How to Get Free Samples and Design Help from Blinds.com

Blinds.com offers up to 10 free samples shipped free to your door, plus free virtual design help from its consultants. You can request both before placing a custom order, which lets you check color, material, and light filtering in your own room and get guidance on measuring and product selection. The main condition to know: samples are capped at 10 per request, and design help is virtual rather than in-home.

Free Samples: What You Get and How to Use Them

The sample program is the lowest-risk way to start. According to the site, samples are free, ship fast, and are limited to 10 per order.

What to do with them:

• Check color in your actual light. Hold each sample against your wall, trim, and floor at different times of day. Screen colors are unreliable for matching.
• Test material and opacity. For bedrooms, hold the sample up to a window in daylight to judge how much light passes through. This matters most for cellular, roller, and solar shades, where "blackout" and "light filtering" versions look similar in photos.
• Compare textures side by side. Faux wood versus real wood, woven wood versus Roman shades — the sample is the only reliable way to feel the difference.
• Confirm the product line. Samples correspond to specific collections, so note which product each sample belongs to before ordering.

Typical sticking point: ordering samples for one room at a time rather than the whole project. If you're treating several rooms, request samples for all candidate products in one batch so you stay within the 10-sample limit and compare consistently.

Free Virtual Design Help: How It Fits In

Blinds.com describes its design help as free, virtual, and available on your schedule, and the site highlights it as award-winning. A consultant can walk you through measuring and product selection — one customer review on the site describes being "originally intimidated by measuring the windows" before a Design Consultant walked them through the process.

When design help is most useful:

• Measuring uncertainty. Custom treatments are made to your measurements, and the site's SureFit™ Guarantee covers remakes if you measure wrong — but getting it right the first time avoids the wait.
• Product selection across categories. The catalog spans cellular shades, faux wood and mini blinds, roller, Roman, solar, woven wood, outdoor, and zebra shades, plus vertical blinds, interior shutters, and curtains. A consultant can narrow this quickly.
• Choosing a service level. Blinds.com offers three ways to shop: full DIY, "handle it all for me," and a middle option where you do part of the work. Design help is relevant to all three, but especially the middle path.

Matching Samples and Advice to Your Order

Use the two services together rather than separately:

1. Request samples for every product you're seriously considering.
2. Live with them for a few days in the target room.
3. Bring your shortlist and room photos to the virtual consultation, and ask specifically about measuring method (inside versus outside mount) for your window type.
4. Place the order once color, material, and measurements are confirmed.

What to watch for:

• Sale timing. The site's deals section shows discounts of 50–55% on several Bali lines with free shipping, but sale pricing and stock can change — confirm current pricing at checkout rather than assuming a listed deal still applies.
• Financing claims. The site mentions financing options "as low as 0% APR" with a qualification check. Treat this as conditional on approval, not a standard term.
• Guarantee scope. The SureFit™ Guarantee covers remakes for measuring errors; it is not a general free-returns policy for custom goods, so confirm the terms for your specific order.

Quick Reference

If your goal is simply to avoid an expensive mistake on a custom order, start with samples for the two or three products you're closest to choosing, then book the virtual consultation with those in hand. That sequence gets you the most useful advice with the least back-and-forth.