Grommet Shade
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An Inside-Mount shade with a cord lock presents an "operational" issue. In order to lift the shade, you have to reach behind it to grab the cords and swing them in to release the lock. Several readers have described this a "fishing for the cord." Commercial products such as mini-blinds thread the cords through grommets (or buttonholes) at the top of the shade so that the cords and cord lock are in front of the shade. This is an easy way to reach the cords, rather than reaching behind the shade.
Doug Millar of South Portland, Maine sent me these photographs of his Inside-Mount shade along with his explanation of how he used grommets to bring the lift cords to the front of his shade.
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Doug wrote: "For my second set of shades, I slightly modified your instructions. The first shade I made was an inside mount and turned out great. The only thing I wasn't completely satisfied with was having to fish for the cord to raise it. I wanted to mount the second set inside the window and wanted to use a cord lock. To make it work, I made the shade with battens and lift rings but added three grommets about 2-1/2" to 3" below the top of the shade. Each grommet was in line with a column of lift rings. The shade is attached to the back of the mounting board and a valance is attached to the front of the mounting board to hide the hardware.
The lift cord is tied to the bottom lift ring on the back of the shade, threaded up through the column of lift rings and then through the grommet to the front, through the pulleys and cord lock and down the side of the shade. It ended up working like a charm, the shade goes up and down easily with the cord drop always accessible."
Doug went on to say: "Thank you for the incredibly helpful website. A year ago I didn't know what a Roman shade is. Now I have four hanging in my home and more on the way."
You can just barely see the lift cord on the right-side of the shade. The valance is down. You should realize that you will see the lift cord laying in front of the shade. You may want to match the color of the cord to the color of your front shade fabric. This means that the cord will be more visible from the back of the shade.
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