Turn Mini Blinds Into Roman Shades
Coveting the look of swanky Roman-style shades but stuck with a mini blind budget? Turn some inexpensive mini blinds into stylish Roman shades with this simple tutorial.
The classic styling of a Roman shade doesn’t come cheaply, even when buying low-end shades. Over at the design blog Little Green Notebook, they’ve put together an excellent tutorial on turning cheap mini blinds into custom shades. With a little ingenuity you can turn a set of $US3 plastic mini blinds into a nice window treatment.
Shades can often cost you an arm and a leg (especially custom fabric shades). When my cheap white IKEA shades were safety-recalled, I decided to figure out a way to repurpose the old {ugly} mini blinds that had previously hung in our bedroom windows. The result was better and easier than expected, not to mention even cheaper than the cost of new IKEA shades.
For the project you’ll need some mini blinds, fabric to match your room, Fabritac or other fabric glue, tape measure, scissors, and if you want to really jazz it up some trim to finish the bottom edge of your shade. All that stands between you and some new décor-matched shades at a fraction of the retail price is a trip to store and a little labour. Looking for an even cheaper way to get some privacy? Check out our tutorial on how to increase your privacy with DIY window frosting. If you have your own thrifty window-related hacks, let’s hear about them in the comments.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@Fabrictramp: There is a reason why roman shades cost more than DIY projects like this. Roman shades look good, this looks cheesy.
computerwiz3491
WTF are Roman shades?
btdown
Such criticism! If you go to the original post and read the comments there you'd might be surprised how positive the feedback is. Evidently some people find value in the post's creativity, even if it is "freakin' easy."
All Roman shades are is a square of fabric with strings that loop around the bottom then thread through eyelets on top to end in the pull. There's no need to go so all out on something so freakin' easy to make on your own.
Roman Shades? I always thought of that type of shade as "Theater Curtains"! They always looked so cool, and I never saw any at Wal-Mart (Not being in Wal-Mart is definatly an endorsement of quality).
rallen71366
@lethaldose: It was intentional - she wanted to filter the light, but keep the room bright and cheerful. You could easily add blackout fabric, or just used a more dense weave if you want curtains to darken the room.
FourInchHeels
Those have got to be the cheesiest looking Roman shades I've ever seen. The time and effort would have been much better spent on curtains with a tie back.
Fabrictramp
It looks like it lets in too much light.
lethaldose
@chiieddy:
Not that I think the ones in this tutorial are nice, but you're daft if you think roman shades are "freakin' easy".
Nice roman shades fold multiple times over a full-pull. In order for them to pull evenly, wooden slats are sewn into each fold. Like most builds with multiple instances, it's important to keep everything even and straight.
I guess you've never shopped for blinds, but there's a reason they're saying "mini-blind" and "roman-shades" budget. One's cheap, and the other is expensive - for a reason.
If it's so freakin easy to you, you should make a business of it. I don't know, $100/shade. You could make a killing.
AwesomeJerkface
Might be interesting to try this with roll-up blinds... I have a few sets left over that I installed as a temporary measure when I first moved in my place.
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