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Removing Stains from Fabric Blinds

Anyone who’s had kids or pets knows that nothing fabric stays fresh and crisp forever. With fabric blinds, mysterious stains can show up out of nowhere! Even a coordinated and sensible adult will end up with stained fabric blinds if they hang them above the kitchen sink. Doing dishes can splatter all kinds of substances up onto the over-counter window. The same goes for anything covering it. Even so, there’s no need to fear. Domir Blinds, Toronto’s leading blinds company, is here to offer you some solutions for removing stains from fabric blinds. The mess isn’t permanent, but Domir Blinds’ quality is.

Disassembly Optional

The first thing you’re probably wondering is, “Do I need to take the blinds apart to clean them?” Fortunately, it’s not nearly that complicated. As long as all parts of the blind are waterproof, you can leave them completely intact.

While it is possible to separate the fabric from any aluminum or plastic slats inside, you don’t have to. In fact, the slats inside could probably benefit from a rinse anyway. Dust can get in from the sides of your blinds and settle on them. Getting rid of that dust wouldn’t hurt anyone.

The Easiest Method for Removing Stains from Fabric Blinds

If you’ve ever tried spot cleaning a stain on hanging blinds, you know it’s a delicate dance. And, in the end, your stain is usually not removed entirely. Even if you can get it partly removed, it’s often still visible. It’s just so hard to clean something when it’s attached to a swinging conglomerate of moving parts. That’s why the best method for removing stains from fabric blinds starts with taking them down.

Blinds can usually be taken down by simply loosening a few screws that mount them to the window frame. Before unscrewing the mount, be sure to pull the blinds all the way up so that they’re completely collapsed at the top. This will make them easier to transport. 

When you’ve removed them, set the screws aside so they don’t get lost and take your blinds to the bathtub. That’s right! The bathtub is going to be your best friend when you’re done with this. Fill the tub about 1/3 of the way with warm, soapy water. Then, put in your blinds. Now that you’re stationary again, opening them up a bit will be necessary for the cleaning process.

Chemical and Soap Options

If you want to use more than one chemical, be sure to empty the tub and thoroughly rinse your blinds first. Many deadly gasses are made by mixing otherwise harmless household chemicals.

If you want to remove smells or weaker stains, using some vinegar would help. You can try your luck with pouring a couple cups into the water and swirling it around, or you can put some in a spray bottle and spray it all over the fabric surface.

For completely white blinds, using bleach is unlikely to cause any damage. Test a little on a far corner of the blinds fabric first if you’re unsure about how it will react. If it turns out alright, pour a cup into the bathtub.

If you have another stain removing cleaner that you prefer, feel free to try it out. All blinds are different and so are all stains, so it will take some experimenting. Just be cautious when doing so. We don’t want your blinds fabric to end up discolored from using the wrong agent.

Finishing Touches

When you’ve successfully removed the stains from the fabric of the blinds, rinse them well. It’s a good idea to drain all of the soapy water and sluice the blinds through some clean, shallow water. After that, using a detachable showerhead will make it possible to target any remaining soap.

Finally, press on the blinds without crushing the slats in order to squeeze out as much water as possible. Once you’ve done this, repeat the action with a towel to absorb as much as possible. Then, remount them in the window with a couple of dry towels in the sill below them. They’ll air-dry like this in about 24 hours. If it’s summer, open the window to speed up the process and ensure they get fully dry.

How to Replace Damaged Blinds Slats: Part 2

In Part 1, we covered the process to remove damaged blinds slats. Now we need to cover the steps to replace damaged blinds slats. This process, more or less, is everything from part 1, but in reverse. 

Acquire New Slats

In order to replace damaged blinds slats, you’ll need to get replacement slats from whatever company you bought them from. If you bought your blinds from Domir Blinds, give us a call and we can work out what replacement slats to send you.

If you have some generic aluminum blinds, your blinds may actually be long enough that there are many extra slats near the bottom. Do your blinds have a remaining stack of slats that rest on the window sill when the blinds are fully extended? If so, you can just take some from the very bottom of the stack. These won’t be missed if they’re not in the usable range of the blinds.

Place the New Blinds Slats

First, replace the blinds slats with the new ones. Just slide them in the same way you pulled the others out. Be sure they’re the right direction and match the rest of your slats. 

Trim the New Blinds Slats

If you got replacements sent to you, they may be longer than the rest of your blinds slats. Often, when blinds are installed in a new home, the ends of the blinds are cut shorter so that they fit properly into the window frame. If your new slats are too long, you may need to trim them. There are two ways to do this.

If you only have a few slats to replace, it’s easiest to just do this by hand with an old pair of scissors. You can either place the slats in the cord network and then trim them by sight, or you can put them into an occupied part of the cord network and mark them with the help of an existing slat. Use pencil if you do this, so that leftover markings can be easily erased.

If you have more than a few slats to replace, we recommend you mark one of your new slats as described above, then use a saw. By stacking your new slats with the marked slat on top and clamping them together, you make it easy to cut the whole stack with a table saw. This is how blinds are trimmed professionally. When you’ve finished trimming them, put them each into their new home in the cord network.

Rethread the Lift Cord

When your new slats are in place, you’ll need to rethread all of the lift cords. Put them through the hole in each slat and then the rail at the bottom. If you have a hard time controlling the end of the cord, try wrapping a piece of paper around the end. This will act as a makeshift needle to thread it with.

Retie the Lift Cord

When you’ve threaded each cord all the way through the bottom rail, you can retie them. Create a knot at the end of each lift cord. Be sure to check that everything is hanging evenly. If you tie one knot further up than the others, your blinds may hang slightly crooked. Adjust them as needed until the blinds hang straight.

Replug the Cord Knot

And, finally, put your knot plugs back in to keep the knots from fraying or coming loose.

How to Remove Damaged Blinds Slats: Part 1

Everyone ends up with damaged blinds slats at one point or another. Whether you’ve got some curious children trying to see outside, or a large dog attempting the same, slats get damaged. This is especially true of the standard aluminum slats most homes have covering their windows. The good news is, replacing them is easy. Here’s how you can remove damaged blinds slats.

The first step to replacing damaged blinds slats is removing the damaged blinds slats. Just looking at the series of strings connecting everything, it seems very complicated. However, it’s much easier than you might think. There’s actually only one string you need to mess with, and it won’t make the entire set of blinds fall apart.

Unplug the Lift Cord Knot

The first thing you need to do is open up your blinds so they’re covering the window. Therefore, let them down all the way to the window sill. Make the slats open to their horizontal position by twisting the exposure pole or pulling the exposure cord. With the slats open completely, they’ll be easier to access.

At the bottom of the binds is the rail where all of the strings are connected. On the underside of that rail, there will be a little plastic plug. Remove that to reveal the knot to the lift cord. The lift cord is the cord that runs up the middle of the slats to keep them in place.

Untie the Lift Cord

Untying the knot that was hidden by the plastic plug is the next step. You’ll need to do this for each lift cord present. If you have a wide set of blinds, there may be 3 or 4 of these. If you have a hard time untying the small knots, try using a pair of tweezers to pull the tight strings away from each other.

Unthread the Lift Cord

After unknotting your lift cords, unthreading them is next. Starting at the uppermost damaged slat, grip the lift cord where it threads through the hole in the middle and pull up. This will unthread it from all of the slats below as well. Pull it out through the damaged slat and let it hang over the side. Then, continue to do this for each lift cord.

The slats are resting on some horizontal cords that are used to control the angle they sit at. Therefore, each slat will remain mostly in place. Just try not to bump them too much. Otherwise, knocking them out of alignment will make them more trouble to rethread.

Remove the Damaged Blinds Slats

All that’s left now of the first half is to slide the damaged slats out of the cord network. You can easily pull them out from the side.

Removing your damaged blinds slats is only the first half, though. Check out Part 2 to see how to replace them.