blinds or shades

[lmh2402]

the home we are buying has zero window treatments

in our condo i opted for hunter douglas wood blinds b/c our windows are seriously huge (like 9 feet) and the blinds just fit the feel of the home

but they are NOT cheap. and we have 16 windows for the bedrooms on the 2nd floor. so i'm kind of leaning shades. but ugh...where do i even buy/order shades? are there shades that are blackout that are not that kind of plastic-y/vinyl material that was in my room as a kid?

thanks

[hillview]

We started with blinds but didn't do all windows. We did kitchen, bedrooms and 3 windows in the living room. That leaves about 10 windows to go. I decided to start with what I wanted and add later as we can / want to etc.
/hillary

[AnnieW625]

for shades you can do honeycomb style blinds that have a blackout option. When we re did our windows and put in new blinds we did 1" real wood blinds. We got Levelor customs from JC Penney and we've been really happy with them. Levelor has great customer service.

[Drag0nflygirl]

I've done well with SelectBlinds.com. The prices are better than anywhere else if you have to get a custom size. My blackout honeycombs are white - but still block light very well. Important because DH sleeps during the day. I also love my blinds from Smith & Nobel, but they were not cheap.