New home’s lack of window coverings easy to remedy

Q: I recently moved into a new home and want to put in some mini blinds. Can you offer any advice on how to install them?

A: The joys of new home ownership can be expensive. First, you walk through a beautifully decorated model home and decide that it’s “the one” for you.

When your home is built it looks pretty stark by comparison — no two-tone custom paint job, no expensive furniture and no window coverings. You get white walls and views of the neighboring houses. It’s all very sobering.

Mini blinds come in vinyl or aluminum and start at around $25. You can also get faux-wood blinds that cost about 50 percent more, but install in exactly the same manner.

Plan on spending about 15 minutes per window on installation. The sliding glass door will need a vertical blind covering which, if made from vinyl, will cost about $80.

The first step is to measure the actual size of the window’s opening. (You want to mount the blinds inside the opening rather than above it, and they’ll look much better, too.) Record the measurements, width by length, and take them to the home center.

Choose the color you want and grab the nearest employee to cut the blinds to your measurements. The employees will cut only the width, so you’ll have to adjust the length.

Inside the box will be the mounting hardware. For small blinds, you’ll have two mounting brackets; for larger blinds, you’ll have three or four.

I usually mount a bracket 2 to 3 inches in from each end and then space any other brackets equally over the length of the rail. I mount the bracket so the front of it is flush with the opening of the window and use two 1¼-inch coarse drywall screws.

These screws are longer than the ones that come with the blinds and can bite into just about anything. Make sure you sink them into the window frame just in case someone decides to give the blinds a good yank. You may have to move the brackets back a little to find the wood.

Once the brackets are in, snap the end caps into the head rail. Take the head rail and hang the lip over the hook on the bracket, making sure it is centered in the window opening, then swing it up into the bracket until it snaps into place. Use the pull cord to extend the blinds down the window’s length.

If you have an abundance of slats at the bottom of the window, you can leave them as is or shorten the blind’s length.

To do this, pop the caps off of the bottom rail and cut the knot that holds it in place. Slide out the bottom rail and the number of excess slats above it. Slide the bottom rail back into the rung that gives you the desired length. Thread the lift cords through the bottom rail and caps, tie it off and cut off the excess cord.

Finally, stick the hook end of the wand through the hole in the tilt mechanism.

The sliding glass door’s vertical blind installs much the same way, except that it is mounted above the opening. You also have to insert each slat into a clip.

As you can see, installing mini blinds is not a difficult task. As a bonus, you’ll have privacy when you lounge around in your underwear and flip through the channels.

Mike Klimek is a licensed contractor and owner of Las Vegas Handyman. Send questions to handymanoflasvegas@msn.com or 4710 W. Dewey Drive, No. 100, Las Vegas, NV 89118. Visit handymanoflasvegas.com.