As many of my readers will know, we moved into our new forever home recently, having spent over a year in serious renovation. I honestly didn’t realize the scope of the renovation before we started – and how much stress and pressure it could put a family under, so it’s a massive relief to be finally living in our family home and being able to decorate and put my finishing touches on a blank space. It was definitely worth all the blood, sweat and tears in the end and now comes the fun bit of making the space our own – starting with some bespoke blinds from Couture Living!
We have a brand new kitchen that rolls into a large open plan living room and dining room. We knocked down three interior walls to make it an open family space with breakfast bar, so that I never feel shut off from the family whether I’m cooking, doing the dishes, working on my writing or watching TV – this is the focal space of the whole family and we spend the vast majority of our time here in this single open room. It’s got loads of light with new windows, but how do you decorate those windows?
It was whilst I was thinking of my kitchen window that I was introduced to Couture Living. Couture Living are a brand with an ethos that I can really get behind – highly skilled craftspeople making bespoke, high quality products here in a specialist workshop in the UK. They offer curtains, voile curtains, blinds and voile blinds with a massive array of fabrics across a wide selection of designer brands such as Anthology, Christian Lacroix, Designers Guild, Mulberry Home, Nina Campbell, Ralph Lauren, Zoffany and many more.
Before deciding on which fabric I wanted I chose six samples from the catalogue. For me the samples were important because I have quite a specific mustard colour in my kitchen and colour matched one of my living room walls to match with bespoke paint, therefore it was important that the blind either matched, or complemented this colour scheme.
The samples actually proved to me that none of the mustard fabrics I liked on Couture Living were a match to my tiling, which resulted in me moving on to other complementary colours – not a problem, and definitely something you need to know in advance! As my sofa, living room highlights and the marble highlights in my white granite worktop were grey, I ended up deciding on a beautiful fabric called Acacia Pigeon, by Romo. Being able to order samples quickly through the website made the process of choosing the perfect fabric very easy for me.
The second part of the process of creating my bespoke blinds with Couture Living was measuring my space. The blinds are made for your exact space, making it fit the window perfectly and it’s very simple to measure following the handy guide provided by Couture Living. I inputted these into the website and could choose a few extra details such as whether I wanted the chain controller on the left or the right. The ordering process was extremely easy and then it was just a matter of waiting excitedly for my delivery.
Delivery was prompt and I was kept informed every step of the way. As this is a bespoke product you do have to wait for it to be crafted, which took 7 days in my situation. Delivery was fast and efficient, with the blinds being posted in a massive roll tube which kept them completely protected with no risk of damage at all. Once it had arrived, attaching it was a fairly simple job, requiring just an electric drill and four holes placed in the lintel of the window to secure the fitting. If you’re not confident about fitting this yourself, it’s not a problem, as Couture Living offer a full Measure, Make and Fit service, but we found installation easy, taking about 30 minutes. The blind is easily removed if needed, and the fabric is removable without removing the fixtures, so you can wash the blind as needed (follow the instructions for your specific fabric.)
I do apologize for the state of the garden. We’ve renovated the house, but the garden is a work in progress. If you follow me on Twitter and Instagram you can get updates as this garden is getting a full overhaul in the spring this year and I’ll be posting more about that as it happens.
The fabric is such amazing quality and the design beautiful and I’ve already received compliments from everyone who has seen it.
I’m so happy that I decided to go with bespoke blinds from Couture Living for this space. The kitchen is integral to my happiness and the whole family as I’m an avid cook. I really feel that this space has been improved by this amazing fabric blind. What do you think, does it work with my white walls, mustard tiling and white granite worktops? What would you choose for your kitchen? Let me know in the comments!
If you’re interested in sprucing up your interior yourself, with bespoke, made to measure curtains or blinds, I have had a great experience with Couture Living and would not hesitate to use them again. You can visit their homepage, look at their impressive collection of fabrics, or follow them on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to get ideas for your interior.
Disclosure – I was sent a complimentary blind (featured above) by Couture Living to review and asked to share my feedback, which I have done honestly.
5 Comments
Your kitchen looks amazing. Where did you buy it? We are looking at a full kitchen refit soon but worried about the upheaval and process. I think that yellow blinds would definitely have looked overwhelming in that space and the grey is very subtle and complimentary. I’m dreaming of something in rose pink for mine.
I bought the kitchen itself – the units and the in-built appliances from Ikea but had it fitted by my builder who was working on the house anyway. So can’t comment on their fitting but planning it out with the sales rep and ordering and delivery was all very smooth and I love how deep all their cabinets are and how much storage there is. The worktops I bought from a local supplier as we had a builder to cut and fit them. The flooring I ordered from Topps Tiles and the builder fitted those as well. A new kitchen is quite a bit of upheaval but definitely worth it in the end I think 🙂 If you’re replacing a lot of things like flooring, walls etc. it’s definitely worth seeing if you can contract a professional who can do everything at once I think and living out of a microwave for a few weeks! If your window is staying the same though you could definitely treat yourself to some blinds before doing the whole thing if you’re sure on your colour scheme. Just take them down before any renovation so they don’t get dust/damaged but that’s very simple to do.
We are also doing a big renovation and I am nervous about buying blinds. We bought some from a big national company a few years ago but the mechanism wore out. I much prefer the idea of buying from Couture Living if they are hand crafted in the UK – that’s reassuring. Your blind looks beautiful!
That’s really amazing. As we know the kitchen is an integreal part of our house which needs to be well designed as well as functional. I like this acacia pigeon blind which is looking absolutely stunning in your kitchen. And I think that we can go with this blind for our living room as well.
OMG I need these! Your kitchen is beautiful xx