always Blinds.com

My experience with blinds.com was that it was WAY more expensive compared to purchasing the same exact product from Lowes. I priced out LEVOLOR motorized cellular shades from Lowes and blinds.com and it was thousands more with blinds.com. Lowes has regular sales, many times at 30%-50% off (depends on the store). They came and measured and did the install and it all went off without a hitch.

Other than the 'fishbowl' problem, what function do you need for the window treatments? Sun protection, winter insulation, or is it just privacy? If it's only the dining room with the issue, can you wait to address this? I'm overwhelmed with renovations and am glad I didn't jump in and buy things when I first moved in. Your ideas will change with time and daily use of the room. My personal opinion is that there are more aesthetically appealing window treatments than cellular. They are very functional though, and are probably the most cost efficient option if you need the insulation aspect. Having said that, I will be buying cellular shades because we have so much old glass and I need to buffer the cold as much as possible. Many of the budget online places have similar pricing for the non-name brands. I ordered samples of double cell light filtering white shades from Select Blinds, Steve's Blinds, Blinds.com, and Blinds Chalet. All prices were rather similar for my test window, and it's very easy to plug in your parameters and choices to get pricing. Once all the samples arrived, one fabric was clearly more sturdy - Select Blinds seemed thicker, sturdier, and likely to look crisp over time. Some were a bit soft and seemed flimsy and I wondered if they would fuzz after numerous attempts at cleaning. I have no idea how the mechanisms compare and few sites have great close-ups of the them. I plan to buy a test shade for a bathroom to see if I like it. For a 22x58 top down bottom up double cell light filtering cordless, the price is in the vicinity of $110. Today (yes the prices seem to change daily!!!), my choices sell for $105 at Select Blinds. For the same size in single cell with no top down, it's $58. I have heard there are inexpensive options at Lowes and Home Depot but what will work for me has been continually out of stock for a year. As an aside, the sliders are never easy and I've always used a drape on a traverse rod. Cellular is available for sliders, costly though to get the vertical cellular that pulls open from the side.

I've been hunting as well - Steve's Blinds have come up as the cheapest but Select Blinds can be close or equal on their best sales days, which fluctuate daily. I'd say a "good" Select Blinds sale is 40% off, but they have had them for 50%+ an extra 10-15%. That second % discount is usually negligible, it's more for marketing.

Select Blinds has 2-day shipping as an upgrade for $30 per blind. Steve's has a $15 2-day express production upgrade ONLY for cellular blinds. Their normal production timeline varies per blind but was 5-10 business days for what I was considering. In some cases, placing an order via the phone with Steve's can come out 5% less than website prices. They also have a 10% off code for first-time customers but it didn't' work for me.

I haven't received the blinds yes so can't vouch for quality. Friends have ordered via Select and had good experience but the website complaints scared me off a bit since I'm on a tight timeline so I went with Steve's since I could expedite them and they were cheaper.

I'm late in the game here, but I had a local Graber blinds salesperson come and give me a bid for cellular blinds and I was shocked at the price. I want to support local small businesses, but I couldn't justify spending that much. I just ordered the same style cellular shades from SelectBlinds at 1/3 the cost. The kind I wanted were the Premier Blackout TriShades, which is a 3-in-1 cordless shade that can be sheer or blackout, and can be lifted up or down or anywhere in between. I like options!! :) I ordered some of their cellular samples beforehand and I was really impressed with the quality. I saved my online cart while I thought about whether I wanted to order, and a salesperson called the next day which kind of annoyed me - until he said he could give me an additional discount on top of the sale that was going on! I still couldn't make up my mind for a few days, but the salesman honored the several-days-expired sale price (it was the best sale I've seen yet) and gave me an additional % off. He was super patient with my indecisivesess and definitely worked for his commission! I chose to include the 5-year unlimited warranty which cost a bit more, but I specifically asked if it covered EVERYTHING including sun rot and discoloration (my biggest concern), and I was assured that it did. Crossing my fingers that I love my new blinds when they arrive in a couple of weeks.

Try blindsgalore.com

Late to the party, but Lowe's has a crazy sale on the motorized shades. I was shocked to see how cheap they were marked down.

Waynette,, can you please tell me what brand and type of shade to ask for when I call? I guess I can call my Lowes and just ask if they have any good sales. It might be store by store and unique to your area too.

Donna, I believe they were the Allen + Roth brand. Not sure about the quality. I live in CT.