Blackout shades aren’t only the greatest for keeping the sun from shining into a room, even through closed blinds or shades, but they can actually help conserve energy and thus bring in considerable savings during winter by keeping the heat in the room and lessening heating costs, or in summer by keeping the hot sun out and lessening the need for airconditioning.
Blackout blinds are usually roller blinds, or roman blinds that have been lined with a special material or fabric that often rejects both visible light and harmful UV rays from entering into your home.
Commonly, blackout blinds are installed in bedrooms, home theaters and especially in children and babies rooms. A good, well made blackout shade will block out 100% of the light, while less expensive blinds sometimes keeping out less of the light. If you do want to keep out 100% of the light I would suggest investing in better quality, guaranteed blackout shades. That way you’ll be sure to get what you are paying for and what you are expecting to get.
Simple blackout shades usually look very much like normal roller blinds, and you can’t always tell the difference between the two. They can be custom made, or ordered in standard sizes. And, no longer are they plain white or grey, but you can buy these type of shades in exactly the same styles, patterns and colors as any normal roll up blind.
It is fairly easy to install blackout shades yourself, as it’s just as simple in most cases as is putting up a regular roller blind. Before buying, you should measure your windows and decide whether the blind is to fit inside the window frame or outside and over the window frame. Once you have determined that measure up for the size you will need, and also decide on how fully you want the blackout to keep light out of your room. Total blackout shades are a trifle more expensive that less total shades. There is a good selection of Home depot curtains and shades available, which you may also want to look into as they are usually fairly inexpensive yet look great.
If you want the room to be totally blacked out, and inside mounted blind usually works the best, so take that into consideration when deciding what type of blind you would like. Otherwise light does tend to still slip into the room via tiny cracks at the side of the blackout shade when it’s installed to fit over the window frame.
As with any roller blind or blind that has cords to roll the blind or shades up and down, be sure to keep the cords well out of reach of any children, or pets, as they can be a real danger to them and if left in reach of children there is always the danger of strangulation. If you have young children in your home you may want to opt for motorized blackout shades that are opened and closed via the use of a remote control.