Custom Window Treatments with Budget Blinds of Freehold

Two words, window treatments. Are the necessary? Yes. Were you expecting me to say no? maybe. I will be the first to admit I never thought it was a “must have” when we moved into our previous home, and we lived there for 8 years without them in most rooms! Of course there were lots of times I was sitting scrolling the gram and would come across a gorgeous home with stunning drapes and then look over to my bare windows and wonder how to recreate that.

I always knew custom window treatments were an investment and I knew we were not going to be in our last home forever so I didn’t want to make that commitment. Hey, if it’s not something I can pick up at Homegoods, bring it home and see how it looks, then return it if it didn’t work I wasn’t into it. I started to get the itch for drapes to warm up some rooms so I bought some cheap white ones for my kitchen and guess what, they did the job. Now let me tell you, after (spoiler alert) having Budget Blinds of Freehold install custom motorized shades and drapes in our new house, there is a difference.

When we closed on our new home I daydreamed and pinned window treatments daily, our living room has a wall of French doors that was just waiting to be dressed in some gorgeous fabric drapes. The wall of doors is over 20ft long and I knew this wasn’t going to be a DIY project. The living room is open to the kitchen and we are in these two rooms all day everyday, if I was going to splurge on custom window treatments this was it.

Lets do this!

Enter Shreya from Budget Blinds of Freehold. Shreya reached out to me about working together on a project for our new home and I knew exactly which room we would attack. Our first phone call we discussed my living room and without even seeing the space she seemed to know exactly what would work. We set up a day for her to come by for a consultation and discuss the options for the space. She walked in with books and books and more books of options. When I saw this my eyes were wide open, I am not one to make a decision let alone narrow options down from hundreds. I told Shreya I was looking for something very neutral and she did the narrowing down for me. (PRAISE BE)

I knew I wanted one long black rod across the whole wall with a neutral drape. Shreya suggested motorized shades and only three panels of drapes to get that same look but they would not block the view and all the natural light from the doors that I loved. Honestly I was kind of nervous about drilling the shade cassette (the box where the fabric rolls up into when open) into the French doors. I thought maybe they would stand out and take away from the doors, Shreya assured me they would not. Of course she was right, again, trust the professionals. Even as I am sitting here in the kitchen typing this I look over at the doors and the cassettes blend right in.

We picked a beautiful textured white shade for each of the 12! yes 12, doors and window panels. I wasn’t sure if I should do motorized but with so many doors I would be pulling up and down so many shades and having to make sure they were even ect. motorized was the way to go. When I mentioned it to my husband he was all for the motorized ones, of course, men and they’re electronics.

After I was set with the fabric for the motorized shade we looked through drape swatches. I was immediately drawn to two colors so we took them over to the wall and looked at them next to the shade sample. One was darker than the other but both gorgeous neutrals, this was the hardest decision. In the end I went with the lighter one and I am still so happy with my choice. Now that I had both fabrics picked out Shreya did some quick measuring and we were done. She let me know she would place the order and call me when they were ready to be installed. That was another thing about having custom window treatments, I didn’t have to install ANYTHING.

Install Day!

About a month later Shreya and her team were back for the install, it was like Christmas morning for me. First they installed the motorized shades and I was shocked how fast they were in. As I said before we had 12 installed and they were up in an hour. When I was handed the remote it was the coolest thing ever, with the press of a button all shades were going down or up, and they did not need to be plugged in. The remote is battery operated and the charge can last almost a year, of course depending how often you use it. There are tons of settings and i still haven’t even tried them all. The shades have now become a favorite party trick when we have guests, either myself of my husband will pull out the remote and say “watch this” and show off the shades.

After the shades were up the drapes were next. Once I saw the first panel up I could not believe the difference it made to our room. The room looked finished, and honestly that was a great feeling after having so many unfinished spaces in our new house. I know it sounds silly but it took my breath away. I am trying to find a way to describe it and I can’t, they look amazing and I want custom window treatments in every room.

If you are in a home you will be living in for a while, invest in the window treatments. Its worth it. If you are local, reach out to Shreya of Budget Blinds of Freehold, she is a magic window fairy and will dress your windows like how the cutie little animals turned Cinderella into a princess. I am always a little Leary with having someone come over for estimates on something in fear they will be pushy and call me daily for a decision but Shreya and her team are not at all like that. She came over, we chatted about our families, home stuff and drapes and now I have one of those gorgeous rooms on the gram with stunning window treatments.