Fixing Top-Down Bottom-Up Blinds

My plan was to make a video of the process. I may cut what I have and add it to this article, but I just wanted to get the process done, so I eventually stopped filming the video in order to finish the job. It’s not a particularly difficult job, and the fact that it will save you hundreds of dollars means it makes sense to attempt.

Let me tell you from the beginning that I did not do this repair as well as could have been done. I went to the local sewing and craft store and found similar cord, but it’s not as tightly wound as the original, even fraying as I strung it into the blinds. Therefore, I know my repair won’t last as long as it could. Since I wasn’t sure where else to get the cord locally, and I was also dealing with a daughter who really wanted to keep the drapes we’d bought, In fact, it was very surprising how upset Helena got over having to go back to the boring old blinds. The problem is that we spent $50 on drapes and hardware that weren’t even good quality or light blocking. So I picked up cord that cost around $5 and was slightly thicker and less tightly-bound than the original.

The next step is pulling the blinds apart. This is probably different on each set of blinds, but ours had pop-off tabs on the sides (top and bottom). Once the tabs are off, slide the metal or plastic bars off the blind. You’ll have to loosen the cords as much as possible to do this. In fact, you might even be forced to cut those cords, which is kind of a big deal if you only need to replace one cord that’s gone bad. The diagram below shows what the top of you top-down, bottom-up blinds should look.You can tell which cord is busted by pulling on each one of the four that come out of the hole (two on each side). For me, it was one of the cords that went all the way through the cellular shade material that had snapped.

Once it’s restrung, you mostly just put all the parts back where they were. I could tell that there would have been ways to get the cords caught while reassembling, and you can also cross the cords themselves. The worst I did was fray a new (cheaper) cord so bad that it needed to be replaced. Other than that, it was all chaotic-looking yet simple.

Sure, it’s more efficient to replace all cords at once. However, that means following a lot more direction at one time, with the potential for missing something, crossing something, or doing something wrong. That’s why I kept it simple on my first repair, only adding one cord and leaving the rest where they were. Since I didn’t have a large needle for stringing the cord through the blind, I used a straightened paper clip with a makeshift needle eye bent into one end.

The point is that we saved about $200 per window in previously bought items. We would have spent at least another $15 to the $50 to get new drapes to work, and that’s cheap. Or paying to get them fixed at $90 each. Looking at it this way, we saved nearly $500. However, I bet a lot of people don’t look at things this way. The truth is that we spent money on the items already, and trashing those items is throwing the money away. Some might say that the blinds (they’re about eight years old) have depreciated to no value. Helena would say they have no value, too, since she thinks they’re ugly, but it’s really difficult to believe what the window accessory companies want us to believe. Besides, I told Helena that we’d do something very interesting with her blinds in the spring, so they will look fresh and personalized very soon.      

Here’s a link to a diagram that will come in handy: https://www.fixmyblinds.com/v/vspfiles/ins-tdbu-restring.html

Link to product that should work on Amazon (measure your cord width) http://amzn.to/20kFg5j