Roman Shades: A Simple And Speedy Installation

Installing Roman Shades is fairly straight forward.
One word of caution, though. The shades come from the factory flawlessly made, but most of the time don't have any screws or hardware included in the package. That can make an hour-planned installation into a half, or a full-day event. So, come prepared with a few tools and hardware that you'll need.

Since we had faced this situation many times, we came prepared. To do this one right and fairly quickly, we brought with us two short (1 1/4") right-angle brackets for an outside installation on a metal door. In addition to the brackets, we usually carry with us # 8, metal, self-drilling screws. Both the brackets and the screws are available at any decent hardware store. To drive the screws, we use a cordless drill with a long # 8 Robertson (square) bit.

First, let's take a look at an outside-mount installation of a hobbled roman shade on a metal door.
The headrail (or the top of the shade) is neatly folded and stapled to a piece of wood batten (~ 1" wide/ 5/8" thick).

A Roman Shade - Installation Details(Notice the cord clutch, draw cords and metal guide rings.)

Okay. On the picture above, you can see a roman shade attached to a metal door using two right-angle brackets. You can see the first one by the cord clutch at the top of the picture. You can spot the second bracket as you follow the headrail from there.

The two brackets were first attached to the metal door using two, 1" metal, self-drilling screws for each bracket. The point of attachment for each bracket is right on the top of the wooden frame around the door window.

Once both brackets are attached to the door, it's time to place AND center the headrail on top of them. Using a single, self-drilling 5/8" screw per bracket, the headrail is fastened to the support brackets. 

What's the finished look like?

A Hobbled Roman Shade On A Door - Looking Great.

Now, here's a picture of an inside mount installation of a roman shade.
For this one, we used 1 1/2" long metal self-drilling screws to attach the headrail to the window sill. Again, before fastening the shade to the window frame, we centered * the headrail within the window first.

: *Centering blinds and shades is important (especially with high light-filtering shades) bacause unequal (and unsightly) light gaps will show on each side if this step is skipped  .

A Hobbled Roman Shade - An Inside Mount Installation

If you are wondering why we used metal, self-drilling screws in this application, here's why.

Here are 3 reasons:

1.  No need to pre-drill the metal door.
2.  No need to pre-drill the wood batten AND the window sill (frame) to prevent them both from splitting.
3.  No need to look for the pre-drilled holes in the headrail (that often get covered up by the material and are hard to find) and match them with their pre-drilled counterparts in the window sill.

How much view does a stacked roman shade take away in an inside mount installation?

Here is an example …

A Stacked Roman Shade Example  64 1/2" Height Stacks Up To About 9 1/2" At The Window Top

Note:When ordering roman shades, you can request one with or without a clutch. A clutch is the mechanism on the picture above that allows you to stop the shade at any height without having to tie the strings to a cord cleat. Most customers appreciate having the clutch option on their blinds.
If there are children around, it's recommended to install cord cleats to keep the lifting cords up and away from the children's reach.