Simple Shades With Cafe Curtains

IF YOU LOVE THE LOOK OF OPEN WINDOWS BUT STILL NEED YOUR PRIVACY, THESE SIMPLE SHADES ARE THE PERFECT SOLUTION.

After I shared our updated breakfast nook recently, I had a few questions regarding the window treatments and the hanging baskets.

When I changed out the old curtains for these homemade cafe curtains, I had to also figure out a new solution for the blinds. I wanted simple shades so as to not take away from the cafe curtains, and I needed something I could close for privacy.

I love the look of windows without any blinds as I see often on Instagram but it’s totally not practical in real life. And I didn’t want the blinds competing with the look of the curtains and the baskets.

This led me back to Zebra blinds, a company I worked with to customize the bamboo blinds in my living room. I explained I wanted something that would almost disappear when opened during the day. We came to the conclusion of simple cellular shades.

I had them made as an inside mount, they sort of just blend in with the molding when opened. This also left me space above the window for the baskets.

I thought about doing a bracket-style shelf over the window in which I could hang the baskets underneath and use the shelf as display. To give you a visual of what I was thinking here’s an inspirational photo I saved.

Imagine that with a bar underneath to hang the baskets, as opposed to a curtain as shown in the inspiration photo below.

Though I love this look, I ultimately thought the shelf and the baskets together would look too busy. I decided against that and kept it simple.

Instead, I bought a very inexpensive curtain rod to hang the baskets on. For the baskets with shorter handles that wouldn’t fit over the rod correctly, I used fishing line to tie them on.

I really love these simple shades. I opted for cordless, which allows me to just pull them down or push them up. They work very smoothly.

You may remember my upstairs bathroom window has similar shades. It was the same concept for that window because I wanted to hang a decorative window panel and still be able to have privacy.