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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Blackout blinds/curtains?

47 replies

pregnancy1 · 28/04/2008 10:46

Morning,
Just a quick and random question. We are starting to think about decorating the nursery (I am 24 weeks) and wondered what everyone thought about getting blackout blinds or curtains. They seem to be everywhere, but I thought it would be best not to get them so that baby gets used to sleeping anywhere (i.e. if we pop to a friends house or one of her granny's houses and need her to be able to sleep during the day without blackouts).
Does anyone have any experience of not having them? Does baby just get used to it?

Also, does anyone have any idea where I can get some curtain material (or curtains, but luckily my mum is handy at making them). I was thinking of having a plain room with animal print curtains and a few prints on the wall...

Thanks!

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KittyTN · 07/08/2009 17:37

I had some lovely curtains and pelmet made with a fabric from elanbach. unfortunately I had the curtains blackout lined which I think means they cant be cleaned without removing the lining. Also they are quite full and quite alot of light comes in the bottom. For my current baby-to-be's room I'm going to have normal curtain lining and a blackout blind.

KnockedUpDelf · 07/08/2009 17:58

We never bothered, but I am not really that worried about routines and stuff. Also never made any attempt at keeping the house quiet.

DS could/does sleep through direct sunlight and loud noises as a result.

Sooofee · 09/06/2010 10:40

I personally think that everybody is different anyway, I can not sleep in if the room is not totally dark where as my partner can sleep on a deckchair outside in the blazing sun. It depends upon the baby, you could either wait and see how baby is (get them later if you need to) or buy them straight away if you don't want to 'risk it'.

Sooofee · 09/06/2010 10:41

Wow April 2008, my guess is that she doesn't need advice on blinds anymore because her baby is now a toddler!

newshoes121 · 09/06/2011 20:23

Blackout blinds are definitely the solution for getting kids to sleep I can promise you. There's a range of blackout blinds picked specially for nurseries here - Not all are blackout but there are some great designs.

orderblinds.co.uk/dept/nursery-blinds-kids-blinds-childrens-blinds_d0190.htm

blueeyedmonster · 09/06/2011 20:30

We never used to use them but by the time ds hit about 2 we really needed them. We have a blind (that dp cut very badly so lets light in) and the gro anywhere blind which is fab. It even the window at my dads house which is huge!

MrsTeddy · 09/06/2011 22:19

I can recommend these www.easyblindsonline.co.uk. My mum had them for my step-brother and sister before we had our baby and we got them for the baby when she was born. They aren't the prettiest as they cover the whole window but you can pull them off in the morning and put them back up at nap time/night and they never fail - we've used ours for 15 months now and they still work brilliantly.

For travelling we use the gro anywhere blind which is great but my daughter is 15 months and will sleep happily without total darkness in buggy, car seat, other kids cots, etc. I think once you get them used to sleeping generally they will sleep when it's time, that's been my experience at least. And if you don't fuss about the blackout then they will learn not to either (I've also had the experience of visitors fussing about blinds and marvelled that my child is never bothered, I think a lot of it is down to your response TBH).

ProudButTiredDad · 19/07/2011 14:13

Have a look at www.lightsoutblinds.com. They're new on the market but work really well. Literally seconds to put up and take down and fit any window. They work on open windows too so the room doesn't get too hot. They are, I must confess, my wife's product but we have been using the prototypes for years now and they have been a life saver, especially for summer early mornings when our two (now 7 and 4) would have woken up at 4am without them.

BeeMyBaby · 19/07/2011 14:47

DD is 17 months and we don't have blackout blinds, just very light curtains, there have been no problems getting her to sleep and she generally sleeps until about 7.30 so the light doesn't affect her at all.

SleepySuzy · 19/07/2011 14:54

Yes! We got a blackout blind from ikea and it was soooo cheap!

As soon as DD went into her own room with blackout her sleeping pattern improved immensely. Her behaviour followed due to having better sleep.

Do it.

Faggotsnpeas · 19/07/2011 14:58

We have blackout blind and curtains in dd's room, and just put some up in the nursery we are doing up for no.2, purely for the fact that there bedrooms are on the side of the house where the sun comes up, there is still light that comes through around the outside of the blinds, but dd wakes up at 5am at the best of times, so think if we didnt have the blinds she would be up even earlier!!

VirginiaAnthony · 10/08/2011 09:12

I got some INTU roller blinds from www.blinds4sale.co.uk. I chose a blackout fabric for my little one's bedroom and the INTU blind is a frame that slots onto the window frame itself and the blackout blind sits behind the frame so you get very little light coming through the sides. Apart from the whole industrial blackout blind cassette thing this is the closest you're going to get. There's also a bar at the bottom of the blind that lets you clip it in place so in the day you can decide how far up the window you want it to stop.

Ginny

G1nger · 10/08/2011 09:29

I've been given this: baabaablinds.com/ - I've tried it and it's excellent. As it's meant for traveling, it adjusts to fit different sized windows. It's really effective.

jamama · 10/08/2011 09:49

We bought cheap blackout liner curtains from Dunelm, which go under any curtains for baby and spare room, whole thing about £15/window including some end-of-line plain curtains. Our baby has yet to arrive, they do allow some light in but prevent street lamp and early morning light from getting in. I don't intend to put baby in there at all times e.g. during the day for naps though - I'd quite like him/her to be able to sleep anywhere. Will have to see how we get on...

WeLoveHaribo · 10/08/2011 10:09

We've got the Gro baa baa black out blind in DS's room and its dark all day (great for day sleeps too) and never had any prob when sleep at friends or hotels etc... Funnily enough we've never taken it with us/used as a travel blind! Not sure why...

PrincessScrumpy · 10/08/2011 12:00

Mum made our nursey curtains and she used black out lining but sun still came round the edges. This was fine until dd1 moved to the bigger bedroom at 3 and has 2 windows and lighter curtains. We ended up buying fabric from easy blinds that velcros onto the window frame and is completely blacked out - for this age it's perfect although dd1 then needed a nightlight!

MissMarvellous · 10/08/2011 19:35

After looking at a few products we finally bought the material you cut yourself and stick to the window - it was cheap so we thought we would give it a try. It was ok for 2 or 3 weeks but then the material started to crack and we had to remove it, not great really.

After going back to hanging towels and sheets over the windows again, my husband found a made to measure blind from a company who seemed to have lots of excellent reviews on line. We've had the blind just over three weeks now and it's been brilliant. It wasn't as cheap as some of the other blinds we looked at, but the quality is excellent - and we think it's worth every penny as it also blocks out almost all the light in the room and has helped the boys (and us!) sleep until 7:30am most mornings!

The name of the company is Sunbuster Blinds and you can type in your measurements and buy on line.

Have recommended to a few friends who have also bought them.

hope this helps
xx

brookmum · 04/07/2013 21:06

I realise I'm late to the party here, but I've tried blackout blinds and they don't 'blackout' at all? Loads of light gets in around the sides, am I missing something?

Xmasbaby11 · 04/07/2013 21:21

Blackout blinds are really useful, especially in the summer. You can take travel ones for when you go on holiday. It made no difference to sleeping elsewhere in the daytime - it's really just for settling at night and not waking too early in the morning.

MrsLianeB · 05/07/2013 09:38

We have a lampost right outside our house so have decided to use blackout curtains.
Our curtains are from Next (sale £20 instead of £55) and they come with velcro attached blackouts so if I didn't wish to use them they come off easily enough and you wouldn't know they were supposed to be there.

brookmum · 08/07/2013 09:32

Thanks everyone, and I solved my problem over the weekend with this site, and I've got total darkness, dead easy, love it!!

allergyhelp · 09/06/2015 06:13

Bought a blackout blind yesterday by mistake, thought it was a plain white blind for my bedroom... Hubby put it up on the window last night and I hate it... it looks poor and my room is dark and miserable.. I cant see this lasting a week.. I like my room airy and light... this is horrible..

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