DIY blinds: what to do yourself, what to hand over
Fitting your own blinds is one of the better-value do-it-yourself home improvement jobs — right up until the window stops being a rectangle.
Genuinely DIY
- Stock roller shades and faux wood horizontals on standard windows.
- Cellular blinds with spring-loaded brackets.
- Tension-fit and Better Fit style frames that clip on with no drilling.
- Curtain poles and simple drapery hardware.
Hand it to an installer
- Arch, circle, angled and other specialty shape windows — these are templated, not measured.
- Skylights and anything on sloped glazing.
- Hardwired motorisation, and any blind you can't safely reach from a step ladder.
- Shutters, which need a frame fitted square in an opening that rarely is.
- Wide patio doors, where a heavy headrail needs solid fixing across a span.
Measure twice, order once
Almost every DIY blind failure is a measuring failure. Windows are not square, walls are not plumb, and a house built forty years ago will have three "identical" bedroom windows that differ by half an inch. Write the numbers down per window with the room name, and photograph the frame with the tape in shot.
Learn from finished jobs
Members upload photos of real jobs. Seeing how a professional lays out brackets, handles a shallow frame or hides a light gap will save you more time than any instruction sheet in the box.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I install blinds myself?
- Standard rectangular windows with stock-size blinds are a straightforward DIY job with a drill, a level and a tape measure. Specialty shapes, skylights, motorised systems and anything over about 96 inches wide are better handed to a professional.
- How do I measure for blinds?
- For an inside mount, measure the width at the top, middle and bottom and use the narrowest; measure the height at left, centre and right and use the longest. For an outside mount, add roughly 3 to 4 inches to the width and height for overlap. Measure every window separately, even if they look identical.
- What tools do I need?
- A steel tape measure, pencil, level, drill with a driver bit, appropriate anchors for drywall or plaster, and a step ladder. A second pair of hands for anything wider than about four feet.