DIY IKEA WINDOW SHADE PULL

A fast and budget-friendly DIY to create a pull for a window roller shade.

Hello friends, last year, I hacked a pair of the IKEA SKOGSLOVER roller shades.  I replaced the plastic shade material with fabric.  I knew I wanted to add a pull handle to them, but had trouble finding anything that wasn’t real leather.  And anything that had tassels and beads is completely out of the question since I have cats.

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Before Christmas, I was wandering around the fabric store and found these faux leather suitcase handles.  They were PERFECT!  I bought two and headed home with my treasures.

Here is what they look like in their original packaging… (sorry for the bad photo).

Here’s what it looks like out of the packaging.  Note:  It comes with two Chicago Posts, but I only needed one, so I removed one.  What you see below is the half of one in one end of the handle, and the other half on the other end.  The cool thing about Chicago Posts (or binding posts if you’re at some hardware stores), is that they screw INTO each other.

During this process, I undid my previous blind hem and reinforced it with a layer of white fabric behind the black and white fabric.  I did this to help even out the hem, but also give the Chicago bolt something more substantial to go through.  All I did was cut a strip of fabric the same width as the window shades.  The strip was about 4 inches tall.  I used spray adhesive to hold it in place before adding a strip of fabric glue to the bottom edge and folding it up to create a pocket for the bottom rod.

Once that glue had dried, I used my sharpest scissors and cut a tiny slit just big enough to squeeze the Chicago bolt through.

Grab your suitcase handle, clear washers and bolt pieces.  When you put it all together, it should be in this order from front to back:

• Chicago bolt half that is open on the inside
• end of suitcase handle
• clear washer
•  (now push bolt through fabric)
• add other clear washer
• fold under other end of suitcase handle – it should be a loop
• Chicago bolt half that screws into the first half

That’s it!  Super easy!

I hope this inspired you to think outside the box if you’re looking for something to finish off a DIY project.  I love having these handles so I don’t have to touch the white fabric on the roller shades.  And the shades look more finished.

Until next time, happy DIY’ing!