Can You Cut Down Graber Honeycomb Blinds?

Graber Honeycomb / Cellular Blinds

• Graber's website lists honeycomb blinds as cellular shades. "Crystalpleat" is the Graber trademarked name for their honeycomb blinds. The honeycomb pockets supply insulation to reduce heating and cooling costs. The honeycomb design also helps to absorb sound in the room better than traditional single-layer blinds. Graber offers three cell sizes, which refers to the honeycomb pockets in the blinds, and four opacities. Opacity is the amount of light filtered out. The more opaque a blind is, the darker it makes the room. Graber provides a cordless option to reduce the risk to children and pets.

Cut-Down Services

• Vendors who sell blinds and specialized services that repair and offer blind cut-downs will often perform a cut-down for a fee. Because of the time and labor involved, having a blind cut down increases the cost substantially. Using a cut-down service to resize a Graber honeycomb blind is at your own risk. In taking apart the blind to cut it, the material can become damaged. It's also possible for the size to turn out wrong, even when an experienced person cuts down a blind. For an inexperienced person attempting to cut a Graber cellular shade, or any blind, the risks of unsatisfying results are even higher.

Fitting Cellular Blinds

• In window treatments, an inside mount refers to a blind or shade installed within the window frame. An inside mount offers a neat appearance, but isn't as effective for insulation or privacy as an outside mount because there tend to be gaps between the edges of the blinds and the frame on the sides. An outside mount refers to a blind installed above the window, outside of the frame. An outside mount blind gives you better privacy, reduces heat loss and blocks heat coming through windows in the summer more effectively than an inside mount.

Alternatives to a Cut-Down

• Choosing an alternative window treatment for the window you're considering the cut-down for may prove more cost effective. Depending on the fit issue, installing an outside mount blind instead of an inside mount could provide a solution. An outside mount blind gives you a wider range of size options because you can use a larger shade over a smaller window. You can even make mismatched windows look more balanced when the blinds are down by choosing shades the same size. In certain fabrics, Graber honeycomb cellular blinds can cover windows up to 144 inches wide.