Thoughts on darkening our bedroom?

[apple o' my eye]

Now that the april showers have subsided, our rooster is up at the crack of dawn :-) :-(

We have roller shades with black out curtains over them but the light coming in from the sides and top is too much. This will only get worse as summer comes.

I would sew magnets on the sides of the curtains, but not sure how to attach them to the wall. Then there's the top, that's the really bright part.

Any suggestions??

[LittleBirdy]

Have you tried hanging the black curtians on a heavy duty tension rod so that it can be as close to the window frame as possible?  It might help with the light coming through the top.  That's what I did (by accident, when I bought the curtain I forgot to buy a rod and all we had was a tension rod).  However, I bought a cheap blackout curtain and it lets in too much light in general so I'm in the same boat as you.

I'll be watching this thread closely.  I live probably about as far north as you, but on the East coast.  We're also only about 100 miles from the eastern border of the Eastern time zone, and right now dawn begins at 4:40 (!!) and full on sunrise is 5:12... and still six more weeks until the summer solstice.  Kill me!

[limabean]

You can do interior-mounted window treatments, where you mount it on the inside of the window frame instead of above it. 

[Snowflake777]

Regular old kitchen foil works really well, though it's not exactly attractive. It's good a temporary solution until you can find something better. ;)

[Peony]

All of my kids are sensitive to light, if they think it is light out then they are not sleeping. 2 summers ago I invested in black out blinds (the darkest the blind company made)  interior mounted in all bedrooms. Best money ever spent! I am lying down with my 2y right now and it feels like night time. 

[not_telling]

How close to the ceiling are your curtain rods?  I would assume (perhaps wrongly) that if the curtains were to start right where the wall meets the ceiling that you would mostly eliminate light coming out the top.  I'm about to buy black-out curtains to put over the black-out roller shades in all our bedrooms and am planning to mount close to the ceiling.  As for light coming in the side...hmmm...instead of magnets could you do velcro on the cutains and on the wall?  During the day when the curtains are pushed to the sides of the windows you would be covering up the wall velcro so you wouldn't have to see how unattractive it is. 

[cristeen]

You can get "half and half" velcro. One side is sewn, the other side is sticky. Ive used it to block drafts.

For the top, id either move the rod up or add a valance.

[LittleBirdy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peony 

All of my kids are sensitive to light, if they think it is light out then they are not sleeping. 2 summers ago I invested in black out blinds (the darkest the blind company made)  interior mounted in all bedrooms. Best money ever spent! I am lying down with my 2y right now and it feels like night time. 

Where did you get them?????????!!!  (See above - dawn begins at 4:40!!  I'm dying!)

[Malia Jacobson]

My kids are VERY sensitive to light (like their mama). :) I made blackout shades using the directions on this website: http://www.terrelldesigns.com/. My sewing skills are very basic, I can pretty much sew a fairly straight line, and not much else. :) Her instructions are AWESOME though, and there are also you tube videos that you can find showing step by step instructions, which were key for me. The entire project took two nights after the kids were in bed. She also gives instructions for interior mounting the shades and how to avoid light leaks.

A $5 solution in the meantime is to buy a cheap black flat sheet, fold it in half, and tack it around the window. This can be a temporary solution but it works well. :)

[aHikaru]

put blackout shades near the window, then add curtains on the outside, we do this and it works great. other than that, if it owned the place I would invest in a custom order.

[apple o' my eye]

Originally Posted by LittleBirdy 

Have you tried hanging the black curtians on a heavy duty tension rod so that it can be as close to the window frame as possible?  It might help with the light coming through the top.  That's what I did (by accident, when I bought the curtain I forgot to buy a rod and all we had was a tension rod).  However, I bought a cheap blackout curtain and it lets in too much light in general so I'm in the same boat as you.

I'll be watching this thread closely.  I live probably about as far north as you, but on the East coast.  We're also only about 100 miles from the eastern border of the Eastern time zone, and right now dawn begins at 4:40 (!!) and full on sunrise is 5:12... and still six more weeks until the summer solstice.  Kill me!

That is brutal!! in summer here dawn is before 5 am, but not as bad as what you get to deal with!

[dauphinette]

I didn't read the whole thread, but I and my little are both reallllly sensitive to the morning light coming in so I have tacked a folded up sheet inside the interior frame of the window and then covered it with a black out curtain and that does the trick.  From the outside it just looks like a taut(?) window dressing so its not offensive to the neighbors or anything.  But I am not the type to sink a bunch of money into window dressing so this is a very hommade affair that appeases my frugality and my sense of style so to speak...

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by LittleBirdy 

Quote:

Where did you get them?????????!!!  (See above - dawn begins at 4:40!!  I'm dying!)

Any decent shade shop will have them. They're not cheap though.

[nextcommercial]

http://sportys.com/ToolShop/product/16508/?&utm_source=Google%2BBase&utm_medium=comparisonshopping&utm_campaign=MerchantCenter

We buy a roll of this stuff, cut it to fit the windows and push it in.  It just stays in without any tools.

But, we also live in Phoenix where it's well over 100 degrees, so it also insulates our windows.  It keeps it totally dark, but keeps a lot of the heat out.  

We buy this at the hardware store, for about $50 a roll, and it does all the windows in the house.

[apple o' my eye]

All such GREAT ideas! Thanks!!

Before bed I shoved a bunch of fleece blankets around the top and sides of the exterior mounted black out curtains and *blush* learned that our roller shade is mounted externally too!

We have a set of roller shades for another room ready to be installed internally. I am going to do that tomorrow and see how it works in that room before we order anything for DD's new bedroom.

Has anyone internally mounted black out curtains? I have the curtains for her room and am thinking of trying them internally mounted to see how that works. We also have rolls of the reflective bubble wrap bought mistakenly so that is a great option too on our hot window side of the house.

Thanks Mama's!!

[Mom2M]

Originally Posted by Malia Jacobson 

My kids are VERY sensitive to light (like their mama). :) I made blackout shades using the directions on this website: http://www.terrelldesigns.com/. My sewing skills are very basic, I can pretty much sew a fairly straight line, and not much else. :) Her instructions are AWESOME though, and there are also you tube videos that you can find showing step by step instructions, which were key for me. The entire project took two nights after the kids were in bed. She also gives instructions for interior mounting the shades and how to avoid light leaks.

A $5 solution in the meantime is to buy a cheap black flat sheet, fold it in half, and tack it around the window. This can be a temporary solution but it works well. :)

This is awesome!
Thanks for posting it!

[JudiAU]

We have black out curtains hung on tension rods inside the window frames. The curtains, lined with heavy fabric to also block light, cover the window and then some. I don't think magnets will hold them well enough. I hang higher and wider and longer if you can.