As appears in the Spring 2009 issue of New at Home magazine
For anyone new to an area, finding the right “anything” can be a harrowing experience. Start with the basic idea of getting a new home the fundamentals it requires, in particular window coverings.
When shopping around Albuquerque for window fashions, my search took me to every colorful corner of humanity. I knew what I wanted but did not know how to get it. A friend of my husband’s highly suggested one shades and blinds company that would come out to your house, measure your windows, show samples and recommend the best product for your home. Let me just state upfront “honeycombs” were out of the question. This northern New Mexico style humble abode screamed wooden blinds or my personal preference natural textured woven Roman shades.
The first salesman showed up in my driveway in his brightly painted van early one Saturday morning. He got right to work measuring all of my windows and recommended the “Desert Mist” honeycomb louvers. Honeycombs? Not in my house. A mascara-wearing man is usually a good sign when it comes to interior decorating, but one of the fab five he was not. This didn’t leave me with a positive feeling.
Next, I called an interior decorator after seeing her ad in the neighborhood paper. Great! Now I was getting somewhere. She came to my house dripping in fringe with her two Lassie dogs in tow. She was what I would call your flower-child hippie type with an abundance of creative flair. The Grace Slick of interior design told me to shop around for fabric I liked and she would whip together the most incredible valances for all my rooms. Grace forgot that A) I was new in town, B) I didn’t have time to shop around, and C) wasn’t that her job anyway? She sent me a bill for her services. What services?
My task was beginning to feel hopeless. I needed my hand held and I needed it now. It had been twelve weeks of living in a fish bowl full of clean water and I was getting closer to my breaking point of hanging Winnie the Pooh sheets in my dining room bay window.
I finally made an appointment with a company my builder had recommended four weeks prior. Upon opening my front door, this petite bundle of energy blew in and started asking all kinds of questions including did I like natural woven blinds and did I like the way my room felt.
I left her to her measuring but stopped dead in my tracks, mouth agape when I returned to the kitchen and saw she had turned my table and chairs at a forty-five degree angle and slid the whole set four inches toward the breakfast bar. I was in a scene right out of Poltergeist where the mother discovers all of her kitchen chairs are stacked on top of the table. Speechless as I was, Ms. Hunter Douglas could tell by the look on my face I didn’t want her to stop. It was only forty-five degrees but it was like looking at a whole new room. There is something to be said for Feng Shui.
She proceeded to rearrange my family room furniture next. I didn’t care what she was selling, I loved her. We went through every sample book she had discussing the features and benefits of each product. Two weeks later I wrote her a check for $4,000 worth of honeycomb blinds. Who says you can’t get what you want in Albuquerque.
Jennifer Huard is a freelance writer, graphic designer and website designer. She can be reached through her website www.rightshadeofwow.com.
For anyone new to an area, finding the right “anything” can be a harrowing experience. Start with the basic idea of getting a new home the fundamentals it requires, in particular window coverings.
When shopping around Albuquerque for window fashions, my search took me to every colorful corner of humanity. I knew what I wanted but did not know how to get it. A friend of my husband’s highly suggested one shades and blinds company that would come out to your house, measure your windows, show samples and recommend the best product for your home. Let me just state upfront “honeycombs” were out of the question. This northern New Mexico style humble abode screamed wooden blinds or my personal preference natural textured woven Roman shades.
The first salesman showed up in my driveway in his brightly painted van early one Saturday morning. He got right to work measuring all of my windows and recommended the “Desert Mist” honeycomb louvers. Honeycombs? Not in my house. A mascara-wearing man is usually a good sign when it comes to interior decorating, but one of the fab five he was not. This didn’t leave me with a positive feeling.
Next, I called an interior decorator after seeing her ad in the neighborhood paper. Great! Now I was getting somewhere. She came to my house dripping in fringe with her two Lassie dogs in tow. She was what I would call your flower-child hippie type with an abundance of creative flair. The Grace Slick of interior design told me to shop around for fabric I liked and she would whip together the most incredible valances for all my rooms. Grace forgot that A) I was new in town, B) I didn’t have time to shop around, and C) wasn’t that her job anyway? She sent me a bill for her services. What services?
My task was beginning to feel hopeless. I needed my hand held and I needed it now. It had been twelve weeks of living in a fish bowl full of clean water and I was getting closer to my breaking point of hanging Winnie the Pooh sheets in my dining room bay window.
I finally made an appointment with a company my builder had recommended four weeks prior. Upon opening my front door, this petite bundle of energy blew in and started asking all kinds of questions including did I like natural woven blinds and did I like the way my room felt.
I left her to her measuring but stopped dead in my tracks, mouth agape when I returned to the kitchen and saw she had turned my table and chairs at a forty-five degree angle and slid the whole set four inches toward the breakfast bar. I was in a scene right out of Poltergeist where the mother discovers all of her kitchen chairs are stacked on top of the table. Speechless as I was, Ms. Hunter Douglas could tell by the look on my face I didn’t want her to stop. It was only forty-five degrees but it was like looking at a whole new room. There is something to be said for Feng Shui.
She proceeded to rearrange my family room furniture next. I didn’t care what she was selling, I loved her. We went through every sample book she had discussing the features and benefits of each product. Two weeks later I wrote her a check for $4,000 worth of honeycomb blinds. Who says you can’t get what you want in Albuquerque.
Jennifer Huard is a freelance writer, graphic designer and website designer. She can be reached through her website www.rightshadeofwow.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment