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Using And Old Mini-Blind To Create A Roman Shade

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If you have mini-blinds in your home that you just do not care for, you can alter them to make your own custom-made roman blinds. This is a fun project that can be done rather easily, giving you a whole new look for your room. Here are some instructions that you can use to make your own roman shades.

Measuring And Disassembling

You will first need to decide how big you would like the folds to be in your new shades. Roman shades are basically large width blinds made of cloth. You will be using your mini blinds to give the new shades structure when opening and closing. Measure the length of your window and divide by the number of inches you would like each fold to be. This will be the number of folds you will have in total.

You will want to disassemble your mini blinds and remove all the slats not needed. You will only need the number that you determined in the previous step. To disassemble, use a screwdriver to pop off the cap that is keeping the bottom rail in place. Remove the rail, and cut the ladder portion of the mini blind to remove. You want to keep the string that pulls the blind up and down. Take off all of the extra slats. When done, rethread the string through the holes of the bottom rail and place the caps back in place. You will now have a mini blind that has very few slats that move around.

Cutting Your Fabric And Placing The Slats

You will want to cut your fabric about four inches wider than the width of your blinds so you will have two inches to fold over on each side. The length should be made about six inches longer than the length of the blinds.

Place your fabric face side down on the floor. Place the blinds on top of the fabric. Move the slats apart so that they are going to be in the area where you would like the folds. If you wanted folds every five inches, for example, place a slat every five inches along the fabric length-wise. Make sure both sides are even. Center them width-wise.

Glue each slat down on to the wrong side of the fabric, but do not glue over the string. Glue around it so will still be able to move up and down. Wrap the fabric over the top rail and glue down. Leave the sides open on this rail so the hardware can be installed to hang the blinds.  Fold the sizes over the other slats on each side and on the bottom and glue.

You can also purchase a similar item at a place like Sylvans & Phillips Drapes and Blinds.


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