DIY Tutorial: Upholstered Roller Shade

15 Mar DIY Tutorial: Upholstered Roller Shade

Happy Friday, Friends!  I’ve got a fun easy tutorial for you today, and I hope you enjoy it.

I’m still working on my girls room (yes I know, but there have been more pressing projects around here lately), and I wanted them to have a shade underneath their cornice and curtains.  The shade would give the room extra darkness, it would be easy to pull it up and down for naps without having to close the curtains, and duh, it would look cute!

The fabric on their cornices and drapes is Braemore’s “Flowering Branch”.

It is a bit difficult to tell from the photo, but this fabric has a touch of very pale pink so I wanted to highlight that.  After picking up a few yards of this Ralph Lauren fabric, “Monroe Stripe”, on super sale (details on that coming soon), I knew this would be a great accent fabric for the room.  The pink and cream is light and lovely, and it just looked sweet.

First, I picked up some roller shades.  These can be found at many big retail stores (like Walmart), but I purchased mine at Home Depot.  After all, I am one of their Style Challengers this year, so I thought I should show them my support.  They have three different levels of roller shade:  Good, Better, and Best.  I went for the middle level – not the worst, not the best.

Since I have had my fabric for awhile, I lightly starched and ironed it so it would be wrinkle-free and crisp.

After it was ironed, I was ready to begin.  I laid my fabric on the table with the right side DOWN.  (make sure your table is clean!)  Then I laid the roller shade on top.  Leaving about two inches on each side all the way around, I cut out my fabric template.  I didn’t measure, I just eyeballed it.  The stripes were nice too because I could follow them so my lines were fairly straight.

My shades are really wide (nearly four feet) so I quickly realized this project was not going to take place on my dining room table.  Therefore, I moved this party to the living room floor at this point.

For this next step, I unrolled my shade all the way and placed it on the floor back side down.  (so you want to lay it with the side down that will be towards the window)  Then I laid my fabric on top of the shade, making sure it was evenly spaced with two inches all the way around.  (I also made sure my lines looked straight.  I took a can of spray adhesive, and section by section, I applied the adhesive lightly and laid the fabric down, smoothing it carefully with my hands as I went.

I did cut a little “notch” of fabric out where the cardboard tube of your shade lies.  Doing this makes the next step much simpler.

After my fabric had been lightly adhered to the shade, and I cut a little notch on each side near the roller, I turned my shade back around so the right side of the fabric was on the floor.  Because I like all things to be pretty, I decided to make nice edges on the back of my shade.  Using my fingers, I folded one side of the extra two inches I left in half, and then folded it again, and pressed all the way down the shade.  Basically, you are acting as a light iron.  This step is tedious, but it helps you later.  (ignore the glue on the fabric in this photo)

After you have your folds done, take your fabric glue (I used Fabri-tac, LOVE it!), and place a light bead of fabric along the edge of your roller shade.  (I started putting the glue on the fabric at first, as the above photo shows you, but it didn’t work as well, and was messier.  Putting the glue on the shade is the way to go.

Your folds make it so much easier for the gluing process to pick up speed!  After you have secured your edge to the shade, press with your fingers to make sure you get it as flat as possible.  (you like the blue on my finger where I slammed it in the door this week? #doingtoomanythingsatonce)

To glue the fabric to the top of the shade, I ran a small bead of glue along the cardboard and pressed the fabric down.  No folding on this one.

For the bottoms of the shade, I glued everything down just like I did on the sides, but left the corners for last.  I cut the extra fabric hanging on the sides, folded over the cut edge so it looked nice, and secured the corners with glue.

The corners looked like this when I had finished.

Roll up your shade, and you are ready to install!

When you purchase your roller shade, you need to make sure you also purchase the mounting kits.  They sell them for an inside mount (inside the window frame) and an outside mount (you want the shade to be affixed to the window trim).  I wanted mine to be outside mounts so that is what I purchased.  Mount the hardware per the instructions, and make sure your drill has a good battery or you may have to screw in the screws by hand.  (or get your sweet hubby to do it)

Here is a photo my oldest took (he is quite the photographer) that I found on my camera when I was uploading these photos.  You can see here how the shade is mounted on the window.  You can also see it is dark, and I, of course, am looking very glamorous.  HA!

I also found this doozy he took of his brother during this process.   And by the way, we had already put them to bed.

The big reveal!

As much as I wish my photos were gorgeous and taken in natural sunlight, with beautiful rays streaming through the windows, that did not happen.  I figured you guys would rather have the tutorial than perfect photos, and truth be told, it is tricky to get this sort of thing done during the day.  But there you have it, my pretty upholstered roller shade!

A few tips:

1.  Make sure your fabric is thin.  You definitely do not want to use an upholstery weight fabric.  My fabric was thin, but looking back, I wish I had used something even thinner.  The mechanism does not work as smoothly when your fabric is too thick.

2.  Yes, I like pretty edges, but they don’t matter, and no one will ever see them.  Fold your fabric over and glue it down!  I think I spent too much time on that step.

3.  When you mount your shades, make sure you have all of your hardware turned the right way.  Especially if it is late and you have gotten your hubby out of bed to help you.  (wink wink)

Enjoy your weekend!