We're currently tagging your post with your products. It'll be ready shortly.
housethingsgoing
A frog and a duck living in a 4rm resale flat
Read this before you buy window blinds from Taobao!
186
You can save lots on Taobao blinds - that's definitely true, but are they worth the hassle? We bought our blinds back in 2023, after a whole bunch of conversations and measurements with the sellers. Fast forward two years later, our blinds are still working great - and for a fraction of the price, so we'd definitely recommend them if you're looking to save a bit of money. Here's some tips for you if you're planning to do the same as we did! 
Tip #1: MEASURE YOUR LIFT It's easy to say you want your blinds to come in a single long panel because it's sleek and looks really cool - until you realise that the long roll doesn't fit into the lift and you have to carry it up the stairs :') For this reason, we decided to split our blinds into two panels so that they fit into our lift and could also be installed more easily. We hired a handyman to install ours and he was able to do so alone with some minor help from Duck BUT we figured that you might need extra manpower to lift the blinds if you're looking at anything long than 1.5m long because of how huge and heavy it is. The downside of having two panels is that it create a gap between the panels that lets light through. Frog sleeps through anything, including thunderstorms and his wife scolding him, but if you're sensitive to light in the bedroom, this might be a problem! 
Tip #2: MAKE YOUR DECISIONS FIRST Taobao sellers are usually quite experienced and tend to ask many deep questions people like us never think about :) This means you'd want to try to be able to answer all their questions while they're still online so you can get your order confirmed without constantly having to start new conversations. Some things we had to think about when ordering our blinds included questions like: 1. Do you want them ceiling mounted (attached to the ceiling) vs pelmet mounted (attached to the ledge above the windows) vs side mounted (attached to the walls)? 2. Do you want your blinds to end just after the window (like ours) or to stretch all the way to the wall? 3. Colors, visibility, length, etc etc the usual stuff So before you start shopping, it's best to have an idea of what these mean/could look like - start by looking at all the blinds around you to get a feel of what you prefer (we've sneakily observed the blinds in our offices, friends' homes, etc etc) 
Tip #3: PREPARE YOUR MEASUREMENTS The Taobao sellers will ask you for measurements (especially if you don't know what's the ideal size for your blinds and need them to recommend) - these are all the measurements we provided to our seller! They were able to recommend the right sized blinds for us based on this, so we're sharing this list in case anyone needs it! But of course, the measurements needed will differ based on how your windows/house is structured. You can send your measurements to the sellers marked up on a photo like this to help them visualise as well. PS. another pro tip is to measure everything just before you start reno! We're thankful that we did it because it's hard to do measurements again when you have like paint cans and wiring all over, or even carpentry that's starting to come in. 
and that's it for our tips on getting taobao blinds! The process, while complex, was still pretty smooth for us and we were able to save a considerable bit on our blinds - paid probably $200 for each room INCLUDING hiring a local handyman to do the installation (which actually cost more than the blinds LOL) Let us know if you're on team Taobao Blinds too!
22 February
