Affordable ways to darken a bedroom?

[Dianne-TX]

This would be for a baby's room to help him sleep more peacefully. I've seen room darkening drapery liners on the One Step Ahead website, but they are expensive for one and you need more than that to cover a whole window. This isn't a small window. So, I'm needing affordable ideas of ways to darken a room that are not permanent on the window. (tint, customized sunscreens, etc.) I'm mainly looking for something to put up with curtains or something like that. Would a shower curtain behind drapes work? Is that tacky?

[EKS]

We installed two small hooks above the window, folded a dark colored sheet in half, attached two large (diaper) safety pins to one end, and hung it on the hooks. It may have been tacky, but it was cheap and it worked like a charm.

[scmama]

At walmart you can get these paper blinds, some say darkening. I brought them for my bedroom, and they keep it dark. You just buy them, and cut them to size. They have a strip that you peel off and stick to the top of the window. They have clips for when you need to put them up to open the window. It takes less than 5 minutes to put them up, and you can hide them behind your curtains. And if you need to remove it, just grab at the top, and peel off. They are less than $5.

Hope this helps. The make them in all colors, but the grayish colored ones, are the room darkening one. I believe they also make them in black.

[KnitWit]

I just saw a room darkening panel that you can attach to the back of existing curtains. I think it was at WalMart and I think it was about $12.97.

[golfcartmama]

You can purchase (by the yard) black out liner material (JoAnn, Hancock fabric, etc). I got 3 yards for like $12...and I have half left over after sewing (could use the stitch witchery stuff--iron on if you don't sew) them onto my roman shades in our living room. It has worked wonders to keep afternoon HOT sun out!

[valkett]

Target now has room darkening drapes and thermal drapes. Some of the panels start at $10 each. Others are $29 or over.

[LarlaB]

We cute a big piece of cardboard down to size.... its a pain to take in & out so we leave it in more than we should, but was free :)

[cjbeach]

JCP has room darkening shades.

I've seen people use black sheets in place of lining for their curtains/drapes.

[LauraGB]

I made Roman shades. I'm not a sewer, so trust me when I say they were easy. I bought some canvas (black, to match my room decor, but I would suppose any dark color would work to keep the room dark) and measured my window casings. I sewed them to length, then I sewed two sets (of 2 each) straight lines across so I could put wooden dowels through. Then I hand sewed some plastic loops to those seams on the back side, strung some string through them. I attached them to the inside top of my window casing with 1"x1" boards, strung the strings through some small cup hooks I inserted in the top, and voila - roman shades.

 

Okay, my instructions are not completely thorough or easy to follow ;), but if you google how to make roman shades, you will find the easy recipe. They look cool, open or closed, and they are cheap and easy to make.

Edited July 30, 2010 by LauraGB

[grace'smom]

My daughter has the same problem but wanted SHEER purple shimmer curtains for her birthday. We got a pull down roller shade and installed it inside the window frame, then another larger one to install over the window frame. Hers is a double window so this was the best solution we could come up with, and it successfully blocks almost every bit of light. When she wants it dark it's dark.

[Parrothead]

No frills black shower curtains work wonders.

[texasmama]

We used room darkening shades behind the blinds in the nursery years ago.

[JenC3]

We cute a big piece of cardboard down to size.... its a pain to take in & out so we leave it in more than we should, but was free :)

 

I was going to say cheap foam board, which is insulating as well.

[sarawatsonim]

Well in Iceland and such I have seen them use tinfoil on their windows during the times the sun doesn't set at night. For myself, due to my vampire like need to sleep in total darkness. I hang up a thick almost tapestry like fabric (that I got super cheap at a fabric store because it was an end) and then I hang the curtain over the top of it like normal. You can't even see it.

[AppleGreen]

Ok, I totally answered this, but don't see my post. :shrug Anyway, we use roller blinds. They are cheap and can be cut to size at Lowe's. They aren't the prettiest, but they do the job and I like a dark room. There is a little plastic-y smell at first, but it dissipates after a day or two.

[Brigitte]

I bought room darkening curtains at Walmart for not much money (about $10, I think). They come in lots of colors and keep the room cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Money well spent.

[kathkath]

you could always pick up random room darkening shades from goodwill and put them behind your real curtains. I had a friend who had some hanging from a dowel and she just balanced them above the rod at night and then took them down in the morning. The way she did it, there was no danger of them falling.

[elise1mds]

My son has navy blue Roman shades, and my daughter has roller blinds with a beautiful valance that my mother found and bought as a set with her bedspread. The roller blinds don't even get noticed.

[mom2jjka]

We got the old fashioned roll down shades. Home Depot has nice, thick, room darkening ones - and as a bonus they are safer than mini-blinds because there are no cords for the babies to get entraped in.

[BlessedMom]

We have the room darkening roll up shades from Home Depot placed behind our wood blinds. Make sure you get the highest Mil thickness.

[mhg]

Do a search for something called ROM (I think this is it....or is it ROC). Anyway..it's RO____something. It's designed for that purpose. I got mine from JC Penney I think. Worked great.

[Dobela]

We bought those folding reflective panels for cars for a couple of our windows. Easy to put in and take out as we needed. Before we did that, I just hung a very heavy blanket over a rod behind the curtain. That worked great.

[Dianne-TX]

Thanks for the responses. We are presently using a blanket, but it's not going to work for the long haul. I'm glad to know there are very affordable options that work. I'll be looking into all these suggestions. Thanks again.

[KidsHappen]

We have used brown package paper to line the inside of the windows, and then a roller shade and finally room darkening curtain. Windows didn't look so great from the outside but it was certainly darker on the inside. We did this because we had a Shopko, grocery store and strip mall literally in our back yard and they had the parking lot lights on all night. We are in almost the same sitation now only the stores are about a block away instead. I have been meaning to get to the windows but I am not exactly sure what is allowed here because of the HOA. One of my dd got the room darkening liners that had velcro on each side and then you put velcro strip on each side of the window so that you could basically cover the entire window and the put regular curtains over it.