Close-Up!: Deceptively Complex Window Treatment

If you have the drive to succeed, you too can create a functional and sophisticated window shade. Perhaps you recall Dante's House Tour where she used a pulley system made of ribbons and just two points of contact.

On the top, Dante drilled two leather loops attached to glass or metal rings through the thin piece of wood bearing the fabric. One very long piece of ribbon runs across the backs of the two screws, around to the front via the bottom of the shade and finally through both rings. The other end is the end that you pull to raise and lower the shade. This end should be anchored to your wall or window sill. You get to customize the fabric and the mechanism to your liking, with a beautiful result.

Comments (5)

Along these lines..... wondering if anyone has any tips for shades that attach at the bottom of the window instead of the top. We live on the first floor of an apartment building on a relatively busy street in Manhattanthe bottoms of our windows are right about neck-level for folks on the sidewalkand would like to devise a way to maintain privacy while still allowing light to enter the bedroom. Any ideas?

Thanks!

posted by Laura on 2006-10-25 13:17:23

that's actually a pretty popular type of shade. Google for 'top down' blinds or shade and you should find some pretty easily

posted by danae on 2006-10-25 13:39:18

I may just try to make this shade for my place. My windows are long and most shades I've seen are 67" in length, too short of 86". This is a very good idea. Thanks a bunch!

posted by Terry on 2006-10-25 14:11:33

I ordered some top-down Bali shades (cellular) from Home Depot about a year ago. They've worked great for me. I also live on the first floor and the idea of people seeing straight in to my apt. whenever I raised my blinds for lighting the room was not appealing.

posted by Steven on 2006-10-25 16:27:31

There are good directions for this type of roller shade and lots of other really nice window treatments in "Simple Soft Furnishings" by Katrin Cargill. I'm working on a Roman shade from it myself at the moment :o)

posted by heylucy on November 1st 2007 at 1:17pm
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