How to cut wooden Venetian blinds to fit your window

I was asked recently how I’d cut down an Ikea timber blind to fit inside an existing timber reveal, where the window was narrower than the blind. Ikea’s blinds come in standard 60cm, 80cm, 100cm and 120cm lengths, so what if your window is 94cm or 110cm wide? Obviously you don’t want to use a narrower blind because then there would be huge ugly gaps on either side. As with the style of window below, it isn’t the best option to hang a wider blind on the outside of the window reveal as then it would sit on top of the radiator blocking the heat. And they look a bit rubbish that way too!

I’m not going to go through all the boring bracket hanging instructions which you can read in the Ikea booklet – it’s the actual cutting of each individual slat which seems to cause people a problem and scare them off. It is a bit of a pain in the bum and does take a while but it’s worth it. Basically, once you’ve got the brackets up, you measure the distance to cut the main hanging bar from bracket to bracket. Lie the blind, closed up so all the slats are together, flat on the floor and mark with a pencil the main bar and the first 7 or 8 slats to the size you want (on the rear side so no pencil shows on the front). Use a metal hacksaw to cut the main bar, then here’s my tip.

Method One

I use tin snips like giant scissors to cut the first 5-10 or so slats (a little dependent on how deep your window reveal is)when the blind is not hung. SAVE the very first one from each side which you cut and mark them L for LEFT and R for RIGHT according to which side you’ve snipped them from.

Use the strings to fully open the blind. Hang the main bar in the brackets so the first few slats sit inside the reveal, but the rest are still uncut and hang outside, where they are easy to cut. Then use the Left Snipped piece as a measure/template to snip down the left hand side of the slats all the way down, then the Right Snipped piece to snip down the right hand side of the slats all the way down… do you see?  No? Watch the video!:

What you’ll maybe find is that the window reveal isn’t a perfect equal distance all the way down and if the slats are marginally too wide you can snip a tiny bit off the make them fit perfectly.

Snips are just like scissors, you may find you get a better cleaner cut on the left side as opposed to the right or vice versa. If this is the case, try turning the snips upside down as the blade position may mean a sharper cut. If it’s still slightly rough (maybe your snips are older and aren’t so sharp) it may be better to cut from back to front on that particular side so take the blind out of the brackets and get someone (with strong arms and a chair!) to hold the blind up in the air while you cut that side.

I use these Stanley Straight pattern tin snips which you can get on-line or in DIY stores, and have cut LOADS of blinds this way so the Moregeous Method definitely works!

Method 2

You can cut the whole lot sitting on the floor if you aren’t comfortable using ladders, just make sure the pencil line hits every slat as you first draw it and make sure your snip is straight not wonky. I use both methods to be honest, depending on whether I’m feeling lazy or not 😉