Hello, I am looking for advice on the best way to block as much, if not all of the sunlight out of my daughters bedrooms. The one bedroom has a very long window, it goes from ceiling to floor and the other bedroom's window is just very wide. I have a shade with curtains on the one and wooden blinds with a blackout curtain and regular curtains on the other one. The blackout curtains were cheap and not wide enough, thus not very effective at all. I would like some more sleep and was hoping this might help. Thanks for all your input!!
Hi Deborah Try buying some shades that block out the sunlight. I bought some and they work fine. Try Sears, Pennys,Home Depot and Menards.
I recently purchased some room darkening drapery panels from jcpenny. they really work! My older son's room has dark colors in his comforter, so I bought the navy colored draperies..it is like a cave. he loves it..he is a college student and loves his sleep. my younger son is 14 and had light colors in his comforter, so I purchased the ivory colored draperies. they block the light as well. obviously, not as much as the navy, but a whole lot! They are called Eclipse..energy saving, noise reducing blackout curtains.
they say that they block out 99% of light, 40% of noise and say that you can save 25% on heating and cooling costs. the 52x84 sized panel was $45. I bought them on sale.for 50% off.
If your handy, I just bought blackout lining from the fabric store (Vogue Fabrics) and sewed it to the curtains we already had. It was I think 6.99 a yard and it's so dark my kids don't even know its daytime anymore!
I use the Hunter Douglas "blackout" honeycomb blinds, exactly like the one in the link from Sandra (below) in all the bedrooms. I love these shades, as they block pretty much all the sunlight. Be sure you have your measurements correct so they fit your window perfectly and do not leave wide gaps for light to sneak in. In addition, I prefer for my own room to be a cold as possible -- and blackout shades prevent the heat from the sun to warm the room (I keep the shades in my bedroom down all day!). That helps us cut-down a bit on the a/c!
We have used room-darkening 3/8 dual cell honeycomb cellular shades in our kids' rooms for the last several years - they are AWESOME for napping. We have cordless ones, too, so we don't have to worry about their safety. You can find them most cheaply at Blinds.com: http://www.blinds.com/control/product/productID,8761
These are much better than curtains because they cover most of the window and don't move around.
This is actually my specialty. I have a window treatment business. The best blackout shade would be a Hunter Douglas Opaque Duette Shade. When installed correctly and down, it should be as dark as night in the room. Other options are draperies with blackout lining. These must be mounted higher then the window and have a return, or the light will creep from the sides and top. Be happy to help and give you a quote. Visit my website for contact info. www.windowdesignsbydiane.com. Having your children sleep later is possible with the right window treatments! Good luck.
Country Curtains also has fairly inexpensive ones.
Pottery Barn has some effective, but expensive, blackout panels that come in a variety of lengths/widths.
I bought some black out shades from Wal-Mart for $5.88 each. I was kind of reluctant at first since they were priced so low and looked kind of cheap, but they work! My daughter started waking up around 5:30 and 5:45 when the sun was coming up, and she is now sleeping until 7 or 7:30 am. :0)
Even though it sounds cheap, these shades are made out of paper. But what is great about that is that you can easily cut them to fit your window. If your window is really wide, you can simply buy more shades and put them side by side and cut off the excess. My husband put them up, but i believe they have a strong adhesive that sticks to the window. We haven't had any problems with them falling down or losing their adhesiveness. I haven't measured them, but they are pretty long.
ACE hardware also has some blackout shades, but theirs are more expensive. You need to know what type of hardware you're going to use to mount them and you need to have exact measurements because they cut them to fit. Sounded like too much work for us, which is why we went with the paper ones from Wal-Mart.
If you already have curtains hanging, you can go to the fabric store and buy the black out backing along with rings that have clips. Cut it into strips as long as your window and clip them. Then hang from your rod.
I bought the Eclipse curtain panels for my kids' rooms. The 84" length panels were about $22 each at Walmart. I have also seen them in Target. A little light shows through at the top, but I have no trouble getting my kids to bed on summer nights when the sun is still up.
I have also seen the room darkening cellular shades, and they are great as long as they are custom fit to the inside of the window frame.
