apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

nick olson (blogger for domino mag) painted black vertical stripes on his basic white roller shades, and it looks pretty nice ( i think there was a post on here about that recently).

you could so something like that in colors to suit your room. white roller shades are cheap at home depot and they cut them for free. this wouldn't really work if you want a shear look though.

or heres a pretty inexpensive kit
http://store.quilting-warehouse.com/101760.html

sorry the link above is out of stock, it doesnt say its out of stock until you add it to your cart (i figured i would try since your right EVERYONE else is out of stock).

Here's a resource I found - including directions:

http://www.beaconfabric.com/rollershade.htm
http://www.beaconfabric.com/vindex.html?cat315.htm

Here is an example of an easy, no sew kit. I made one with some spare fabric. It took about an hour and turned out great.

http://www.hancockfabrics.com/Fuse-A-Shade-Fabric-Roller-Shade-Kit---Hardware_stcVVproductId47584243VVcatId539476VVviewprod.htm

hm. Just a thought... could one buy a regular roller shade that is longer than needed, unroll it, trim off the vinyl, stitch (or use fabric glue) the fabric you want to the portion that is anchored to the roller, and then re-roll so that the fashion fabic / vinyl seam is never seen?

I love the cafe-rod idea shown in the pic -- that is, repurposing the tab-top drapery style at the bottom of the shade and inserting a cafe rod to pul the shade up and down.

I've been struggling with the exactly same thing! The Shade Store is pretty affordable but I actually don't find them to have enough interesting options. I really want something creative and fun for my windows. What places have you found that make custom designy stuff?

I second kimg924, but would like to add something to make the shade even better.

Add some very thin interfacing to the fabric that faces the street/yard. This will act as a liner so that the fabric doesn't fade (especially if you are using a very bright, colorful fabric).

Not quite roller blinds, but very cute and easy DIY:
http://twostraightlines.typepad.com/two_straight_lines/2006/10/tutorial_simple.html

Not sure how many windows you have, but if it's only one or two, you might check out vintage Denoyer maps on eBay. (They're the large roller-shade maps that used to be used in schools.) I've seen them in a couple of design magazines, doubling as roller shades, and they're very cool looking.

I haven't had a chance to try this but it seems dead easy.

Sarah Richardson of Room Service had a episode where the episode's project was creating a custom roller shade.
According to Sarah, "Simple, effective and inexpensive."
The project cost was the price of a roller shade and fabric and had some minimal sewing.

All she did was buy a pull down vinyl shade from a hardware store.
She rolled out the shade and pulled the vinyl off its post/roller; she also removed the stiffening bar at the bottom of the shade and set that aside.
She chose a white denim as the replacement fabric.

Her final shade size was 62" in length and 22" in width.
A little extra was added to the length so there would still be fabric rolled onto the post when the shade was fully extended.

She laid out the fabric, measured out her desired length and width and marked it out with a pencil.
Before cutting she brushed on a line of white glue over the center of the vertical pencil lines.
Since there is no sewing of the vertical edges, the white glue prevents frayed edges when you cut along the pencil lines. Glue is not need on the top nor bottom (horizontal) pencil marks.

Once the fabric is cut out the only sewing required is the creation of a pocket along the bottom of your fabric shade. This is where you will insert the bar from the original vinyl shade
Finally you take the post/roller from your original vinyl shade and with a staple gun staple the top of your fabric along it.

As an extra detail Sarah created a decorative pull made of colorful beads and embroidery thread which was sewed onto the bottom of the custom fabric shade.

In the US the episode is called "Bejeweled Bedroom" and in Canada the episode is called "Hot Spicy"

Hint: You may want draw arrows on the roller to indicate the direction the shade rolls, and mark a line along the roller where the shade is attached.

Hope this helps.

I am thinking doing a screenprint across the roller shades to make the window treatment more interesting. When the shade comes down, you have a cool painting across your windows. Does anyone have an idea on the best way to do it so it looks quality?

Are you looking to make like a filter shade or solar shade? Because here's another idea. There's this print and design company that can custom print the shade material with any design, like for instance, geometric figures in different colors, or stripes, or a dog.....anything. Then, they make the roller shade with the chain mechanism. A friend of mine did this for his business. They charge about $11 or $12 per square foot. And then if you need the tube and the chain, they sell that separately. Or, you can have them assemble the entire shade. I'm not sure what the price is in this case, but for sure it's not so expensive and definitely worth it since you'll be getting what you want, unique and professionally made.
The company name is Designer Up. I don't have their number but you can email them to sales@designerup.com and request contact information or just let them know what you need.

Good Luck!!

If you are going to be using the shade every day then I would definately recommend getting one with a pull chain as they are so much easier to operate. IKEA has some great shades on chains in stock.