How do I remove my horizontal window blinds?

January 6, 2006 2:53 PM

How do I remove these horizontal window blinds?

I need to take some window blinds down to paint, but can't figure out how. They came with our house.

There are no screws, and all the tilting, prying and squeezing I've done has accomplished nothing. On the front there are two tiny metal clips (pic), one near each end, and on the back there are small metal plates aligned with the clips (pic).

The blinds are about 5' wide.

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, but what?

posted by Yogurt to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Is that a pin on the second pic, going from the bracket into the blind housing? I suggest some gentle prying with a screwdriver, possibly see if some end plates come off, allowing you to remove the metal case from around the workings and access a screw.
posted by tomble at 2:58 PM on January 6, 2006

Best answer: Have you tried rotating the blinds? Around the long axis, either front to back or back to front? That does the trick sometimes. They'll sort of snap out of the metal clips.
posted by voidcontext at 3:01 PM on January 6, 2006

Best answer: Rotate the upper box section of the blinds. The silver bit in your second pic is a bracket, and it has a leg with a tooth on the end that you can't see. I don't remember which way you have to rotate, so try one, then the other. You shouldn't need any tools.

Like voidcontent said.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:09 PM on January 6, 2006

Sorry, voidcontext.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:10 PM on January 6, 2006

Response by poster: Rotating front to back did the trick, although it required much more force than I would have expected and some rocking. Part of the problem was that the blinds were fit very tightly against the sides and top of the window. Thanks!
posted by Yogurt at 3:37 PM on January 6, 2006

Your blinds don't happend to have supporting brackets on the left and right sides (see figure1 on this page). If so, the "doors" to these brackets are pried open, and the whole box section of the blinds slide out. This is how the horizontal blinds in our house work.
posted by jaimev at 3:41 PM on January 6, 2006

Response by poster: Here's a photo of one of the brackets for other window amateurs. Hidden were the large left-facing hook in the middle and (above it, out of focus) two forward facing hooks, cupped like upturned hands.
posted by Yogurt at 3:54 PM on January 6, 2006