Easy temporary way of blacking out windows?

[franch]

Need to move DD to travel cot in front room for a month or so. She's used to the very dark bedroom (thick curtains and blackout linings PLUS blackout blinds) and I expect she'll wake horribly early in the front room which has purely decorative curtains. What would be a good, cheap way of cutting the light out? Doesn't matter if it's fairly ugly as long as it's really easy to hook up and take down, so that we can return the front room to a visitor-friendly state in the daytime.

All ideas gratefully received

You might be surprised - I thought dd would wake up when we stayed at my mum's house (normal curtains, as opposed to the proper shutters in our house).

We did thicken the curtains with a sheet hooked over the curtain rail, but she was fine.

I stapled gunned sheets of blackout lining to DS2s window frames because I couldn't be arsed to make proper curtains... stick-and-sew Velcro worked well too.

I think you can buy blackout curtains fairly cheaply at Mothercare - could you velcro them round the window and do paint touch-up job when they come down? Either that, or thick towels??? I'm trying.... My friends MIL made her some travel blackout curtains with lots of little tie-ropes in eye-holes at the bottom and top of curtains - they don't block out the light completely because of the gap (depends what you attach them to though).. Best of luck

I would suggest the same as SP, only maybe blankets rather than sheets - which way does the window face though? If not E then probably not too bad this time of year.

We have a length of blackout material which we take with us on holidays, visits to grandparents etc. We fix it across the window usually using pins pushed into the frame. It works well but it's not easy to take up and down - it usually stays up for the duration of the stay. Is this room a living area?

Yes gn it's a living area. Thanks for all the suggestions so far - will present them to DH and see what we can do

PS There are two rather inconveniently LARGE windows

how about some balck card taped to the window if it is just temporary? A bit naff I know but less hassle and prob cheaper

Clever DG - you've been watching Blue Peter haven't you!! V good idea

Black card would prob be very effective. Difficult to put up and take down on a daily basis tho?

our mum used to put a heavy blanket over my window at night over the curtains, and take it down each morning.

When we needed a temporary blackout we stuck a tension rod in the window frame and pegged a big wool blanket ontot it each night.
(we've put up a blackout blind now which is much easier)

We've dut black card to size and then attached velcro to the sides and to the windows. Works pretty well.
When we go to my dad's house we use an old curtain to drape over the top of his see-through ones.

Message withdrawn

I take black out material on holiday with us - v. cheap just to buy the material - and I bought some strong velcro to stick it around the window.

We've just been discussing this as baby due soon is going to be in our room at first. We've bought black out material, and are going to duck tape it to the sides and top of the window, behind the decorative curtains, and duck tape in some tapes at the corners so we can 'ruche' (spelling??) it up during the day to let light in. Haven't tried it yet though!!

Have you tried Magic Blackout? www.magicblackout.co.uk

These are black plastic sheets that are staticaly charged. These stick to windows without tape or glue and leave no marks.

Very easy and quick to put up.

we have www.baabaablinds.com/ they are fab! have to search about a bit to find them in stock but a friend of mine ordered some last week and got them the net day!

go up really easy, fits up to quite big windows and blocks the light really well!