Window Covering

ideas to spruce up my vertical blinds?

i live in an apartment and for some reason the look of my vertical blinds just bug me! theyre just standard vertical blinds see pic http://www.1blindsforless.com/vert.h5.gif anyways, aside from possibly just buying a long piece of fabric to hang over the top as make-shift drapes...what are some other ideas to make them look better? i like to think my apartment is well decorated lol and my blinds are just an eyesore....also, that picture is just to give you an idea of what im dealing with, those arnt my actual blinds...mine are actually alot more basic than that

Public Comments

1. you can paint them. or tack fabric to them with fabric glue... other than that replace them with something else
2. Yuck...take them down and get some nice sheers and drapes for that window. Those blinds are so out of date, I wouldn't even have them in my house at all. If you shop around you can find some nice sheers and drapes without having to spend a bundle. Just measure the width of your window and make sure you get enough curtains so that the total width of your curtains is twice the width of your window, so they'll gather nicely. If privacy isn't an issue, just get the sheers, which will make your room look really nice. I'm a huge fan of the clearance bins...yesterday I bought really nice curtains for my bathroom for $1 a panel! Oh, if you rent and the blinds came with the apartment, put them away so you can rehang them before you move out...or the landlord will charge you for them, and even if they're ugly and outdated, they're still expensive. If you're handy, you can also find decent fabric at Wal-Mart on sale and sew your own curtains. They're not hard to do.
3. If you want to "lose the blinds" in the room - so the eye doesn't go to the blinds - take them down and spray them to match the walls - or if you prefer wild and funky - spray paint them your accent color. They're difficult, but not impossible, to take down and put up. You can also "paper them" with wallpaper, border paper, and you can use fabric adhesive spray and a nice fabric you like to cover them; you can wrap the fabrac completely around to the backside and overlap on the backside, or if you can cut it very precisely, just do the front side. I would cut the fabric a little larger than the blind and do the cutting after the fabric is adhered and completely dry. Tedious, but effective. And, you could probably "decopage" them using gift wrap papers, napkins, newspapers, or whatever pieces of paper you like. This would require at least 3-5 coats of decopage glue (light 0000 sanding between each application) to make it look real professional.
4. If you're renting, you need either your landlord's approval to change the blinds out, the landlord's approval to "permanently" change the blinds (paint them etc.), you can remove them and hang something else while keeping them to rehang when you move out (provided your landlord doesn't object to your window treatments being different from others), or you can dress up the blinds you have. Assuming no permission to change out from the landlord: - You can hang two corbels/window scarf holders on either side of the vertical blinds and drape fabric/a sheer curtain scarf through it. I did this in my apartment; the tops of the corbels were flat so I added a small houseplant (trailing ivy) on the top of each one. For what I mean by corbels, here's a link (it's angels in this case, but you can get about anything from plain to fancy to whimsical): http://cgi.ebay.com/Angel-Drapery-Curtain-Rod-Holders-Brackets_W0QQitemZ110168135362QQihZ001QQcategoryZ103459QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem - You can add a valance or curtains to what you have, even hiding them completely. A double curtain rod might be a good idea for this - then you can hang sheers as well as curtains, so still let in almost as much light but be able to have it look very finished and decorated too. - You can add a window box above the window - something padded covered with fabric that acts as a valance, something with a shelf on top so you can add other decorations that draw the eye up and away from the curtains, or even a window box itself with live or silk plants in it. Good luck! (: