BLACKOUT BLINDS: WHAT ARE THE BEST BLINDS FOR REDUCING LIGHT IN MY BEDROOM?

Over the years we have spent a lot of time looking at blackout blinds that we could offer that can block out as much light as possible because we know how important a good night’s sleep is to our health and well being.

If you have a style of blind in mind for your home there will be a version of that product that will make your room darker.

Roller Blinds

Roller blinds are available in many different fabrics including blackout, and a ‘standard’ roller blind with a blackout out fabric makes a pretty effective blackout blind at a reasonable price.

There are 2 main areas that light will still come through with a ‘standard’ roller blind and they are down the sides of the fabric and at the top of the blind between the roller barrel and the brickwork.

The gap at the top can be improved by adding a cassette over the roller.

There is a roller blind that is available that eliminates both of these areas of light penetration. It is designed to make the room as dark as possible, with a cassette at the top and channels at the side that the fabric slides into.

There may still be light gaps at the bottom depending on how even your window sills are.

The blind at the top in the photo is the blockout option, and the blind at the bottom is a standard blind with blackout fabric that shows how and where the light will come through.

Vertical Blinds

Vertical blinds are a very popular choice, but could never really be described as the best blackout blinds due to how the blinds are designed.

Because they are made of individual strips of fabric there will be light coming through between each strip.

By choosing a blackout fabric for your vertical blinds they can still be reasonably effective. If you need to block out as much light as possible then they wouldn’t be my first choice, but if you just need to make the room darker then they do a pretty good job.

In this picture it shows the 3 types of vertical blind fabrics available.

On the left is a standard fabric, in the middle is a dimout fabric ad on the right is a blackout fabric. As you can see the blackout fabric will make a huge difference.

Wooden Venetian Blinds

As with Vertical Blinds the design of these blinds is not the best for blocking out as much light as possible, again there is an option that makes them better blackout blinds.

With a ‘standard’ wooden venetian blind there are 2 main areas that the light will come through.

First is the holes in the slat that the raise and lower cord run through, this can be improved by adding tapes to blind that will cover these holes rather than having the ladder string.

The second is the gaps between each slat when the blind is closed.

The alternative to the standard Wooden Venetian is the privacy blind.

The way these blinds are corded means there are no holes in the slats, so eliminating one of the main areas of light penetration.

The other advantage of the way these blinds are corded is that the slat close much tighter to each other again reducing the light entering the room.

This picture shows the light that will come through the areas on a standard blind (at the top) and the better performance from the privacy blind ( at the bottom)

Duette Blinds

Duette blinds are something you may not have come across, but they make for very good blackout blinds as a standard product with no need to upgrade.

The duette blinds work like a concertina simply folding up and down as you operate them.

The blackout fabrics have no holes in the fabric itself as the cord run through the centre of the honeycomb fabric so are not visible.

The really nice thing about these blinds is that the fabric goes the full width of the blind, so reducing the gaps at the side that the light can come through.

Designed for bedroom where you still need privacy for getting dressed but still need some light coming into the room. This option allows you to still have the bottom part of the window covered giving you privacy, while the top can be lowered to allow light into the room.

I really hope this helps give you some idea of the various option available to you when choosing blackout blinds for your home.