Dreading light mornings/evenings - can anyone recommend a good blackout blind?

[mammabelleboo]

Am anticipating early waking and not settling well due to light mornings/evenings from my dd who is 2.5. Made a rod for our own backs by defining bedtime and waking by how dark it is outside - not going to work so well during summer months!! Can anyone recommend a really good blackout blind that does work and keep the room dark? Have tried blackout curtains from a well known soft furnishing store - but they aren't much good. Am willing to pay well(within reason)!!Thanks!

Proper shutters if you want something decent - like they use on the Continent.

Otherwise, ordinary blackout rollerblinds work quite well, much better than curtains. Not sure why, but I tried blackout curtain linings and didn't loke them. Roller blinds, on the other hand, worked well.

Its about getting the fit right rather than the make of blind. If the blind goes in the window cavity you'll block out more light. Its hard to get it exactly right though. Easier if you also have curtains to block out the bit of light that creeps in through the sides and a pelmet at the top.

yes black out roller blinds attached as close to the windows as possible and possibly curtains as well!

Cheapest black out blinds that I know of are Ikea although someone on MN is making velcro on black out blinds which would give you the perfect fit and save you drilling holes.

We installed electrically operated shutters in our dc's bedrooms and they were worth every penny (price depends on the size of the window but they're obviously more expensive than a black-out blind - which never 'black-out' a room anyway). The shutters are standard in the rest of Europe and they leave a room totally, 100% black (apart from any stray chinks of light filtering under the door)

I'd love real shutters like in France. In Ds's room we have a blackout blind from Ikea, plus blackout lined curtains. However the lights still gets in above the rail of the blind & between the curtain rail. So we now have an attractive piece of cardboard wedged inbetween the window & the blind, plus a heavy blanket accross the curtain rail. I had to wake DS up at 8.30 this morning

I've seen some stick on the window stuff on ebay that attaches with static, you cut it to size and it blocks out the light and is easily removable - that may be the way forward?

Scuba, do you mind saying from whom you bought your shutters?

What would be really useful would be somthing for hotel windows.....any ideas?

I would recommend getting a professional fitter to do it. Also dark curtains which are lined.

Or you could just brick up the window.

someone mentioned on here some time ago about lining the window panes with tin foil... That way you can still open them and they are really dark... Don't know what the arrangement was for daytime?

Someone was advertising in the for sale section that they can do made-to-measure black out blinds (I think it has something to do with velcroing straight onto the wall or pane or something?).

Found the thread here

We had a local firm install our shutters, they fit industrial shutters too but said that they are fitting shutters into domestic settings more frequently these days, particularly kids' bedrooms! Just enter, 'security shutters, uk' into a Google search engine and lots of options will appear.

Just managed a sec to check posts - been a mad few days!! Thanks to all who have posted - I have read each one with interest and you have all given me a lot of food for thought! Hopefully, I'm not far off a dark room and long sleepy nights for my dd!
Thanks!

Message withdrawn

we were ridiculously into black out with ds...we went as far as having a piece of MDF cut to size for his window and leaving it there. worked well in terms of black out and we reckoned it helped but he still woke early.

dd is 19 months and (so far) sleeps way longer in the mornings than her lovely big brother ever did (regularly 8am) and her room isn't blacked out at all...in fact on holiday recently the curtains were virtually transparent and she didn't bother.

just wondering if black out's all it's cracked up to be??

I have had Baa baa blinds recommended. they sucker on so you can take them with you if you travel. They are £30 I think.