Seashell / wooden cord pull

For the first set of Roman Blinds I made I had to buy the cord pull for it and was gobsmacked by the prices some folk were charging for such a small and simple item. So when I made the next 3 sets of Roman Blinds I decided I needed to put my creative, crafty mind into gear and come up with some thrifty solutions for the job.
I searched the web and found some pretty nifty ideas but nothing that I felt would suit what I wanted so instead I started looking around home and seeing what I could salvage.
I really wanted 2 Seashell pulls for the downstairs loo - 1 for the light cord and 1 for the shower cord (ok, so not Roman Blind pulls exactly) and after rooting around in the top of a plant pot in the front room I found exactly what I needed

2 large spiral seashells.
Obviously they couldn't be attached to the cord without a hole and this is where my trusty Dewalt drill comes in.
These shells have spirals inside them so instead of just having to drill through one shell wall I had to drill through about 3, though I made sure I didn't go through the final wall.
Once the hole went right through I simply threaded the cord through until it hit the final wall, then it was just a case of continuing to thread the cord until it wound its way through the final spiral and out the end.
Once I could grab the cord I simply knotted the end and pulled the cord back up from the top until the knot lodged itself. Because I didn't go through the final spiral wall the knot actually goes inside the shell and can't be seen.

Perfect!


Next I needed 2 pulls for the kitchen Roman Blinds I made. Again I was too stingy to buy them so had another scout around the workshop to see what I could come up with.
Finally I noticed an old wooden curtain pole that had screw on finials on the end - perfect!
I gave them a good clean and then a quick sand down before drilling a hole straight through from the top to the bottom. To make sure this hole was perfectly straight I ditched the hand held Dewalt drill and opted for my husbands hole drilling thingy machine (don't know what it's called but it makes holes. Very quickly & very straight).
Once it had gone all the way through I turned the finial over and drilled a wider hole from the bottom up, though this hole was only a couple of cms deep as it's only intended for the cord knot to sit in to hide it.
Then I gave it another quick sand down and a couple of coats of Black craft paint, threaded the Roman Blind cords through, knotted them at the end and voila! another 2 cord pulls that cost nothing.

Here's the finished cord pull.

This is the underneath.












This post is linked to:





'Thrifty decorating'
'Night owl crafting' 
'Nifty Thrifty Things'