The Easiest DIY Blinds

Have you ever planned on doing something, and perhaps even purchased the materials to get it done and then, for whatever reason, really didn’t want to do it?

It’s the craziest thing. After painting my bathroom some time ago I knew I wanted to make a fabric shade to hang in there. Something gray and white to go with my new color scheme I was over the moon about. I went and purchased all of the supplies and pulled down my sewing machine. But I never made the silly thing. Every time I was about to start it, I’d just get all weird. I didn’t want to do this!

It’s not like I was having to do something unpleasant that I didn’t want to do, I mean this wasn’t exactly cleaning the litterbox. But when it came down to it, I was DREADING making it. Seriously, what is up with that?

So then a few days ago I was irritated because I wanted my blind up there already but I STILL didn’t want to make it. So I made a plan b, and it wound up being the easiest custom blinds I’ve ever made. Seriously.

For this project you will need:

• Vinyl roll up blinds (I got these cut down to a custom size from JCPenney for ten bucks a window – score!)
• Fabric of your choice
• Permanent spray adhesive

So before this I had some black paper temporary shades that were about $4 a window. I saw “temporary” and thought “my rosy round rear” and bought enough for every window in my house. And guess what? They lasted FOREVER. Until the cats learned that they could tear holes out of them and see through without actually having to get in the window sill. Lazy jerks.

So I found these insanely cheap roller blinds (in the pic above) that reminded me of one too many black and white movies which I was really excited about. They were cut down to the size I requested and cost only $10 a window. Do they look cheap? Yeah. And they smell like a kiddie pool. But with only 10 minutes of effort, these suckers look totally custom AND they still do that awesome quick roll up thing like in the movies.

My blinds are crazy long and my window is about 2 feet tall. To save on fabric, I only went up 3 feet from the bottom. I’ll never see the vinyl edge, but I also saved a pretty penny in fabric. (and please pretend like you don’t see my mess of yarn below the table – I’m working on a stash buster which requires immediate access to all yarn at once :)

Spray this business with permanent spray adhesive. Some are movable and temporary, so unless you want the fabric dangling within a few days, be sure you’re using the right stuff. And protect your surroundings, like tabletops and whatnot from the over-spray.

Allow the adhesive to become tacky.

To be fair here, I didn’t like my fabric up worth anything and it is super wonky. Every time I look at this thing in the bathroom I find myself turning my head to right the pattern. I set and reset my fabric a million times and just knew I finally got it right. In another life, I’m going to use a much smaller pattern or a fabric that has a pattern that seems random so this is much easier!

Oh, and I also used duck cloth canvas which is kind of heavy for the mechanism. I’m going to say the lighter calico fabrics would be wiser in the long run.

Place your fabric back end on the adhesive and use your hands to smooth out.

Flip over and trim the excess.

Since the bottom will be held frequently turn the fabric over and glue down. Use a piece of white ribbon to cover so the edge is less noticeable from outside of the window.

Take a small amount of your glue and run it down the edges to keep the fabric from fraying with normal use.

Hang it  up and you’re good to go! Now these said they were “room darkening” but even with a good inch on either side of the window there is a TON of light that comes through. I was going to do this in my bedroom, but I’m just not sure since I have trouble sleeping with light, so keep that in mind.

For the bathroom, though, this sucker is perfect and I am totally in love… even if now I tilt my head to the right every time I pee.