Blacking out windows without curtains/blinds?

Morganarla

Not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I figured OS always has good advice! :j

OH and I have just moved into our new flat Trouble is, the last tenants took the curtains as they were their own. The flat is forward facing onto a very busy and well lit street in London, so we get a lot of light into the bedroom. We will be getting some blackout curtains/blinds of our own to put up, but as the windows are very tall, I'm struggling to find any long enough (the drop is over 90 inches:eek: ).

In the meantime, what can I do to black out the bedroom window? I have to stop OH moaning about the light, he is driving me mad..! I have cardboard, newspaper, some dark coloured sheets, but with the size it's not easy pinning everything up!

Any suggestions?

Bennifred

Instead of blocking light FROM the window, how about blocking light TO the eyes with a sleep mask?

System

When we moved into our flat there were no curtains (or curtain rails!). For the first month or two we just put a sheet up at the window. It doesn't look that good, but it gives you a bit of privacy, especially as it's getting dark earlier now and people may be able to see in.

EBay have some curtains, but the postage tends to be high, because of the weight of them. You may be lucky and find some large curtains in a charity shop?

krlyr

Can you tape/staple/glue big sheets of cardboard together into one big piece you can just stick up as needed? May be a bit of a PITA to have hanging around and not very sightly but less faff than pinning up multiple things.

oldtractor

cover the top half of the window with cardboard selotaped to the glass. use a towel drawing-pinned to the cardboard for the bottom part. can be easily rolled up and tied with string during the day.

System

If there are curtain rails up already, you could do a kind of make-shift curtain, using your dark-colour sheets and a few safety pins. Put a few safety pins into the top end of the sheet(s), then feed the safety pins through the curtain hooks in the rail. (Plastic curtain hooks/eyelets are also cheap to buy, if you don't have any already) This will give you a couple of "curtains" that can be drawn, until you can get some proper window covering sorted.

sophlowe45

Ikea curtains are 300cm long, thing that is 118inches long i think

Still not long enough for the window but that is what the landlord eventually put up. I use an eyemask and could not sleep without it.

Good luck putting them up unless you have a very tall ladder.

Mistral001

Charity shops sometimes sell curtains. If not long enough they could do temporarily until you can afford curtains that fit properly. Hang the cutains from a string or curtain chord at head height. At least they will preserve modesty.

newlywed

We used masking tape to sellotape opened out black bin liners to our window/frames.

Nicki

Shop bought curtains, even from Ikea, are hideously expensive especially when you have big windows with long drops. We have floor to ceiling windows in our house, which has 9 foot ceilings, and in our bedroom alone we had 3 windows.

I found the cheapest thing to do was to buy a bolt of material and lining material in a neutral colour from ebay and make my own curtains from this. You don't need a machine (though quicker if you do have one) or any great skill to do this. Or at least, I have no skill or experience as a seamstress and mine ended up looking just fine.

If money is really tight you could just buy the lining material to start off with and make and hang linings? Then when you get some more money to spare, could choose the curtain fabric you like and just sew the linings in.

You can buy a whole bolt of lining material for about £20 or black out material if this is what you need for around £40 on ebay. And instructions on what to do, if you need them, are here

http://www.channel4.com/4homes/how-to/decorating/how-to-make-lined-curtains

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Why not suggest that he does something about it then, rather than whining at you to fix it?


Other than that, buy fabric and make your own.