To think that a black out blind....

[NappyStack]

...should make a room at least vaguely dark????

Needless to say, LO's body clock says its time to get up. Not surprising really when its about as dark as a... as a very bright thing (its early, can't think) in the bedroom.

Grrr!

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Did you pay good money for it? We just bought a load of blackout fabric from the market and hooked it up round the window - works fine.
YANBU!

[NappyStack]

Kathy Yes, thats what makes me so angry, it was £20! Looking at it now and how it fixes to the wall there was no way it was going to 'black out', only ever slightly 'dimmed out' IYSWIM.

Will buy some fabric and stick it up, really hate the idea of sticking velcro onto the PVC window frame - it will probably never come off again. Mind you, a small price to pay I guess for not being woken up at dawn each morning.

[artifarti]

NappyStack - I share your early pain! Someone gave me a good tip on here the other day - use tinfoil for a couple of days. It's very effective but much cheaper. You can see if blacking out makes a difference without shelling out too much money. In our case it was pitch-black and he woke at a record-bad 4.20! So we've abandoned that idea but at least haven't wasted cash. HTH.

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

That's clever. We have been known to tape up bin liners in holiday cottages but I got less sleep than ever through irrationally worrying that the bin liner might fall down spontaneously and suffocate my children.

[2rebecca]

Mine works well and wasn't expensive. Has to be close fitting to the window though, I use it as well as curtains.

[beardydad]

Blackout blind? Slight Dim Blind more like. We customised ours with black paper stuck round the edges and lashings of brown parcel tape holding it to the walls. Light still sneak round though. But the earlier we're downstairs the more respite before the bloody Lelli Kelli adverts start...

[Longtalljosie]

Can you get ones with runners which go down the side of the window? I'm sure you can but have been looking online and can't find one

[chipmunk1]

this might avoid the need to stick velcro on window! sure you can find them cheaper than john lewis too. they're called tension rods i think
www.johnlewis.com/26415/Product.aspx

[Longtalljosie]

Having been inspired to do another google, the other option is Velux blinds of course, there's no reason why they can't be on vertical windows as well as sloping ones...

[jumpjockey]

We had a problem like this - MIL said she'd got blackout blinds for the room we'd be staying in with dd, but they were roller blinds with a big gap at the top and about 1cm round the sides. We ended up stuffing socks in the gaps and putting a couple of towels over as well.

At home we've just got the fabric, quite a lot bigger than the windows, and drape it over a couple of little hooks stuck into the window frame close to the edge so the excess fabric is round the edges of the frame between the curtain and the wall. Works a treat.

[NappyStack]

Thanks folks - chipmonk I think the answer will be tension rods. Don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, a student house I had used them and they were dead easy to fit. Hope they can take the weight of the black out fabric. Thanks.

[IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern]

I bought the material (not the tarpaulin type stuff) from a garden centre that you put under thestone ships in your garden was about £1 a metre I needed it doubled over but with lined curtains and that the room was dark.

[chuffinell]

we have the same problem in our bedroom - we installed black out roller blinds but the light shines through the sides - i wake at dawn every day

thank you for this thread nappy, and the fab tip from chipmonk - i will be ordering the tension rods asap and looking forward to not being blinded at dawn!

[PatienceRequired]

We haven't decorated dc's room yet since we moved in, and i didn't want to shell out the fortune that these "blackout" blinds cost, until we had the money and time to decorate the room properly.

The curtains that are up are ones left by the previous ownemrs. (Hideous, but that's by the by!) So i got thick bin liners and gaffa taped them between the cutain itself and the lining. Its very effective, cheap and looks ok from the outside, as the lining hides the bin liner. And it also gives the time to see if the light is really the cause of the early waking.

Artifarti, you may get better results after a few days/week rather than the first morning.

[themoon66]

Sticky velcro is fine on plastic windows. I've always used it rather than drilling into frames.

[HSMM]

Unroll the blind and roll it up backwards, so the blind is on the window side of the roll, instead of the outside, with a big gap around the edge.

[littleducks]

Ds is waking at either 4.20 or 5.30, was better when i put tinfoil up in my room as well and morning was drery a few days ago, might buy some velcro as i have three bits of material, window is about 5 metres long so it is ££££ for curtains/blinds

[cornflakegirl]

We have a blackout roller blind in DS' room, that rolls the way that HSMM says - it works really well.

[2rebecca]

I went up to look at ours. Maybe ours works because it starts above the window, unrolls to below the bottom of the window and overlaps the window glass by a couple of inches on either side. It is invisible when rolled up but works well when down. I can see that if you only get a blind to fit the glass area it would be too small. You have to think of it as like a curtain and get it bigger than the glass area.

[GodzillasBumcheek]

We use the approx £14 blackout blinds from Argos, but also put up lined (but not blackout lining) curtains (fairly thick) as well, and it works a treat.

In our previous house we sewed two pairs of curtains together out of desperation (got them from a charity shop so it didn't work out too expensive!).

[chuffinell]

tarka you are a superstar, you may have just sorted our holidays - I will buy a baa baa blind as were caravanning in France, and the curtains are always a bit flimsy

great link!

[nannynick]

With blackout fabric you can make your own baa baa blind, if you are a little handy with a sewing machine.

Window Suckers come in a variety of different types - some have hooks, some have nuts (I'm wondering if the nut one would work with a punch hole... maybe the same size).

EBAY: Window Suckers - Prices vary, can be as low as £2 for 10 including postage

BuildSaver: 10 pack of suckers - cost about £11 with delivery

Suction cup with Nut - For 10, about £15 inc delivery

Your local hardware store or craft store may sell these. Though EBAY seems to be the cheapest place.

[nannynick]

If you prefer not to use EBAY, then I've found a online store which sells a 50 pack of suckers for £5. Toolspot I think these are 20mm suckers. 40mm suckers would be better as the bigger the sucker size the more weight I feel it would take. So when using smaller ones, just use more of them!

[nannynick]

If you want to make your own, EasyBlindsOnline has some pictures which may help give you inspiration - there are pictures of velcro style and suction cup style.

Now I'm wondering where I can get blackout material from - no local market near me that I know of. Wondering what shops in Camberley, Surrey may well fabric.