The Dad’s Guide to Choosing, Measuring and Installing Nursery Blinds

The following article is a guest feature from Susan Hufton. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author.

Most future dads are suddenly prompted into “DIY mode” ahead of their new arrival – with cots being carved, homes being childproofed and also blinds being fitted. It’s this last issue which we are going to concentrate on through the course of this text and if you are scratching your head about what blinds tofit to your child’s room, it’s time to read on.

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We’re going to answer the first element of this dilemma for you – blackout blinds. While some parents might not install these, the vast majority do go down this route for the simple reason that they do their job very effectively. They block the light into your little one’s room and while this might not seem overly significant at present, by the time you have reached a weeks’ worth of sleepless nights you’ll be willing to try anything that can make a difference. Experts believe that blocking out all the light does – so take heed.

Now that the easiest part is out of the way, it’s time to delve into the section where it can all go wrong. We appreciate that not all dads are DIY-geniuses but while we’d love to be able to publish a set of universal instructions for every set of blinds out there, naturally this isn’t possible. Instead, we’re going to hand out several tips that should help you on your way and allow you to avoid that DIY-disaster.

Firstly, measuring blinds is the biggest hurdle to overcome. It’s here where you’ve got to determine exactly where your blinds are going to be installed. Are they going to be inner mounted, or mounted on the outside? This obviously makes a huge difference from a measurement perspective, with the latter requiring you to measure an area bigger than the opening to ensure that the blinds cover everything. If you’re opting for an inner mounted blind, you will need to legislate accordingly and drop your measurements so the fabric fits inside the window.

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If you have decided to mount them on the inside, you’ll then have the dilemma of installing the fixing brackets on the side or the top. Generally, the advice in these cases is to fix to the top if there are window handles that could be in the way, and fix to the side in all other scenarios.

During the installation process itself, the main advice is to check, check, then double-check again. First and foremost, cipher through all of the fixings to see if any are damaged and require replacing. While a blind falling down in the middle of the night in your room might be bordering on humorous, the same certainly can’t be said in a nursery. Additionally, just making sure that all of these fixings are in place securely is another must-use piece of advice, to again guard against any mishaps at any given moment.

Fortunately, most major blinds manufacturers supply extensive instruction manuals with their products – although the above should prevent you making some of the “schoolboy errors” that are so commonplace.

1 thought on “The Dad’s Guide to Choosing, Measuring and Installing Nursery Blinds”

  1. My husband and I are wanting to put new blinds in our home. It didn’t even cross my mind that we should look for blackout blinds for our baby. It would be nice to completely keep the strong sun out of our babies eyes in the morning. Hopefully we can find the right blinds to put in the nursery. Thanks for the idea!

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