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Monday, August 17, 2015

DIY LIGHT BLOCKING BAMBOO SHADE


When completing my bedroom this past spring, we removed the wood blinds from the windows and replaced them with bamboo shades, along with drapery panels made with blackout lining for a cozy (dark) night's sleep.  I also ordered a shade for the door that leads to the patio.  


Since the blinds on the windows would be covered at night by the closed curtains, I didn't consider purchasing the ones with a privacy liner included.  And, because the price is quite a bit higher and I wanted to make sure they matched the others perfectly, I didn't think I needed a shade with a liner for the door, either. 

Wrong!  Pretty in the daytime, no help at all as soon as the sun becomes to come up.


My side of the bed is directly across from the door, which just so happens to face East.  So, like it or not, every morning we were awakened at the crack of dawn as soon as the sky began to get light outside.   And, not to mention, there was no privacy at night time if the lamp was on in our room, anyone outside could pretty much see right through the bamboo shade.  

In the spirit of just making do, we would tuck a dark colored blanket up over the door blind every night to block some of the light.  Niiiice....

I always have remnants of blackout lining around, so I thought I might be able to come up with a way to salvage the shade.  If ever there was a MacGuyver of a project, this is it!  It's probably not the "correct" method to go about it, and it's nothing fancy, but it worked!

After extending the blind all the way out and removing it from the door, I laid it right side down and measured the width, leaving about a 1/2" margin on each side.  


Then, I used my handy trick and cut the piece of blackout lining to size. 


Next, I got really technical and hot glued it all around the edges.  I glued the top side all the way across, then worked my way down each edge, before gluing the bottom all the way across.  I did use my low melt glue gun for this project so I wouldn't burn my fingerprints off, and it worked really well.  The glue will not separate easily from the wood or the fabric like it does with some materials. 

Down the sides, I put a small drop of glue about every 1-2 inches, only on the wider slats so that the glue wouldn't leak through and be visible from the front.  Across the top and bottom edge, I made sure that those lined up on a wider slat so I could easily glue along that.


I wasn't really sure if this would work as I was doing it since I was covering up all of cords and hardware used to draw the shade up.  However, I think it turned out just fine.  It just gathered all of the lining right up with the shade when it's raised.


Success!  There's still a "glow" around the edges, but that's not bothersome at all.


I do have one more little trick that I do with these shades.  I can't stand to see the excess cord when the shade is raised, so every time I raise it I quickly loop the cord around a few of my fingers, then hook it underneath the valance where I attached a small cup hook to hold it.  


It just takes about 3 seconds but makes the entire door and shade look so much neater!


Now our room is a perfectly wonderful dark cave until we decide we're ready to wake up each morning.  Yay for quick and easy fixes!




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Would you like to comment?

  1. Genius! I just finished lining 3 blinds in my bedroom in about an hour. If I knew it was going to be so easy, I would have done it years ago. Thanks for the tutorial!

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