An elegant way of shading your room from excessive sunshine is by installing roman shades on your windows. Roman shades are made from thick insulating materials that are often stylized to fit the themes of many homes. Materials like wood, plastic and woven fabric are popular choices for creating roman shades. You can select any of these materials depending on the design of your room.

Types of Roman Shades

The creation process of roman shades is generally similar, regardless of the material used. Only a few distinct procedures are necessary for each material. As for the the remaining steps, they are nearly identical. Here are the general types of roman shades:

• Fabric Roman Shades
• Plastic Roman Shades
• Wooden Roman Shades

If your toolbox has an extensive lineup of basic equipment and powertools, you should have no trouble manipulating the different materials for roman shades. You can also order pre-made roman shade pieces to eliminate labor, though you will have to pay more.

Fabric Roman Shades

Fabric shades are the most versatile among the three general shade types. They are easy to manipulate and stylize, given the properties of fabrics. You can make sleek cuts, paint patterns or implement various colors on a sheet of fabric so your shades can blend with your room’s theme.

If you are having a hard time creating a design for your fabric roman shades, you can log on to the Internet and check out the designs offered by shade manufacturers. Magazines for interior designs are also good sources for styling ideas.

Materials Used:

• fabric
• lining
• rope
• scissors
• measuring tape
• dowel
• eye hooks
• curtain rod
• curtain rings
• sewing machine
• mounting board
• staple gun/hammer and nails

Procedure:

As you can see, the fabric roman shade is pretty tricky to do. The success of its creation is entirely based on the accuracy of its measurements. You can practice creating smaller fabric-based items first before proceeding with the roman shades, just to get the hang of sewing fabrics.

Plastic and Wooden Roman Shades

Roman shades made from harder materials like plastic and wood are easier to create, although the whole process is a bit more tiring. No sewing is really required but you have to do some carpentry work to make roman shades out of your workpieces.

Lightweight Materials Required

The materials that you will use should be lightweight, so they can be held together and carried by the rope. Wooden workpieces should be shaped with tools like the saw, chisel, hammer and planer. As for plastics, you will need industrial cutters, so they are better off ordered as pre-cut roman shades.

Trading Sewing for Carpentry

The procedures for creating roman shades are similar to the fabric shade’s. Instead of sewing pockets for the bars, you will need to affix the bars along with the shades then connect them using the rope. The pockets for the curtain rings and the string are bored using a power drill. You can refer to the creation procedure of the fabric roman shade for stringing and affixing the shades to the curtain rod and the mounting board.

Beat the summer heat and the glare of city lights by creating your own roman shades. The shades not only shield your room from unwanted heat and glare, but they also form stylish impressions on your room or even your entire home.

Watch The Video

Make a Top-Down/Bottom Up Roman Shade Part 1

How To Sew On A Shade Ring