Today's Do-it-yourself comes from Regina Morrison of Acute Designs and it is flipping genius!  Turn ugly old blinds into wonderful... well they're still blinds, but now they're pretty.  Check it out.

acute how-to: no sew fabric blinds

by reginamorrison on april 14, 2011

Bored with basic plastic mini blinds?

Me too.

If you are like me and find yourself living in a “home sweet rental,”  play around with your window treatments in order to add a little style to your temporary home.

This  mini-blinds-turned-fabric-blinds tutorial is affordable {cost me less than $15 for two windows} and fairly easy.  

What you will need:

• Basic plastic mini-blinds {mine were 23” wide and cost less than $3 each}
• Enough fabric to cover the length and width of your blinds + 3″ on each side {for two 23” wide windows, I used about 4 feet of fabric}
• Fabric glue {my favorite brand is Goop…it is a bit stinky but does a fantastic job}
• An iron {if you want your blinds to look nice and neat} 

Step One:

Lay your plastic blinds out on a flat surface and determine which slats you want to keep and mark them with a pencil so that you don’t accidentally cut them away {which I did…thank goodness for tape!}.

For my blinds, I kept three slats, each equal distance apart.  Cut away the slats you will not need but be careful NOT to cut the thick cords that hold everything together. 

 

Step Two:

Cut your fabric so that it measures about 3” wider on all sides of the blinds.  Lay the fabric face down and set the blinds on top of it. 

Step Three:

Begin the gluing process. First, glue the fabric over the top edge of the blinds.  Make sure you do not glue down any of the cords…especially the cord you will use to open and close the blinds!

Also, when gluing the fabric over the top part of the blinds, make sure you do not cover the edges in fabric as you will need to slide the edges into the brackets when you hang your finished project.

Next, glue down each slat.  I like to lay heavy books down on top of the blinds to set the glue in place. 

Wait about 20 minutes for this to  dry and then fold over the sides and bottom and glue them all into place.  {Again, I stack books on the glued sections to set them while they dry.}

Step Four:

Iron the edges of your blinds for a crisp look {optional}.

Step Five:

Hang the blinds and admire your work! 

If you want the blinds to totally block out light, you will want to use a thick, dark fabric.  I used a lighter color fabric because I like to let in some light…but block any wandering eyes.

Now I wish that my rental apartment had these blinds instead of the vertical ones.  Oh well, maybe next time!