Pinterest Fail

I had one of those weekends where I had super high hopes for all of the fun projects I was going to do and recipes I was going to make. In the end, all of the errand running for said projects took way longer than I had anticipated, and with a nap, dinner with friends, a backyard campfire and a little shopping sprinkled in there (you know, the stuff weekends are actually for) I ended up barely getting anything done. For the most part, I'm not complaining.

What I am bummed about though is a flat out Pinterest fail. I've been seeing DIY roller blinds all over the place on my favorite inspiration site, and was extra excited to make one for the kitchen to bring some fun pattern into the space and get rid of the nasty old plastic mini-blind that was there collecting dust.

via

via

Awesome inspiration, right? And when I checked out several tutorials it couldn't have sounded more simple - get a cheap roller blind at the store, glue your fabric to it and viola! Seriously - it should have been the easiest thing in the world.

So I got out the iron and made sure my fabric was good and uncreased. I cut it down to size. I had the hubs install the brackets on the window. I glued the edges of the fabric to the blind and even used spray adhesive for a little extra enforcement across the whole thing. I let it dry, we tried to roll it up, and it wrinkled and came undone and basically just looked like crap. Fail #1.

Still determined, we took the entire thing apart and decided to remove the plastic from the blind all together and glue our fabric straight to the roller so we eliminated the whole 2-layer ordeal. This time, we decided to let it dry overnight to be extra safe, and I was anxious to try it all out this morning. I made poor Dan get out of bed to help, and while it rolled up just fine, the fabric is thicker than the original plastic of the blind and once it all rolls up it's too "fat" at the top to fit into the brackets on the window. Fail #2.

I went back through a few tutorials trying to figure out what on earth I could have done wrong in all of this only to find out that most everyone that makes these blinds don't make them with the intention of ever actually using them. They install them closed (or half-closed) on their windows and leave it at that - the "roller" part of the whole project is essentially useless, since they just leave them on their windows as-is. Considering we want to actually be able to use our blind (we especially need to roll it up when we're cooking something that may splatter as the window is right next to the stove)... Fail #3.

So I'm back to the drawing board on figuring this one out. If anyone has any brilliant ideas for me, please do share them. Otherwise, you can find me trying to salvage enough of the fabric that I can use it for something else, and whining about my $20 loss and current lack of a window treatment in the kitchen.