Light is like water – a little goes a long way and it can squeeze through the tiniest of gaps. You need to be aware of this when shopping for blackout blinds so that you get the most suitable level of blackout for your needs.
If you are looking to block 100% of the light coming through your window you will need to seek a specialist product that provides a tight seal between your blind and your window frame/walls. There are products like this on the market, but we do not make or sell these. If this is something you need do a further search online and make sure you check with the seller/ manufacturer the level of blackout their product will provide.
In relation to the blinds we sell, and usually in the wider blinds industry, the term “Blackout” refers to the property of the fabric that the blind is made from. Our blackout blinds are made from fabric through which no light will penetrate. This means no light will come through where the fabric is, however there will be light leakage at the points the fabric is not covering.
The benefit of our blackout fabrics are:
- Huge light reduction
Whilst our blinds cannot block 100% amount of light, due to light leakage from the gap between the blind and your walls, but the fabric itself will block any light from coming through it. This means the majority of the light coming through your window will be stopped. This massive amount of light reduction can help aid sleep. This is great if you are a light sleeper who needs the room as dark as possible, if you have a street light outside of your window, have young children (preventing them waking too early during the bright summer mornings and helping them settle for daytime naps), work night shifts and need to sleep in the day or like to watch TV during the day.
- Total privacy
You cannot see through a blackout fabric. At night when you have your lights on people cannot see into your room or even see a silhouette at your window as they might be able to with a thinner fabric. This gives you total privacy and increased home security.
- Heat reduction
Some of our blackout vertical, pleated and honeycomb fabrics are solar coated meaning they reflect light back out of the room to help keep the room cooler during the summer months.
- A PVC fabric option
A number of our blackout roller and vertical fabrics are PVC which makes them waterproof and wipe clean. This can be great for people with children or pets or for kitchens, bathrooms or art rooms.
The best blackout product we make is our blackout lined Roman blinds. Our roman blinds have fabric from the very top of the blind headrail down to the fabric enclosed bottom bar. The fabric across the width stretches across the whole width of the headrail too. This means there is less space around the blind for light to leak through.
The next best blackout blind we stock would be our blackout honeycomb blinds.
The third next best blackout product we sell is our perfect fit blackout roller blinds. (This option is only suitable for UPVC windows).
Other tips to get the best blackout effect:
- Select a darker blackout fabric for your blind.
Whilst any fabric we sell rated as a blackout fabric will not let light through the actual fabric itself a light coloured fabric such as a bright white will highlight any light leakage from the edge of the blind about a bit more whereas a darker fabric will tone this down more.
- Consider painting the wall around the window a darker shade.
A window recess that is painted bright white will again bounce around any light leakage whereas a darker colour will absorb more of this rather than emphasis it.
- Considering layering your window, with two blinds or a blind and curtains, to stop as much light as possible.
For example, you could have a blackout roller installed in the window recess with a blackout roman fitted outside of the recess. Another option is to have blackout perfect fit roller blinds fitted on your UPVC windows with a blackout lined roman fitted inside the window recess. Layering can add extra colour, and a touch of luxury to your room as well dressing your window in style.
I hope this information is helpful in selecting the correct blackout product for your requirements. Feel free to email us here if you have any further questions regarding our blackout products.