Top Down Bottom Up Roman Shades

Roman shades are terrific for light control, privacy, and insulation. Not to mention they look very stylish on your window.

The most common way you see roman shades is they are installed at the top of your window... and when the pull cords are pulled... the bottom of the roman shade pleats up to let light in... and to allow you to see out. This also allows people to see in!

What if you wanted a roman shade on your window... you wanted the light in... you wanted to see out... but you still wanted privacy?

That's where the top down bottom up roman shade comes into play.

A top down bottom up roman shade is a roman shade that has 2 sets of lift cords. One set raises and lowers the bottom edge of the roman shade. And the other set of lift cords raises and lowers the top edge of the roman shade.

Here's a perfect example of when you would use a top down bottom up roman shade. Say it's a beautiful day outside. A perfect day to have the windows open. But the window you want open faces the street and you don't want people to see in... but you still want light to shine in your room.

Raise the bottom of your roman shade a few inches to let the nice air in from the outside. Lower the top edge of the roman shade about a foot to let the sun in. And the rest of the roman shade provides privacy! Genius!

You can special order this style of Romans shade or you can make it yourself and save big bucks! In fact, you can even convert your existing roman shade into a top down bottom roman shade.

Let me explain how the installation would be so that you can have control raising and lowering either the bottom edge of your roman shade or the top edge of your roman shade.

You need 2 sets of roman shade hardware. So, if you are going to use a cord lock... you'll need 2 cord locks. If you are planning on installing a roman shade bead chain clutch system, then you need 2 systems. If you plan on just using 2 cord cleats, then you need 2.

Basically, you need one set of lift cords and hardware to operate the top edge of the roman shade and the other set of lift cords and hardware to operate the bottom edge of your roman shade.

To operate the bottom edge of your roman shade, you would install your roman shade normally. Nothing changes here. So, if you are installing a roman shade with a cord lock, you would still tie your lift cords to the bottom shade rings, thread the lift cords up through the rings and over to your cord lock.

Operating the top edge is the big difference. First, the top edge of your roman shade is no longer attached to the top dust board. You need to hem it neatly with a casing that will hold a sturdy rod. It can be a fiberglass rod, a steel rod... something strong that won't bend in the center from the weight of the roman shade.

Install a second cord lock on the opposite side of the dust board. With new lift cords, tie a lift cord to each of the top rings. Thread the lift cords through the screw eyes and over to the second cord lock.

And that's it!

If you already have a roman shade that you want to convert into a top down bottom up roman shade... simply detach the top edge from the dust board. Hem the top edge and insert a rod into the new top casing. And then install and thread the second set of lift cords for the top edge operation.

Click here to learn how to make roman shades with detailed step by step video tutorials and illustrated instructions.