What are your best options for blacked-out windows?

Posted on: 21 November 2016

Whether you're a light sleeper tired of being woken by the summer dawn or a night shift worker who needs to sleep through daylight all year round, plenty of people need a decent way to block sunlight from coming in through their bedroom windows. This can be a little easier said than done, however—so the trick is to decide what your priorities are. Read on to learn a little more about your best bet no matter what's most important to you.

It's not possible to black a window out to total darkness. With a little effort, however, you can find a solution that will suit you.

If your priority is price...

It's incredibly difficult to achieve full blackout, and every method has its own pros and cons. If your priority is getting the room as blacked out as possible without breaking the bank, you should choose a blackout blind: they're the most inexpensive option, and for many people they do the job well enough.

If your priority is style...

If your priority is classy interior design that fits as well as possible with your decor while still making your bedroom as dark as possible, you should pick blackout curtains. They're available in any fabric, colour and design you fancy, and the heavy fabric adds a luxurious feel to any room.

If your priority is uniformity...

If you're mostly interested in a uniform look throughout your home and perhaps to fit in with your home's period features while still doing a decent job of blocking lights, look into full shutters. They're not as full a blackout as other options, but they're better than non-blackout curtains or blinds by far.

If your priority is efficacy...

If, on the other hand, your priority is a no-expenses-spared total blackout, you can get as close as possible to this by doubling up. A pair of full box shutters will do something that no other blackout solution can: they block out almost all the light coming in at the edges, because the wood is fitted directly to the wall. They will let some light in through the slats and at the join, however, so combat this by hanging a pair of blackout curtains in front of and over them. If you really wanted to try and eliminate the last few tiny chinks of light, you could consider additionally having a blackout blind hung inside the shutters against the window, and possibly even having that window tinted to reduce the amount of light coming through it in the first place.

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