Best blackout solution for windows?

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So DD (18 mo) is a crap sleeper and the summer light doesn't help.

At the moment we have got a blackout lined roman blind, but loads of light comes in round the edges (room is SE facing). So we have put tinfoil over the panes but it looks awful of course and somehow there is still quite a lot of light coming in!

What's the best solution? I'm willing to invest a bit of money in something if it really works and looks tidy. Ideally I would love something that can be pulled up easily in the day to let some light in (so eg not a stick on blind).

what is a reveal??

if that means an alcove which the window sits inside... there isn't one. the window is flush with the wall and in fact the window frame (architrave) sits a bit proud of the wall. typical Victorian sash basically. so if the bloc blind needs a reveal it won't work for me ...?

perfectfit blinds sound similar

will have a look at the fitting pics

if that doesn't work it will be a Velcro option but was hoping for something a bit neater (mind you anything will be better than the tinfoil!)

humph, looks like the bloc blind does need the window to be in a recess.

Honestly, try curtains as well as your blind, it really makes a huge difference.

Ah yes, had got so focused on the bloc idea that I forgot about curtains! Will have a look at prices... (am not a seamstress at all!)

John Lewis are great.

We had a blackout roller blind fitted in close to the window and trimmed really tight - you can get a plain one and tuck it up under your your roman blind so when it's pulled up during the day, only your nice Roman one is one show. You could add black out or deep coloured curtains to that too for belt and braces approach.

However, are you sure it's the light and not the birds?

IKEA do blackout curtains for around £40. They are quite wide so you might be able to use just one curtain to pull to the right. They are also quite long so I needed to shorten them a bit. They work great though! They were available in navy and dark purple when we got them a few weeks ago.

We presently use the Gro Blackout which is great, totally dark but they are a bit of a faff to take down and put up each night which means they end up staying up all the time.

Think we will go for a made to measure black out roller blind (any recommendations?) with black out curtains with Velcro spots on them as mentioned above.

The perfectfit blinds and the Bloc blinds mentioned look great but quite ££ for us as the DCs windows are almost 2m wide!

are you sure it's the light and not the birds?

Nooo don't say that! there's nothing I can do about the birds!

Will have a look at Ikea and John Lewis - don't want to spend a fortune so something ready made would be good. Long is good.

check Next as well for ready made black out curtains.

thanks, some nice options at next.

Theonlyone - we bought an off the shelf plain white blackout and thermal blind and fitted it ourselves hanging just inside the window i.e. close to the glass to cut out the maximum light and then just hung our nice Roman blind at the front edge of the recess and it hides the plain blind when it is pulled up during the day. We never needed curtains as well and mostly didn't even bother putting the Roman blind down as it more or less completely blocked the light.

I blu-taced some blackout material onto the window pane itself. cut a tiny bit bigger than the pane to allow for any wonky edges. no sewing, can still open windows, completely dark
3 summers in the blu tac has lost It's stickiness so I added masking tape around the edges

not attractive but frankly I don't care!

We used to use the gro anywhere blind but after 2 years almost all the suckers fell off and it let too much light in round the sides. So we got the easy blind from amazon which velcros to the window, we also have sash windows so we cut it to fit both windows seperately. It's gained us an extra hours sleep every day!