Window blinds/coverings

[Kaos]

Purchased a new home and I require window blinds. Any reputable companies around Calgary that others have experienced?

[bookem]

Have used GiCor before, they were a reasonable price with good service/installation.
http://gicor.ca/

[ganesh]

What type of blinds are you looking for?
Are you looking for brand name? or Cost effetive options?

[G]

I used Cornel at Best for Less Blinds 4038094848

Husband and wife team. Did 30 windows in 2 hours for a great price.

I did all roller shades with half of them with a black out roller.

[ExtraSlow]

I used Cornel as well, good guy, very happy with product and service.

[killramos]

Cornel was great for us as well. Very reasonable prices to do the whole house.

[Prelude_dude]

I used blinds.ca

You are allowed to order like 10 free samples of the blinds, which they promptly send to you. I found this really helpful to see the color in your hand.

I don't have a ton of windows in my house, but most of my windows are quite large.

I order 9 Honeycomb style blackout shades with the the top down function. Top down function is amazing... you can have the top part of window open with lots of light coming into the house and still maintain your privacy.

Overall the blinds cost me $2731, shipping included. For comparison, when i was building my house, the builder quoted me roughly 6k... for hunter douglas blinds.

I installed the blinds myself and measured out the windows and everything myself. They have tutorial videos on how to measure and install them yourself.

I had one blind fail, they promptly couriered another blind to me. I've been in the house for two years and no other blind has failed.

If you make a mistake and measure wrong, they have a policy to replace up to 6 sets of blinds.

Overall i had a great experience with them. Customer service was great as well. Price can't be beat.

[turbotrip]

If u use Cornel be ready to wait 2-3 times as long as his estimated delivery time. Happened to me and 3 ppl I referred him to. Other than that he's good

[colsankey]

Mars blinds. The shop looks sketch, but their prices are the cheapest I'd seen and it's all the quality brands everyone else is buying.

Blinds aren't cheap in general, save yourself some cash by giving them your dimensions and getting a quote.

[Deeznuts]

Used Mars Blinds last November in our new home. Cheapest blinds I found in the city if you go with the Elite brand.

Had a bad experience with their techs and terrible customer service. First, they forgot about my original install date, so had to re-schedule. On the day of install, tech did not have white tape to splice two white wires for motorized blinds, so I gave him black electrical tape to use temporarily, and I instructed tech to leave the wire dangling for the time being so I can replace the black tape and swing wire over from left side to right side of the window so it's less visible. Tech finishes and ran the wire on the left side of the window using screws to secure agaisnt the window frame/drywall - without asking. WTF.

I called their office to complain, owner was defensive and said to call back after the Xmas break to make an appointment for them to come in and fix the issue.

I would not recommend Mars Blinds.

[jeffh]

I am doing mine myself thru selectblinds.ca. They are quite cheap for 2"pvc louvre style. Got enough to outfit a handful of windows for $950 delivered. They always have some kind of random promotion going on. I also took my $3k 'ish' credit from my builder and going the dyi route. I will still have to get a set of big and heavy drapes for our french doors off our dining area. I am unsure what those will run me tho.

[nj2Type-S]

anybody else use mars blinds? i've got an appointment with them at their showroom tonight, and i'd like to hear more people's opinions, please.

thanks!

[Sugarphreak]

...

[nj2Type-S]

from your guys' experience, how much more expensive is it to install the blinds yourself versus having it installed by somebody else?

we'll be moving into a brand new house, and i'm not exactly the best handy man..lol.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[GingeRRRBeef]

Hey guys,

I just had Cornel from Best For Blinds install blinds for my whole house. He was friendly and very helpful. His prices was very reasonable. It took about 1 week from the time he came to show us samples and do the measurements to figuring all the billing stuff out. It took 3 weeks from the time the deposit was made to the install. I had to chase him a little bit too to get information from when it was going to be installed. But he came this past Monday and installed everything very nicely and quickly. I would totally recommend Cornel unless you need blinds ASAP.

[nj2Type-S]

just a quick update:

i contacted cornel a few weeks ago because of this thread. i asked for a quote, and 4 days later, i finally got one. i went to mars blinds and got a quote in 10 minutes; it was also much cheaper.

i was told by mars blinds that my blinds would not be installed until 2 weeks after i move into our new house (we moved in the middle of may). 2 weeks after moving in, the blinds were installed. the installer was professional, efficient and right on schedule.

overall, i would recommend mars blinds. i would've liked to support a husband and wife team, but if it took 4 days to give me a quote, i would be worried how long it would've taken them to install thr blinds.

[RealJimmyJames]

Looking for recommendation for a blackout style blind that is also somewhat heat-reflective for a south-facing window. Don't mind installing myself also.

[TYMSMNY]

B&B Blinds
Address: 3851 Manchester Rd SE, Calgary, AB T2G 3Z8
Phone:(403) 243-0815

Did the whole house. Blackouts for the bedrooms. Inexpensive IMO. She'll come to your house and give you options etc and measure it out at the same time. Install was included.

[colsankey]

Black outs dont havee to be super expensive. After a year with ours, still super happy. We got the honeycome hunter douglas, i believe, with no cords from Mars.

[JordanLotoski]

Originally posted by G
I used Cornel at Best for Less Blinds 4038094848

Husband and wife team. Did 30 windows in 2 hours for a great price.

I did all roller shades with half of them with a black out roller.

Cornel is my guy, Most of my clients use him

[Seks]

My new spec home comes with Conner Fabric vertical blinds for the patio sliding doors...looks cheap

The windows are all Habitat 2" Faux Wood...which at least IMO look decent.

Looking to replace the vertical blinds with something simlar to what my windows have. I guess Cornel would be it?

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by turbotrip
If u use Cornel be ready to wait 2-3 times as long as his estimated delivery time. Happened to me and 3 ppl I referred him to. Other than that he's good


Originally posted by nj2Type-S
just a quick update:

i contacted cornel a few weeks ago because of this thread. i asked for a quote, and 4 days later, i finally got one. i went to mars blinds and got a quote in 10 minutes; it was also much cheaper.

overall, i would recommend mars blinds. i would've liked to support a husband and wife team, but if it took 4 days to give me a quote, i would be worried how long it would've taken them to install thr blinds.

This happened to me too. I used Cornel based off a Beyond recommendation. They took several months to do a single blackout blind on a single window, called many times to delay and reschedule. Canceled several install times same-day as well, saying he couldn't make it. Then almost a year later they contacted me to say they forgot to bill me the other half of the job - I honestly could not remember if I had paid them or not at that point, and there were no records, so it was a bit sketchy. I don't know if I got ripped off or not. The blind isn't even on both sides, it's too long, and the half-moon window on top wasn't cut properly and sometimes falls out. I'm not sure I'd use them again, probably not.

[lilmira]

Cornel did 3 shades for me last week. It took a few weeks to set up a time to meet and size my windows. Then it was about 5-6 weeks for the shades to be ready. We set up the time to install them a few days later. There was no issue for me. Price was fair.

[ga16i]

We had Concept Coverings come do our blinds last May. We went into the showroom and booked the in-home consultation. Pretty easy, they did evenings and weekends or at least that sales person did. Very happy with the product, but not cheap.

[Buster]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt




This happened to me too. I used Cornel based off a Beyond recommendation. They took several months to do a single blackout blind on a single window, called many times to delay and reschedule. Canceled several install times same-day as well, saying he couldn't make it. Then almost a year later they contacted me to say they forgot to bill me the other half of the job - I honestly could not remember if I had paid them or not at that point, and there were no records, so it was a bit sketchy. I don't know if I got ripped off or not. The blind isn't even on both sides, it's too long, and the half-moon window on top wasn't cut properly and sometimes falls out. I'm not sure I'd use them again, probably not.

Based on this thread and others, I wasn't hopeful for Cornel to show up on time (or at all) for my 9.30 meeting today.

Sure enough....ten minutes before 9.30 meeting, "sorry, I will be very late."

time is money. Gonna have to be a pretty meaty discount now...and probably a performance bonus built into the estimate based on lead-time.

[infiniti.]

I used beautiful blinds and shutters, Clark, the owner and estimator was great. Arrived on time and gave me a great price! From the day I put the order in, it took about 4 weeks to get delivery and installation. Family run business, would definitely recommend.

[rage2]

I'm not a DIY'er, probably worse off than Mar, but I ended up measuring all my windows and installing the blinds myself except for the super high windows. Those were taken care of by the contractor that did our basement. It's not difficult at all.

Only reason why I ended up doing it myself was because of how slow it was for Lutron/Serena Shades dealers to come out and just do a measurement for ordering. After 2 months, I gave up and just DIY the whole thing. The blinds have been the most used home automation device in the house.

[Buster]

I'm diying the rest of the blinds. But hunter Douglas doesn't let you do that

[Buster]

Does lutron do an equivalent to the silhouette or pirouette shades from hunter?