Cutting and resizing roller shades is easy to do. Whether you want to save some money by
resizing off-the-shelf shades or repurpose shades that have been upgraded elsewhere in the home,
I'm going to show you how to do it. Let's go to the attic. Okay!
That was a lot of stairs! To demonstrate this simple task I'm going to replace the blackout
shade over the skylight with a light filtering shade to brighten up the room. The shade I'll
be using is being repurposed from a custom job we had done in the bedroom. The bedroom looks nice,
but had I thought to do the blackout shades myself we could have saved a bunch of money... and some
reason I want to say, "by switching to GEICO." All right! Let's go back down to the workshop.
Okay. You'll need a clean, smooth, cutting surface. I'm using pieces of cardboard and a piece
of laminate. You'll also need a tape measure, pencil, box cutter, small flathead screwdriver for
prying out staples, pliers for pulling out staples if necessary, a coping saw, heavy duty stapler,
a few things to hold the shade down, in my case I'm going to use pieces of 2 x 4's,
and a straight edge. For the straight edge I'm going to use a piece of pvc trim that's
in the workshop, but anything with a clean, straight edge to cut along will work fine. Since
I'm swapping the blackout shape material with the light filtering material of a larger shade
from another window, I have the option of resizing the entire light filtering shade or just cutting
the shade fabric and reusing the parts from the old blackout shade. I'll explain how to do both
First I'll unroll the shades and pry out the staples using the flathead screwdriver.
I've already removed the staples of the light filtering blind that I'm going to repurpose,
and when unrolling the old shade take notice of the direction the shade is rolled and which side
the end plugs need to be on. That way you won't need to move any existing brackets in the window.
So lay out the shade that needs to be resized. Use the two by fours to hold down the ends.
Measure the width of the old blind, put on your white socks, slippers, and favorite ripped shirt,
and mark the width from top to bottom. I think i really need a stylist.
Carefully place the straight edge along the marks. Again I'm using a piece of PVC trim. Line
it up carefully making sure it's even from top to bottom and that there's a clear cutting path and
then check your measurements twice, three times, four times, since you only get one shot at this.
Then change the blade in your box cutter. If it's not sharp
the edges will be messy. This is really important.
Applying pressure to the straight edge, now I'm going to cut slowly.
Now to deal with the length of the shade.
I've laid both shades out and lined them up at the bottom. I'm going to measure down from the top.
Mark both sides. Line up the board.
Make sure there's a smooth, flat cutting surface underneath
and then cut.
You can either resize the cardboard tube of the new shade by pulling out the pinned side of the
end plug, not the squared side with the spring, then measure it and cut it with a coping saw.
I like to use this, but it's honestly too much tool for the job
In my case I'm simply going to reuse the tube from the old blind since it's already cut to size.
Now to attach the shade to the tube. Again,
check that the end plugs are on the correct side and that you're rolling in the proper direction.
Roll the end of the shade halfway onto the tube and staple using the heavy duty staple gun.
Roll up the shade, but not too tightly or else when you pull it down
the shade snaps up hard... it's like a scary movie. I'm reusing the old stick,
but if you're cutting new blinds, measure the length and then cut it with a coping saw.
Then I'll slide it into the shade.
I need a string on mine to tie it to the skylight's handle.
To get the string through the pole I use a flashlight to find the hole.
Drill through the shade
and thread the string through using a
nail and tie it off. Let's go back to the attic.
Now to install it. I'll put it into the brackets and hopefully not blind you in the process.
I wanted the shade to filter light so the sun directly outside is making my point.
I'll check the string length. I tie this string to the handle
to prevent the shade from sagging when I lift the screen or open the window.
Check the recoil and if the shade recoils slowly just take the shade off, unwind it, and re-roll it
tighter. That'll make it snap back and if you roll it too tightly it'll fly around in circles. Voila!
So easy and a great way to repurpose shades you may have around the house.
If this video has been helpful, please like it and
consider subscribing... that always helps me out. Thanks for watching!
Okay! That was a lot of stairs...