Blackout curtains?

VanMan2007

I read recently that better sleep is achieved with total blackout in the bedroom. I have a "wafer-thin" pair of curtains, with a street lamp almost right outside the window! But I do have a sister who is good with a sewing machine!

Nothing pretty wanted. Just something effective. Buy advice or adapt advice, all welcome.

Thanks guys.

stef73

We have blackout curtain linings on all our bedroom curtains we bought ours from dunelm mill. If you have soneone who can make them it might be worth while pricing up ready made and then pricing up the material. There is a street light outside our bedroom thats why we have them it makes our room almost total dark in the day just abit of light shows above them.

tigershoes99

You can also buy blinds now that are almost like the built in velux blinds and block all light by fitting perfectly in the frame.
Obviously if your sister is handy with a sewing machine then you should go with the cheaper DIY option, as long as the material is sourced cheaply :-)

VanMan2007

tigershoes99 wrote: »

You can also buy blinds now that are almost like the built in velux blinds and block all light by fitting perfectly in the frame.
Obviously if your sister is handy with a sewing machine then you should go with the cheaper DIY option, as long as the material is sourced cheaply :-)

Thanks tigershoes99. Welcome to the forum. Yes, will go with sister labour. God knows, she owes me a wheelbarrow full of favours!

WestonDave

If you try somewhere like Shaws you can often get black out "linings" which are actually another curtain which you hang on the same curtain hooks behind the normal curtain. We've got these in the kids room and the only problem we've had with them is them occasionally needing rehanging. They were pretty cheap.

southernscouser

Be much cheaper buying a silk eye mask.

VanMan2007

stef73 wrote: »

We have blackout curtain linings on all our bedroom curtains we bought ours from dunelm mill. If you have soneone who can make them it might be worth while pricing up ready made and then pricing up the material. There is a street light outside our bedroom thats why we have them it makes our room almost total dark in the day just abit of light shows above them.

Thanks stef73, have checked out that site and it looks good. Mine will be a temporary home improvement before I gut the whole place and refurbish in the mid-distant future.

VanMan2007

southernscouser wrote: »

Be much cheaper buying a silk eye mask.

Ha ha! Actually, shutting my eyes has a decent improvement as well!

novo_2

We bought some blackout curtains from Dunelm mill as well, they were cheap, but quite soon the fabric started getting really thin and would let loads of light through. I have no idea how this could have happened, it must have been really cheap material. It started after a few months and we had to replace them after a year.

Instead we got blackout curtain linings from John Lewis, which were really easy to attach to other curtains we got from John Lewis. It works really well, and they look a lot better too.

novo_2

These is the JL blackout curtain linings : http://www.johnlewis.com/blackout-curtain-linings-ivory/p115735 .

I saw they also do blackout curtains.

abankerbutnotafatcat

We are not in the least bit crafty so we went with ready made ones fom Argos, they were cheap and also claim to be thermally efficient as well as keeping light out. They are plain and in a few neutral colours. We got 3 pairs about 18 months ago in either cream or brown. They are effective in totally blocking out light and have been all washed at least once with no ill effect.