Hiding Rental Apartment Vertical Blinds...

Hi everyone! Our daughter Courtney and her fiancé Courtland moved into their new apartment a few months ago. It's a great apartment, but with rentals there are certain things you can't change…one being vertical blinds.

We bought pre-made curtains and sheers at Ikea and used curtain rods I already had from my house, so the transformation only cost $30.00. The drapes were $25 and the sheers were $5.00

The pictures aren't great in some shots, because the sun was so bright coming through the window it made things dark in the photos, but you'll get the idea.

Here's the before…

The vertical blinds open and close from the right side. We could have just put up the curtain rod and hid the blinds behind the right panel, but Courtney also wanted the sheers up along with the fabric panels.

We could have done that, but that would have required a double rod system and mine was only a single rod. Her window is long and the double rod styles are pricey.

Here's the after…sorry this is a dark picture

Sheers on the vertical blind rod and the cotton panels on the black rod. The black rod is just above and in front of the vertical blind rod, so it hides it a little.

Come on in to see how easy this is to do…

So here are the vertical blinds. There is a string pull that moves all the blinds back and forth to the right side, so they can get out the door to the little deck they have.

This is how they were hung from the side view. I used this existing system to hang the sheers.

The first step was to remove each slat…not the rod system.

The slats just clip on.

So I just clipped them off. Insert your nail and push up.

It will release the clip on the blind...

Then it will slide right off.

Keep moving down and remove them all.

I stacked the slats up, zipped tied them all together in 3-4 spots along the length and stored them in the back of her closet on the floor to keep them flat.

This is how I mounted the curtain rod over the vertical blind rod.

You have to have brackets that slide in and out and adjust how far out they come from the wall. If you don't have brackets that do this, you can buy them separately in stores. I saw them in Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Now that the vertical slats are gone, I just slid the sheers onto the clips. I folded the hem over a little for a gathered affect.

Start on the ends, then find the middle and work your way down spacing out each section of fabric on the clips.

The sheers are on the vertical blind rod, so the sheers move like the blinds did. The cotton fabric panels just slide on the black curtain rod.

The sheers diffuse the sun light during the day.

Looks so much better in person. This was the only shot I had at the time, so if I can get a better one on my next visit, I will share it here again.

This shot is at night, so the kids just pull the cotton panel closed over the sheers for privacy.

I hope this helps anyone who has a window system that they can't remove due to rental rules.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

~Karen~