Roller Shades ARRRGH!

[Manalto]

After paying enormous amounts of money in the past for all kinds of roller shades, I have found that the best thing to do is to get a tear-to-fit blackout shade from Walmart and cover it with cotton (quilting) fabric.

Thank you, Gina. I like simple (and inexpensive) solutions like this one. I wonder if, using a good enough adhesive, wrapping around to the back of the shade could be avoided (i.e., trimmed neatly at the edge) because it would look a little unkempt from the outside. Since I'm looking for plain shades, I may just opt for unbleached and heavily starched muslin as the applied fabric.

[GinaC]

Yep, I understand what you're saying, especially if you choose dark fabric since the tear-to-fit shades only come in white. For the ones in my bedroom, I used a subtle off-white print, and just kept the long edges as straight as possible. It just looks like a border around the shade from the outside, but not that noticeable.

If you choose not to wrap it around, you could possibly use Fray Check to prevent the fabric from unraveling on the edges.

[Manalto]

...Fray Check...

I love it when a plan comes together! Again, thanks.

[pqtex]

I've been trying to catch up on everyone's progress and hoping for inspiration for my house. I was delighted to see this thread on roller shades, but I can't access a website for Handwerk. It looks like the blog is gone. Did you get your shades? I'd love to see photos! Thanks!

Jill aka pqtex

[Manalto]

Hi Jill,
No, I didn't get the shades. I wish I had. For the past five years I've been acquiring things for the house, not when they're needed, but when I think of them. Being away from the house for long stretches of time had allowed me to ponder the details, decide what I wanted and then go on a quest. The Northeast US, with its high population density, was a (pre-Covid) goldmine for stuff.

Although this willy-nilly method is fraught with storage and organizational difficulties (and a few mistakes), just this week my haphazard ways were validated when my newly-renovated bathroom was electrified. A porcelain sconce went up next to the medicine cabinet and its mica clip-on shade came out of the box that it had been patiently occupying for the past couple of years.



In the box there was a flyer from the craftsman who made the shade and, wondering about him and his other work (and his prices), I did a search. He's nowhere to be found.

All this is to say, when you encounter an item that seems right for your house, gather ye rosebuds, strike while the iron is hot, carpe diem, etc. - because he who hesitates... (Whew! I just used up my cliché allotment for the month!) I had balked at (what I considered to be) the high price of shades from Handwerk, and now they've apparently vanished.

[pqtex]

I hear you!

When I first contemplated moving to my 1913 family homestead in 2005, I wondered what to do about the window coverings. My grandmother had 2" aluminum blinds installed in all of the windows (about 26 of them) when she had a 1950's remodel done. They were all functional and perfectly fit each window, but some of the strings were deteriorating. I lived several hours away from the house at the time, but I located a person in the town where the house was located that did blind restoration. He even sold a VHS tape (still a thing then!) with instructions for DIY. I talked to him on the phone a couple of times and he was really nice and I planned on either having him restore my blinds or buy his video. By the time I moved to my house and began settling in, after a while I tried to contact him. Website was gone, but I still had his phone number and address. I called and left a message. I got a call back from someone who had worked for him...the gentleman had passed away and and the business was closed. How I wish I had done things when I had the opportunity. I could still restore the blinds myself, I suppose, but, I'm not as enthusiastic about the idea as I was then.

BTW...love the wall sconce!

[Manalto]

If you decide you want to go through the process of restoring the blinds yourself, they're really easy to figure out. You'll have no problem doing it yourself - IF the materials are still available (sigh). I found some old wooden Venetian blinds at the curb many years ago and restringing them was a cinch. I love the practicality and versatility of blinds, and of course their ubiquitous appearance as shadows in 1940s movies.

[Gothichome]

James that is a great light fixture and with a mica shade, highly doubt many still have mica shades.

[Jason6368]

Hello, I am in the process of finding sources for my windows. I have emailed and talked to a couple of people out here in California.

https://www.meltonworkroom.com/about
I got samples from her and it seems that they are good quality for being period correctly.

http://www.annwallace.com/ Seems to specialize in arts and crafts period.. haven’t got a hold of her or tried to but there’s another option.

There’s also another shop in the Bay Area of California but I can’t remember the shops location or name but I do remember that they have perfect pictures of historical homes in the area using all kinds of their shades… I will update when I find the link again.

[Manalto]

Thanks, Jason. I'll stay tuned. I'm on the Gulf Coast, so I'm probably going to have to mail order the shades, as I haven't found a local source.

I can confim that Handwerks is no longer an option for shades. They have a recording on their phone that they have retired.