Room darkening blinds?

[eb1]

Our current window treatments are not working...we have blinds, sheers, and curtains over the window in DS's room, but that's not enough to block out light at the end of the day. It's basically still bright daylight at DS's bedtime, which is part of the problem. Does anyone have any suggestions? Do those inexpensive vinyl room darkening blinds that you can get at places like Target or Wal-mart actually work? Or is there a better source/solution?

Thanks!

[amp]

I swear to you that I was going to post this same thing! Our blinds do not block the light. Luckily, DS goes to sleep really well right now, but as he gets older and doesn't want to miss anything, I think this will be tougher. Plus, and most importantly, the sun getting though is helping to warm up the room significantly, which is a problem. His room is the coldest or warmest in the house during those seasons. I'm hoping blocking some of that sun can help make up a little bit for the lack of insulation, which is the real problem. Hopefully someone will be able to tell us more.

[eb1]

I knew I couldn't be alone in this!! I have begun to leave the curtains and blinds closed all day to keep it cooler but we also have the problem with DS's room getting too warm from the sun. Just to get it tolerable for sleeping, I turn on the a/c full blast which makes the rest of the house freezing.

As for the light issue,I even have a dark sheet draped over the curtains--that helps (looks hideous), but is still not enough to get that room dark...

[amp]

Yep, I hear ya! Freezing sitting on the couch, but I have to try to get it cooler for DS in his room!

Someone, help us!

[gramma2hannah]

I had this same problem when my granddaughter was here for the summer. We had converted our one room into a bedroom for her and the sun beat in the windows terribly. She would get up with the roosters - as soon as there was a hint of daylight. During the day her room would be unbearibly hot. I went out and bought a black denim fabric and made simple shades and used these in place of the blinds. They worked wonderfully. If I needed to let some sun in, I just removed one of them for a few hours. I hope this helps solve someone else's problem...

Cher
Gramma to Hannah (now 6 years old)

[HallsofVA]

We use room darkening vinyl roller shades in both our nursery and our bedroon. In the nursery we have white roller shades purchased at Lowe's, and in the bedroom we have hunter green shades purchased at Home Depot. We love them, but it is necessary to have a dark curtain and perhaps valance to cover the areas around the shades where light can still come in. The darker ones seem to block even more light than the white ones, but they still do a great job keeping out light and heat from the sun.

Our nursery has two windows next to each other, and we have two roller shades, installed as close together as we could with room for the hardware, etc. On hindsight, I should have looked into getting one roller shade large enough to cover both windows, since we're having trouble blocking light in the middle. I have curtains on the outside sides of the windows, and a light sheer curtain covering the shades. I could really use a middle curtain to cover the gap in the middle, and a valance, to block light from the top, if I wanted it to be totally dark in there, but luckily DS will nap and sleep as long as we have the shades pulled down.

In regards to Target/WalMart vs. a home improvement store, I like the fact that at Home Depot or Lowes, they will cut the blinds to fit your window's measurements. I always like to go a little larger on the shades to block more of the light around the window than if it was the exact size.

[helaina]

>Do those inexpensive vinyl room darkening blinds that you can get
>at places like Target or Wal-mart actually work? Or is there
>a better source/solution?

We tried the room darkening roller shades from Walmart in our bedroom but they kept falling down whenever we'd roll them up. We then bought blackout drapes from Country Curtains and they work fairly well but not as well as I'd like. They still let in some sun on the sides and the room still gets hot. My friend swears that her wood blinds work better than the blackout shade she had tried previously. Wood blinds are expensive but I plan on giving them a try under the curtains. If you have the money, I've heard that wood shutters block out all light and heat, but they can be very expensive. I plan on trying the wood blinds as a cheaper solution.

[DebbieJ]

Similar problem here.

We have wood blinds in DS's room and they work good enough. He doesn't seem to be bothered by the light.

As for the heat factor, all other vents in the house are closed and the vent in his room is open so most cold air goes up there. Seems to be working okay.

~ deb
Mommy to my sweet boy
B born 12/03

[ohiomom]

I have a piece of thick dark purple fabric hanging in DDs window. It looks black on the outside. We use pushpins on the sides to keep side light out. I have an expensive double cell pleated shade in the room and didn't want to get rid of it since it matches the rest of the shades in the house. (The fabric is secured under the blind next to the glass.)It works great!
Nicole's Mom 7/03

[eb1]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. It sounds like the room darkening blinds/shades are not the ideal solution, but they can help. I think in my situation we'll need to skip them though; it sounds like the darker blinds work better and unfortunately our homeowners' association specifies that our blinds have to be white on the outside. I have been thinking about adding a layer of extra heavy fabric as some of you suggested. Because this would have to go in front of our blinds but behind the sheers and curtains, I'm trying to figure out the best way to install it so that it's easily/quickly removeable.

Thank you again!

[klinney]

Hi-
I had the same problem with too much light in my son's room. I had gingham curtains from pottery barn kids and they were not making it dark enough even with mini blinds. I went to JoAnn Fabrics and got black out material. It was much cheaper than getting black out shades from Pottery Barn. The material ended up being about $15 and my mother in law sewed them onto the back of the curtains. They look great (the black out material is white so it would fit with your homeowner's association) and they make the room totally dark. I even took down his mini blinds b/c we didn't need them, the curtains work so great.
Hope that helps.

[McQ]

We have honeycomb/cellular shades with room darkening material in the inside (it's metallic like). They work SO WELL. Blocks all the light and keeps it very cool. They look like regular shades but I have curtains up overtop of them (that I had before we bought the shades). My curtains also have blackout material but they didn't work nearly as well so we had to get the shades.

We got them at a local blinds store cheaper than Home Depot but they have them there too.

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03
and number 2 EDD 9.14.04

[eb1]

Thanks - this might be the perfect solution!

[eb1]

Thanks -- I will look into these as well and see whether it makes more sense to alter our curtains with the blackout material or change out our blinds. Did you put the blackout material on your curtains yourself or buy them that way?

My DH went to Home Depot last weekend looking for a solution to this problem, and they told him they didn't have anything! I couldn't believe it.

[helaina]

>it sounds like the darker blinds work better and
>unfortunately our homeowners' association specifies that our
>blinds have to be white on the outside.

You can get wood blinds in white. Go to the websites for Next Day Blinds, Blinds to Go, Levolor, or any blinds store near you. Also, Country Curtains (http://www.countrycurtains.com) sells insulated drapes and blackout drapes with a white lining. The insulated weaver's cloth is $48-69 per PAIR http://www.countrycurtains.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=1103&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=104&iSubCat=181&iProductID=1103

[McQ]

I'm lucky in that my mother made the curtains for the nursery. So I bought both the fabric and blackout material and she whipped them up. And while the blackout material helped a little bit we still needed to get the cellular shades. The nursery is on the south side of our house and it got super hot & bright in there. The shades made a world of difference.

Right now I haven't been able to get to a fabric store for the second nursery but we have the shades up already and I'm comfortable with that for now. We'll get curtains in there eventually but that will just be for aesthetics since they provided minimal room darkening coverage.

If there's a Next Day Blinds or Blinds To Go near you, you can go there and check them out. But then search around becasue those places can be pricey. We did better at a small local place.

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03
and number 2 EDD 9.14.04

[HallsofVA]

The roller shades are usually white on the back (to comply with homeowner association requirements), and can be colored on the front (to match your decor.) You can use the shades along with a very heavy curtain to block the light along the sides and top. We have one window downstairs that gets all of the sun, and washes out the TV. Someone recommended the Pottery Barn velvet curtains, and they are heavy enough to block out everything. I tried some cheaper curtains first, but returned them when the were too light and porous to do the trick.

I like the roller shades over blinds, because there is no cord to worry about from a safety perspective.

[lmintzer]

Just FYI--you can get some types of blinds with a "cord free" feature for safety.

[supercalifragilous]

I was thinking the same thing! We don't have blinds up at all - just heavy denim curtains. I bought the blackout material from JoAnn's (it's in the upholstery section and frequently goes on sale) and some other fabric to make up the curtains (Waverly pattern) and decided to make the blackout the "lining." JoAnn's Fabrics have different types of heavy curtain-lining material and I think they had two thicknesses of the blackout material too - I think one was a blackout/insulating fabric.

I also saw @ Bed Bath & Beyond the darkening/insulating curtains (premade) that had magnets sewn into the curtains where the panels meet in the middle to keep the curtains from opening. I thought that was a good idea (especially if you have pets who like to play under the curtains or a fan circulating air) but I don't think that solves the light-from-the-sides problem. I might just have to use pins there. I could probably sew Velcro instead of the magnet strips on my own curtains too. Those curtains were really expensive, too.

I still haven't gotten around to sewing the curtains yet (it's hard to find time to sew with DD running about my legs and thinking it's hilarious to pull out electrical cords from the wall) so in the meantime my husband did the TACKY thing of pinning up heavy dark green bathtowels on her windows!!!! I'm so glad her window faces the backyard (east) and the greenbelt so no one can see this! I'm just glad he didn't use FOIL! DH is such a hick at heart... It works for now but I've really got to get around to sewing those darn curtains! I can't sew well but I can do a straight stitch (or so I hope)! :D

[bostonsmama]

I love the Bali honeycomb cellular shades that the Home Depot and Lowes sell. I bought two for my master bedroom in Storm (without the room darkening lining...which is almost like a silver reflective paint they apply to the back), and I LOVE them!!! My A/C bill has gone down by $10 per month in peak season and about $8 per month in the spring vs. last year. My heat bill also went down in the winter (less than $60 for gas/mo-1700 sq ft). The honeycomb cellular shades themselves are great insulators! My room has a gentle glow in the afternoon sun (west facing room), but it's never hot....in fact, it's the coolest room in the house. I got room darkening honeycomb cellular shades for the front room (our soon-to-be nursery), and it's almost a tomb in there. I can't feel any heat radiating from the window (as it does when you pull up the shade). Also, in the winter, the room stays toastier without heating it too much. I have large Anderson windows (43" wide x 70" long), so my blinds (which were custom ordered to fit the exact dimensions LxW) cost about $110 ea. I saw blinds for smaller windows (36" wide) for about $40-$70 ea which includes the 20% off Lowes normally has.

I can't recommend these blinds more. Hunter Douglas is normally much more expensive, but they also have nice stuff. Our blinds came in about 2 weeks after we ordered them...they also have a great warranty! Our chord is the anti-strangulation kind.