Insulated curtains..do they work? if so where is the best place to buy them?

[Gamom3]

I'm looking for some curtains for our living room. It is very hard to cool, since we don't have a front porch to keep the sun out and the summer months are HORRIBLE and we get all day sun! I was thinking about insulated curtains.

I will have to have get them 95" long. I don't like the look of curtains that don't touch the floor, so 84" is WAY to short!

 

Where would be the best place to look for them?

[Claire]

I think insulated curtains are designed to fit inside the window frame.

 

What I would suggest instead is that you fit plastic on the inside of the windows (places like Home Depot have kits). This does not hurt the window wood and it provides an extra layer of air insulation on the window. They are easy to apply and are almost invisible if you put them on correctly. (It's sort of like shrink-wrapping your windows, but without any creases or bubbles.)

 

On top of that, I would hang the heaviest curtains you can find in the correct length and keep them closed. Ikea carries extra-long draperies which you can hem to the length you want. Ours are made of a heavy microfiber-type fabric. When drawn across our windows in the summer, they keep a *lot* of heat out of the room.

[Heather in the Kootenays]

We use bamboo screens outside the windows and it keeps the heat out. They're also inexpensive.

 

We also have curtains that fit the inside of the window frames that we use to keep heat in in the winter. They also help keep the heat out but we find the screens outside to do a good enough job and it still lets a bit of light in. The insulated curtains we have keep 100% of the light out too.

[jolley]

JCPenney's runs their curtains 40-50% off once a year. We got some last year and it made a tremendous difference. We can finally use our living room without running an extra fan!:D

[GailV]

Were you thinking of blackout curtains to keep the sun out, which would also work to keep the room cooler? Link is to fabric -- that's what I got for dd's room, and stuck it under her regular curtains.

 

We purchased insulated curtains from Penney's or Sears way back when we lived in New Hampshire, but that was years ago.

[mom2abcd]

Were you thinking of blackout curtains to keep the sun out, which would also work to keep the room cooler? Link is to fabric -- that's what I got for dd's room, and stuck it under her regular curtains.

 

We purchased insulated curtains from Penney's or Sears way back when we lived in New Hampshire, but that was years ago.

 

 

It says page can't be found. That fabric sounds less expensive than JCP's-- even on sale.

[GailV]

It says page can't be found. That fabric sounds less expensive than JCP's-- even on sale.

 

Oops, sorry about that. I fixed the link.

 

Lately I'm always leaving one teeny tiny little letter out of my links, and the internet is just so unforgiving about that sort of thing.:glare:

 

BTW, Walmart has blackout curtains, too, but I'm not sure what size.

[mom2abcd]

Oops, sorry about that. I fixed the link.

 

Lately I'm always leaving one teeny tiny little letter out of my links, and the internet is just so unforgiving about that sort of thing.:glare:

 

BTW, Walmart has blackout curtains, too, but I'm not sure what size.

 

Thanks, GailV.

[Tutor]

We use quilted curtains on our windows, and it helps tremendously. I needed to cover a huge picture window, so I made my own using pre-quilted fabric from the fabric store. I had to put a backing on it and add a pocket for the rod.

 

We use ours in the winter to keep the heat in. Our windows all get quite a bit of shade, so keeping the sun out is not a problem.