Sunday, August 9, 2009

Vertical Blind Hack, Part 2

As I was saying... I hate vertical blinds!


In my bedroom, I hacked my vertical blinds into curtains by attaching the curtains with tabs fastened with buttons. It worked well, but I wanted to try something different for the curtains in my nursery. Here's what I did.


Again, I removed the blind blades and stored them neatly under the bed, on top of the other set. They come out and go back in very easily, so don't be afraid to remove them.

Here, instead of making two separate curtains, I sewed my fabric into one continuous sheet. The nice thing about these is that they use the existing vertical blind hardware. The fabric is held in the clips with large grommets.***


If you would like to see a useful tutorial on attaching these eyelets, consult Sew Mama Sew. Especially if you do not have a one step button-holing sewing machine, these are much less work than making tabs with buttons.

These open up like vertical blinds, using the hanging cord. They are very easy to use and install.


The fabric for these is from the Ikea Barnslig collection, which is super cute. These are also fully lined, with drapery lining from Joann Fabrics (coupon!) as I wanted to be able to get this room dark.


Now you have two options for curtain-izing vertical blinds.

*** EDITED 4/10/2012: This post has become fairly popular, so I wanted to give an update on this solution. These grommets went in and out easily at the time, but after a few years the plastic was not so pliant as it once was, and when I took these curtains down to move, half of the clips broke!

Now I recommend using curtain clips (like these beautiful cheap ones from Ikea) instead of grommets. They won't break anything and they are easier to install, too... no holes necessary.

9 comments:

Rebecca Stebbins said...

That fabric is so cute!
Babies!

Anonymous said...

LOL yes babies :)

i wish i had a penguin friend said...

this is so cool. I have those vertical blinds and a long time ago bought fabric from china town to replace it. Because I am a lazy crafter, I cut it into pieces and then attached it tothe top with straight pins.

I have been pwned. You are the crafting master

Riley said...

This is a brilliant idea!

Elena Zayarkina said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Parn Holladay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

tasteless!

Anonymous said...

You replaced your vertical blinds wiiittthhh thaaat? gross. Green fabric with christmas/pepper looking lights above!??

Anonymous said...

Great idea. I am going to try this with some nice curtains for my living room.