Make Classic Shade Headrail

Using a hand saw, cut a 1x2 board to 1/4" less than the width of the top of your shade. Cover the board using plain muslin or left-over fabric from the shade:

Cut the muslin 4" longer than the board and 1/2" wider than the circumference of the board.

Staple the muslin to the mounting board like you would wrap a present. Use staples (out of a staple gun) to hold the fabric in place. You want all of the raw edges turned under. Everyone wraps their board a little differently. Don't stress over it, just pull the muslin as tight as possible and staple away. 

You don't have to cover the board with fabric. It is not visible when the shade is installed. However, I assure you that your friends will pull your shade out and look behind it to see how you did such a beautiful job. For this reason, and because it look so much more professional, I always cover my board with fabric.

Staple the hook fastener (stiff part of the Velcro) to the front of the mounting board. Be sure the little smooth side is down and the hooks are up. It should be placed at the front "top" part of the board, as is shown in the drawing above. Mark the center of the board on the hook fastener with a pencil. You will use this mark when you attach the shade to the mounting board.

You are now going to attach your flat pulleys (or screw eyes) to the "bottom" of the board. They should be placed near the "front" edge because that is where the shade will be hanging. The location of the pulleys determines the location of the lift cords on your shade. You will be using the completed board to mark the lift ring locations on your shade.

You begin by attaching the two "edge" pulleys. I place them so that they are about 1/16" away from the end. That way the screw doesn't split the board. If you are using screw eyes, place the outside ones about 1" in from each edge. The rest of the pulleys are really not hard to figure out. I place them on the board at approximately equal distances. I have never been able to tell if one was 1/2" closer to the edge than another one. The exception is that I do put a center pulley in the center - I already marked the location on the Velcro.

 

I have drawings for almost every configuration you can use for your Headrail. So scroll down until you see the one you will be using. The drawings using cord lock pulleys are towards the end of the page. The first drawing on the right shows a Projected board using flat pulleys. It also shows the board for two, three, four, five and six lift lines. The following drawings only show one configuration. The steps are always the same, if you want to be EXACT: ·         Step 1 is to attach the “edge” pulleys next to the front side on the bottom of the board. ·         Step 2 is to measure the distance D between the center of the two “edge” pulleys. ·         Step 3 is to divide D by (NLL – 1) where NLL is the number of lift lines. This is the distance to the center of the next pulley.

 

If your shade will be an Outside Mount, make fabric tabs to cover the hardware at the sides.

Remember, schematics for other mounting board options are below. Scroll down to find your configuration. Then scroll back up to click on the next topic in the left-hand navigation column.

 

 

Mounting a Cord Lock Pulley. If you are using a cord lock pulley, place it on the side of the board where the lift cords will be exiting. The drawing at the left shows a cord lock pulley for a left-handed shade since you are looking at the back of the shade. When the shade is turned around, the lock will be on the left-hand side. Note that the drawing shows a “tandem pulley” (or you could use a “tandem screw eye”) butting up to the cord lock pulley. If you don’t do this, the lift cord will rub on the cord lock housing. You will be replacing your outside lift lines will away from the sides of the shade so that they line up with the tandem pulley. The Hardware Calculator takes this into account when determining the number of lift lines since you must specify whether or not you will be using a cord lock. There is a lot of information on cord lock pulleys in the Cord Lock Pulley FAQs section.

 

Now scroll back up to click on the next topic in the left-hand navigation column.