Wooden blinds - shop bought or custom made?

quatro

A friend has wooden blinds which were bought in a retail shop and look excellent and much cheaper than custom made ones would have been.
They are too long though and there is a pile of slats resting on the windowsill which sort of detracts from the overall slimline appearance.
She is unsure whether these extra unwanted slats can be removed easily so it looks more like the blind was made to fit - and hesitates to start something which may not look good in the end.
Anyone done this?

totalguitar

I bought some from Ikea, the extra slats are easy to remove, they come with instructions. Maybe if no instruction where provded then they are a fixed size.

economiser

They are easy to shorten if they are similar to mine. Mine were from John Lewis and the process was as follows: Undo the cords that go through the bottom rail, usually retained with wooden pegs. Pull the cords up through the bottom rail and all the slats you with to remove. Slide out the bottom rail and unwanted slats from the retaining "ladder cords" (I don't know what else to call them). Insert bottom rail ib ladder space below last slat. Inset cord through bottom rail. Trim cord and ladder cord and reinsert wooden pegs.

vansboy

We HATE net curtains, but do want some privacy, as live on the main road, so blinds were the best choice.

Ours are aluminium, so the length wasn't so much of an obvious problem, when slats 'piled' on top of each other.

The thought of trimming each slat, for reducing the width looked tricky - even B&Q website said it wasn't easy, so we mounted flush on the wall & it looks fine.

We're now thinking of doing a HUGE window at Grandmas, priced at £300 for make n fit. Ikea should be less than half this price!!

VB

beefster

Peter the pleater
Address: 17-19 Great Eastern Street, London , EC2A 3EJ
Telephone: 020 7375 1053

http://www.blinds.co.uk/new/

Got our wooden made to measures here. We ordered at the shop and picked ours up (as I work in the area) which gave us a discount on the online price. I could not beat the price at the time, 18 months ago.

quatro

The blinds had to be cut for the width which was done by taping the closed blind firmly around so they couldnt shift when being sawn [with a small hacksaw] and cutting the slats in a 'block' - that worked, so she now just has to undo the unwanted slats - thanks for advice.

gromituk

vansboy wrote:

The thought of trimming each slat, for reducing the width looked tricky - even B&Q website said it wasn't easy, so we mounted flush on the wall & it looks fine.

Ikea sell a really cheap jig which slices their aluminium slats cleanly.

gromituk

Note that the wooden Venetian blinds have a considerable depth when raised, so will cover up some of your window unless you can mount them higher up.