math in real life: blackout shades

I’m researching blackout shades for our nursery and started my design process by polling a few mom groups. One mom suggested Pottery Barn Kids.

These Harper shades are lovely, on sale, and have been positively reviewed at Embrace My Space. However I realized that they wouldn’t work for our nursery upon seeing that all variations were 64″ long. Our windows are almost floor-to-ceiling.

I went in to measure the window widths to see if curtains might work. A friend recommended these Koala Baby curtains, but they would be too short. These Harper curtains come in varying lengths that could potentially be tall enough. However, the smaller windows are approximately 22″ and the large window is approximately 58″. We’d need three 44″ panels to cover the span of the windows without leaving gaps.

Perhaps wider curtains would work? My friend Heidi at This Bold Home recommended these, which are 52″ across. Two of those panels could work! The nursery foiled me again though. This weird ceiling dip also prevents a curtain rod from going all the away across the windows.

Based on all of these constraints, I’m eyeing custom cordless cellular blackout shades that can be installed by the company.Blinds to Go cordless cellular thermal shades seem the most promising right now because the former owners of the unit two floors above ours also used these for their baby’s nursery (same room as Parker’s and same dimensions), so their shades would likely work well in our space. I feel like I *should* DIY and self-install, but I’m neither interested in nor good at it. I feel hypocritical saying “I’m not good at it” because I really dislike it when people say “I’m just not good at math” and give up on it. But, in comparison to something like cooking (which I enjoy and can do without lots of struggle), the time and effort spent on self-installation would far outweigh the cost. I recently had an Elfa closet installed, and the fee was well worth it. It only took the installer an hour to do (while it would have taken my husband or me much longer, and we would have had to have the other person watch Parker).

Other recommendations from fellow moms:
– The Shade Store
– Lowe’s – from the former owner of our unit, who installed plantation shutters in the living room and cellular shades in both bedrooms
– Bed, Bath, and Beyond curtains
– JC Penney cordless cellular blackout shades (install yourself) (though one mom pointed out that
– Home Depot cordless cellular blackout shades