apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Of all places, JC Penney actually has attractive custom shades for good prices, and they often have sales that bring the prices even lower.

We've placed customer orders through the website and never had a problem. It's worth waiting for a sale.

A few examples:
http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/ProductsHOM.aspx?ItemID=15553b2&GrpTyp=ENS&CmCatId=
http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/ProductsHOM.aspx?ItemID=156b82e&GrpTyp=ENS&CmCatId=
http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/ProductsHOM.aspx?ItemID=156b559&GrpTyp=ENS&CmCatId=crosssell

What constitutes affordable? I got custom shades from Budget Blinds in Park Slope. The price seemed pretty reasonable to me -- not cheap, but not outrageous, either -- and they look great.

I don't know where you can get custom shades made, but I made my own using these directions.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Roman-Shade

after all it is DIY Month. The project took me about 1.5 for each shade and they look great.

For my apartment , I decided to make my own roman shades and they are fantastic. Terrell Sundermann has an amazing website that explains in great detail how to make your own shades. I was able to make shades for 5 windows for under $200.

http://www.terrelldesigns.com/howtomakeromanshades.htm

do you not sew at all?? these are incredibly easy to make!

i've made them for many friends as well as myself.

Blinds To Go. My parents used them for wooden blinds and were extremely happy.

Smith and Noble has nice looking custom shades and will send you samples of their shade material for free. I may not be as crafty as the people above, but I tried to make roman shades once and thought it was difficult enough that I would have someone else do it.

Here's the best tutorial I have seen, with photos. I got the stuff to make mine at JoAnn's and Home Depot this past weekend. For three blinds, I got the blackout liner (reg. $5.99 a yard on sale for half off), cords, brass rings, cleats for under $30, and the wood and metal pieces for about $15. I had outer fabric, screws and eye hooks. I figure three shades will take less than a day of putzing around, and that long only because I will work slowly on the hand sewing of the rings.

http://jenduncan.typepad.com/whats_new/2008/11/roman-blind-tutorial-in-20-pictures-or-less.html

Sometimes your local dry cleaner has an alterations department that will take on custom projects priced very reasonably. Mine has turned extra curtains into bedskirts (lined silk $50 bucks) and made pillow covers ($15). I would not hesitate to ask them for window treatments if the need arose. I would be prepared with a pattern or a picture at least.

I've used Shade Store for both roller shades and roman shades. The service is good, product quality is nice, but I don't know about price. Our roman shade in dupioni silk was something like $400, for a standard (albeit somewhat tall) window.

Perfect timing. I have floor to ceiling windows almost and the cost of having blinds made was out of the question. (Even the JC Penny ones, but they were pretty nice looking.)

I'm going to make my own!

Have you tried Etsy (www.etsy.com)? You can request custom items! I am currently having custom curtains made, but the seller had originally offered to make Roman shades. I sent her the fabric, and what she charged for labor was cheap!

Wow thanks everyone. I was a little nervous about the JCPenney option. I know they range normally from like 200-400 and some of the JCP options were really cheap.
But I will def check these out!

We have non-custom roman shades from JC Penney on two sets of French doors in our living room. They were $15 each on sale, they look nice, and they've held up well during the last six or so years of use.

The custom shades will cost more, of course, but I think you'll get good quality for the cost.

The Company Store has a number of sizes and also does custom sizes for their linen pole-top Roman Shade (on sale, last I checked). It's cheapo, but only comes in a few solid colours.

http://www.thecompanystore.com/parent/Windows Shades/3732/GM95X/&An=102&A=14

http://www.thecompanystore.com/parent/Clearance Home Decor/7550/ZL38X/&An=102&A=1635

Amanda Hi,

I wish I had seen your question earlier I am in the window treatments business and I agree with the first comment custom and affordable do not always go together.And unless you are very handy, doing it yourself the "right way" is not so easy.

Nevertheless if you are thinking of custom made there are a lot of brands to choose from such as Graber, Prestige Window Fashion, Cofortex, Castec and Hunter Douglas.
Most brands have several degrees of price point for their products but you can find a lot of color samples and fabrics and most important those shades will last a bit longer than the $ 30 blinds you buy and have to through away after a year.

You can google any of the above brands and look for a local dealer near you to get pricing. Most companies will come to measure and install it too.

Hope this comment helped you or any of the other readers feel free to email me if you have any questions
tom@horizonyc.com