Proper blackout in a loft bedroom

[tak1ngchances]

I can only really sleep in the pitch dark, velvety blackness. For that reason the roman blinds in our current bedroom are scotch-taped to the wall (super classy).

We are moving up to our loft conversion in 3 weeks. These are the sources of light :
Massive Velux window - question 1: do the Velux blackout blinds really work?
French doors - these are inset a bit. HELP. Am worried that no matter what I do, the bastard sunlight will come in the sides of any blind/curtain combo at 5 am.

Any advice?

Our Velux blinds are fantastic at blocking the light out.

However, we just have curtains on the French windows and a lot of light comes in through them, despite having blackout linings - comes round the sides and the top.

I am like you and get woken up by the early morning light, so watching this for ideas!

You could try having a pelmet, and have the last bit of curtain which doesn't have hooks in pinned back against the side of the pelmet board so it closes off the gap.

Velux has a blackout blind that does the trick. It makes the room pitch black. When I had one many years ago they only came in 2 colours though - navy blue andcream. I had navy blue but I presume both would do the job.

the velux blackout blinds work very well.
For the French doors you will need long curtains made with blackout lining, a track that is curved to the wall at both ends and a solid box pelmet. My friend did away with said pelmet and put the curtains on a pole. She is like you and very light-sensitive. She has aged ten years as she wakes at 4.30am every morning in summer.
you could also put blackout blinds on the doors, but this may be overkill

We have velux blackout blinds but they didn't ever totally blackout the room, even when I taped down the sides to the window as they kept peeling off and letting in splints of light.

I made a blackout blind which covers the whole aperture and it was surprisingly simple (and cheap!). Just two pieces of wood dowling (sp.?) which fit into pipe holders which keep the whole thing close to the wall (both from B&Q), one rod will go a couple of inches above and one a couple of inches below the top and bottom of the window. Then sew your fabric and blackout fabric together like a bag, making an allowance for a loop at the top and bottom which then slides onto the dowel (?), stretch it out and hammer into place. Use a nice fabric as the facing side and it looks quite chic! And no light coming through