the blind. You can cut them in one of two ways; ROUGH & READY or WITH PRECISION & CORRECTLY. The first goes like this - take your hack saw and just cut straight through – yes through the material and the actual blind roll. Don’t stop – power through or you will have a crazy uneven edge.

The second method involves pulling the blind out fully, and drawing an even line where you intend on cutting. Use a large fabric scissors to cut along the line and after this cut through the blind roll with hack saw. This is the correct method – the other is quicker but overall a pretty terrible idea.

Then pop the circular white contraption back into the end of the blind roll - see below.

Then it’s just a case of popping the blind roll into the brackets on the wall. Granted – it’s never as easy as ‘popping’ them in – more like after SQUISHING, JAMMING AND AFTER MUCH CURSING, the blind roll eventually goes where it is supposed to go.

And boom, blind installed - GO TEAM!

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