Low-Cost Kitchen Blinds for Awkward Spaces...

How to cover kitchen doors and windows is never easy, especially if you're on a tight budget. When I installed our new kitchen, the plan was to do nothing with them at all because we weren't overlooked. However, hot sun due to the west-facing aspect forced me to have a major rethink as the kitchen got so warm when we were cooking, we were cooking!

So what to do? It was particularly tricky because there was no space to pull back curtains, and using roller blinds would have left a fairly large gap between the two. So, after a lot of thought, I made two roman blinds of different lengths, one for the window, and another for the door. I fixed a wooden batten at ceiling height along the whole window/door length, painted it the same colour as the wall, screwed eyelets into the underside for the cords, and attached the blinds with stick-and-sew velcro. The door blind when down is just long enough to cover the glass plus a bit, so it easily fits the wall space between ceiling and reveal when folded up. In other words, it sits clear of the inward-opening back door. Of course, we have to pull up the blind if we need to access the back garden while it's in use, but that only takes seconds.

As you can see, I used a lightweight lining to enable light to filter through. The blinds are fully-washable (fabrics were washed before assembly) and the total cost was approximately £50.00.