Blackout "Curtains"

remember tinfoil back in my working graveyard days I worked all night slept all day while the kids were at school. Easy and cheap and can be removed, repaired or replaced in a flash. only problem (and a big one) you can't open the windows. can you trade that for sleeping in?

Hi,
this may sound funny, but my son also needs his room darker(he's 5)
my husband cut out a cardboard cutout to fit the interior of the windows.
it works perfect. a bit annoying we have to insert before bed and after he wakes up(the room does get very dark) but it has been working now for over 3 years.

It was inexpensive and easy to do. his regular drapes are pretty lightweight and let in too much light.

with all that said he still wants his twiglight turtle ____@____.com of luck,
P.

I bought black curtains at Walmart.. Works like a charm.. Couldn't live without them~

The blackout curtains offered by Pottery Barn Kids are the best on the market. You can try to find them cheaper on Ebay.

They're soooo worth the money!!!

I bought my 'black out' curtains @ walmart-they are actually called just that. I am sure that is the best priced place to buy them & they have a few color options to choose from AND they work-keeps the room nice & dark.

Would have made them if I had confidence in my sewing... instead spent too much at Pottery Barn Kids... the result... they're basically alot like a thick shower curtain... pretty plastic-y, and about 6" shorter than our curtains... Next time I need them I might thing about buying a thick shower curtain and just taking a pair of scissors to them to size... no one EVER sees them behind our drapes....

We have curtains we love but after a while grew tired of the morning light they let in on the weekends. I found blackout liner at WalMart that you just add to your existing curtains! A few of our windows are an odd size so I had to buy the larger panel and cut it to fit our current drapes. Maybe try a fabric store too - see if they have a thicker, light blocking material you can sew onto your sons curtains.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Roc-Lon-Blackout-Energy-Efficie...

Consider putting the curtains on the inside of the window sill rather than on the outside. You can get suspension rods (I think that is what they are called), like are used in cafe curtains.

check out jcpenny.com. they use to have blackout panels in the catalog, that could go right behind drapes.

You might want to consider a pull down shade. You can pull it down at night and it will completely block out the morning sun, except for the light at the edges of the window. But, if you have long hanging curtains they will block that light at the edges.
Any pull down shade from a retailer should work and will block the sun, but I have noticed that there is a difference in thickness and quality. If I had noticed it earlier, I would have gotten our shades from Home Depot and invested a few more dollars to get shades that are a little thicker and well made (less likely to be tattered or ripped by a toddler).
I also considered sewing thicker flannel type material to the "back" or underside of the existing curtains in a solid color similar to the main color of the curtains. So, that's another option to consider as well. However, the shades worked so well for my kids that I never needed to do that. Good luck!

walmart has blackout curtains i think for about 15 dollars. they come in different colors.

I would simply drape a large towel or a light weight dark colored blanket over the curtain rod at night and take it down in the morning.

Bed Bath & Beyond has really inexpensive black-out curtains of various sizes. Helps a lot with naps. Good luck!

What time do the kids go to sleep? Maybe put them to sleep an hour later.

room darkening pull down shade.
cut to size in store, nail in place.
done.
js

You may not need to sew. You could either buy some black or dark brown velvet tab top panels at Wal-mart and put them on the rod in addition to the curtain you currently have on to make it twice as dark. If you wanted to sew you could find some remnants of a dark, heavy canvas type and add it to the back of your current curtains. You could also try adding solar screen adhesive (made for windows) to tint your sons' window. Helps a bit. The dark, heavy curtains help much better. I also used to put a dark, solid screen divider in front of his window for a time (found cheap on Craigslist). Hope that helps!

When we lived in Alaska we weren't willing to pay the outrageous shipping to get blackout curtains so we used a combination of cardboard, it works best if you put an aluminum foil rim around it, just plain tin foil and for our spare room, we just hung heavy thick blanket over the window when someone was sleeping in there. If you want to make your own curtains just pick a heavy fabric, but make dure it's not too heavy for whatever your hanging it with. Really if looks aren't an issue go to good will and find an older thick fuzzy blanket, not the new fleecy ones the old ones from the 80s and staple gun it over the window, pull it down when you need it down and put it back up as necessary.

pottery barn kids has a couple of good options.

There are some curatins that are primarily for energy conservation but work great for blocking the sun. They work great as an insulater against the cold during the winter also. They have a thin film of meterial attached to the curatin material, they come in all kinds of colors. You can get them at a pretty decent price at Target or JCPenney. Thye will serve and blackout curtains in additon to conserving energy.:-)

There are black out curtains, if you wanted to keep curtains. I got mine from Bed, Bath and Beyond. They were pretty economical too (bought them 4 years ago so I don't remember the exact price). They work REALLY well. Also, you could put up a heavy blanket, if you didn't want to buy anything new.

Fabric stores have blackout material. Just measure your curtains and ask them to cut the right size for you. I can't sew, but my MIL sewed them in just at the top - took her like 15 minutes - and then I used fabric tape to secure the sides.

I made them from some dark polyester material. Take a flashlight with you to the fabric store, and you should be able to find something that blocks light. Sewing them is not hard - just three straight "hems" where you turn the fabric under twice, and a section at the top for the rod.

You can go to a fabric store and get some heavy material for pretty cheap. Measure the length and width of your window from the inside. Add three inches to the top and bottom. You can use stitch witchery or another no sew product...the fabric store can advise you. Fold over the very top to make a "rod pocket" and use a tension rod that will fit inside the window frame. Tension rods are adjustable to an extent and require no holes or screws or hardware at all. The fabric and tension rod can easily be removed and put back up as needed. You can also sew the top and bottom which will take you only a second for a straight stitch.
You can make your own version of "roman shades" too. It just takes ribbon on each side that you can use to cinch up so you don't have to take the tension rod out every time.

I hope you get some great responses.

Hi Mama-
I know they make energy efficient curtains at places like target (http://www.target.com/Energy-Efficient-Drapes-Window-Cove...) and my advice, if you want to make your own or save cash is to go and see what they are made of, and if it is cheaper to buy the material and make your own (consider the stress, too), then do that. I want to say they are just a heavy canvas. They don't black out a room like hotel curtains, but any energy saving curtain will darken the room. You can always put sheers behind the heavier curtains, too, for when the room is occupied, and pull back the darker curtains and let a muted light come in.
Hope that helps!
-E. M

How about adding blinds under the curtains that can be pulled up during the day and pulled down at night or mini-blinds. We have both on our bedroom window and it really helps. Or get darker curtains that you can open during the day to let the sunlight in.

I guess this is pretty tacky, but when my husband was working grave we tacked up (thumb tacks) a dark blue blanket behind our vertical blinds. Of course our room faces the back yard, so I wasn't worried about how it looked from the outside, and we never let sunlight in so it wasn't a problem that it was tacked all the way down the sides.
The fleece idea sounds promising.
Also I know they make do-it-yourself window tint. That might be enough to just cut down the light. they also have static cling stain-glass or etched glass looking panels.
one last idea from way left field- If they were girls you could find a canopy to hang from the ceiling above the bed an drap down just part way on both sides. For boys? I don't know, do they make, or could you make something more tent like?
Good luck to you.

try securing another panel of thick fabric to the back of the existing ones with safety pins. basically you would just be doubling the thickness of the curtains you already have, with no sewing. good luck!

My son loved his airplane curtains, but they too where too thin for the Alaska summer. Since he did not want different ones, I simply bought some fleece and used a spray glue to attach it to the back of the curtains. Since fleece will not fray I do not have to worry about sewing, I just trimmed off the extra from around the edge and now he has nice dark curtains and was able to keep his airplane design.

You have some great suggestions. I was just thinking of the blackout curtains at hotels. Aern't they just vinyl? You could buy some vinyl at a fabric store and sew them to the back of their existing curtains. That would not take a lot of sewing. Just the edges. Just not sure how the curtains would scrunch up when you wanted them open. At hotels the curtains a blackout curtains are on seperate rods.

The fleece idea seems promising, just not sure how dark it would get. You could buy a small piece and test it out.

Good luck!