Blacking out Venetian Blinds?

Mr_Mister

Years ago I made the mistake of getting Venetian Blinds for the whole house as they looked great. The issue is they are not made of 100% Blackout material so unfortunately during the summer months, as my bedroom window faces east, i get woken up at 4am due to the bright sunrise.
I've asked a local curtain shop to see if they can fit a track for a curtain but they are not able to provide a big enough track to cover the blinds.
Does have a solution to this problem?
My windows are 3 part bay window. 
Thanks

twopenny

I too have a bay window facing East. Half the year - lovely, the other half - exasperating.

Mine is not a tidy soloution but it's the only one I have found to work and I've tried A LOT!. The tinyest pinprick of light at sunrise can illuminate the room.

I bought good quality blackout material from a fabric shop. Put double sided velchro along the top of the window frame and on the material. I've also put 2 small bits of velchro at the sides of the window frame to keep it in place as the morning heat can cause it to move out.

The velchro can be removed from the frame when you wish with no residue or staining.

Each evening I fix it up. It takes only a minute  now I've got some practise and about 30secs to get it down in the morning.

It also keeps the heat out.

It doesn't look pretty from the bedroom when it's up but I draw curtains over.  Besides I'm asleep - the whole night through to 8am

casper_gutman

I have a bedroom with an east-facing bay window. I have Venetian blinds plus curtains with blackout linings on a track which covers the blinds. I'm sure a similar arrangement would be possible for you.

Perhaps if you posted a picture of the situation somebody might know of a curtain track that would do what's needed?

ic

The best thing I found was the cellular blinds that clip to the window frame.  They quickly add up in cost if you've lots of panes of glass, but work well - the blackout blinds have aluminium foil on the inside, so they do a good job of keeping heat out too.  https://www.perfectfitblinduk.com/perfect-fit-celular-blinds

Mr_Mister

casper_gutman said:

I have a bedroom with an east-facing bay window. I have Venetian blinds plus curtains with blackout linings on a track which covers the blinds. I'm sure a similar arrangement would be possible for you.

Perhaps if you posted a picture of the situation somebody might know of a curtain track that would do what's needed?

Here is what I am currently experiencing every morning :

silvercar

ic said:

The best thing I found was the cellular blinds that clip to the window frame.  They quickly add up in cost if you've lots of panes of glass, but work well - the blackout blinds have aluminium foil on the inside, so they do a good job of keeping heat out too.  https://www.perfectfitblinduk.com/perfect-fit-celular-blinds

Do the frames take up a lot of room? I have a similar issue but was concerned that the frames take up so much room - I have a small bay window of 4 panels - that I would have reduced light during the day.

twopenny

Mr_Mister you should be able to get a curtain rail in there. It wouldn't follow the exact shape but be a little more rounded and away from the window.

Or you can put curtains across the bay as you see in so many houses. Neither will completly stop the light if it's very strong at sunrise.

casper_gutman

Here's our setup. Our blinds are very slightly set back inside the window recess, which may help with the curtain track getting past them, but not by much. I'd have thought just mounting a curtain track on a batten instead of directly on the wall would achieve the same sort of end result.

casper_gutman

If you're very sensitive to the light, the most convenient way to achieve a full blackout without having to Velcro things onto the frames is a proper set of blackout blinds which run in channels either side, as used in theatres, darkrooms etc. They're not cheap, though.

ic

silvercar said:

ic said:

The best thing I found was the cellular blinds that clip to the window frame.  They quickly add up in cost if you've lots of panes of glass, but work well - the blackout blinds have aluminium foil on the inside, so they do a good job of keeping heat out too.  https://www.perfectfitblinduk.com/perfect-fit-celular-blinds

Do the frames take up a lot of room? I have a similar issue but was concerned that the frames take up so much room - I have a small bay window of 4 panels - that I would have reduced light during the day.

They only "thicken up" the frame a little if that's what you mean. This video gives a good view of them (albeit a Venetian blind rather than cellular).  They're not perfectly dark, a little light does creep in at the edges, but combined with the blinds you already have would make for a dark room.