DIY Blinds

Roller blinds are where most DIY customers start, and for good reason. The install is two brackets and four screws. Measure the window, order online in blockout, sunscreen or light filtering fabric, and the blind arrives made to your sizes with brackets, screws, a child-safe chain tensioner and an install guide in the box.

Decide on recess or face fit before you measure. Recess sits inside the window opening and looks neat. Face fit mounts on the wall or architrave, covers the whole opening and blocks more light at the edges. Double roller blinds, a sunscreen and a blockout on one bracket, are the same job with a deeper bracket, so check the recess depth first.

If you want the blind motorised, order it with a motor in the tube or add a retrofit motor later. Either way the install is the same two brackets.

More on DIY roller blinds

Custom curtains are a bigger DIY job than a roller blind, but still a realistic one. You measure the track width and the drop, choose sheer or blockout fabric from free samples, pick a heading such as S-fold, and decide how you want the hem to sit: just off the floor, touching, or puddled. We make the curtains and ship them with the track.

The track is the part to take care with. It needs to be level, fixed into something solid, and long enough for the curtain to stack back clear of the glass when open. Ceiling fix and wall fix use different brackets, so say which at order time. The install guide covers both.

S-fold sheers are the easiest curtain to hang because the fabric and gliders are already attached to the track in a set pattern. Lift the track into the brackets and the folds take care of themselves.

Custom curtains, DIY or fitted

Outdoor blinds are for confident DIYers with a drill and a ladder. The blind itself is not complicated. What takes care is the fixing: posts, beams and brick all need different brackets and screws, and the blind has to be square to the opening so the fabric runs straight in its channels.

Measure between the surfaces you will fix to, not the open air in between, and check the drop to the floor or rail at both sides. Look up for downlights, fans and gutters that could clash with the headbox. Choose mesh for shade and airflow or clear PVC for a weatherproof room, and spring, crank or motor operation depending on the size and how often you will use it.

If you are in Melbourne and the alfresco is wide or high, this is the product most worth handing to us.

Outdoor blinds, DIY or fitted

The quickest DIY upgrade we sell. A retrofit motor slides into the tube of an existing roller blind and replaces the chain mechanism, so the blind you already have becomes a motorised blind. Most people have one done in about ten minutes with the blind off its brackets on a table.

Check the tube diameter against the motor listing before you order. The motor runs on a rechargeable battery charged through a USB-C cable, so there is no wiring and no electrician. Control is by a handheld remote with 15 channels, so one remote runs every blind in the house, each on its own channel or grouped.

Add a Bond Bridge hub and the same blinds run from your phone, on a schedule, or by voice through Google Home, Alexa or Apple Home. Motors come singly or in packs for doing a whole house at once.

Retrofit blind motors

Almost every DIY measuring problem comes back to this one choice, so make it before you pick up the tape. Recess fit (also called inside mount) means the blind sits inside the window opening. It looks neat and keeps the architrave visible, but the opening needs enough depth for the bracket, nothing in the way like a winder or handle, and you will see a thin line of light at each edge of a blockout.

Face fit (outside mount) means the blind sits on the wall or architrave in front of the window. It covers the whole opening, so light control is better, and it hides an out-of-square window. It is the answer when the recess is shallow, when a double bracket will not fit, or when you want a bedroom as dark as possible.

For a recess fit, measure width and drop at three points each and give us the smallest numbers. We make the deductions. For a face fit, measure the area you want covered, going wider and higher than the opening. Always in millimetres, always width before drop.

Read the measuring guide

DIY is the cheaper route because you are doing the site work, and it is the only route if you are outside Melbourne. It suits anyone comfortable with a tape measure and a drill, and it suits a whole-house fit-out on a budget. The product is the same either way: made to your sizes in the fabric you chose.

In Greater Melbourne and on the Mornington Peninsula you have a second option. Book a free measure and quote, and we come to you with samples, measure every window, quote on the spot and fit the lot when it is made. The measuring risk becomes ours. Plenty of customers mix the two: DIY on the straightforward bedroom windows, and have us handle the wide sliding door, the bay window or the outdoor blind.

Not sure about your numbers? Send us your measurements before you order and we will check them. A few minutes on the phone is cheaper than a remake.

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