Frequently Asked Questions: Tab-Top Roman Shades
You may
have seen those shades that look like tab-top curtains yet operate as
Roman shades. Now how do they do that? The lift lines that are used to
pull the shade up and down have to somehow be threaded along a headrail
and out one side. But you cannot see any cords at the top of the
decorative rod. One of my customers was so kind to send me the following
photos and explanation of his "joint" project with his wife.

Tom C. from Richardson,
Texas writes: "My wife and I want to thank you for your excellent web
site on making Roman shades. My wife wanted to make some shades and had several
books, but the instructions were not very detailed. Your site gave detailed
instructions for every step. I printed them for reference. We also bought our
supplies from you and they were excellent quality.
The design my wife
wanted was somewhat different from what you detailed. She wanted to use a
wrought iron rod to hang them. I adapted your design for the pulley board to
raise/lower the shade. I painted the board white and mounted it below the rod
and behind the shade so it would not show. My wife is highly skilled at sewing,
but not too skilled at the layout/geometry. I'm a retired engineer, so I did all
the layout, math and mounting."

As you can see in the
close-ups shown below, the essential points of mounting the shade are:
- The
"headrail" which contains the pulleys (or screw eyes) is
mounted below the decorative rod. You could also mount the headrail
inside the top of the window.
- The headrail is
narrower than the shade so that it does not show.
- The shade is NOT
attached to the headrail, but rather hangs from the decorative rod
mounted above the headrail. You can use large decorative rings as
shown, or make fabric tabs to slide over the rod.
- The lift lines
are strung in the normal manner up and through the pulleys on the
headrail so that the shade can be raised and lowered.

Contact
Information:
Terrell
Designs, owned by Terrell Sundermann
5325 Sanford Cir. E. Englewood, Colorado 80113
Phone: (303)
758-0188 Email:
Home Shopping Meet The Artist Galleries How To Make Roman Shades
FAQs
Roman Shade Hardware
What's New
Contact
Hardware Calculator
Links
Site Map
|