What window coverings do you have in your bedrooms?

[mommyoffive]

I want to put in new window coverings and for bedrooms I want things that block a lot of light.

So pictures of what you have

Links to what you bought

 

Please and thank you

[SKL]

I still have the blinds that came with the house.  (House purchased 23 years ago.)  It used to also have curtains, but they eventually fell apart in the laundry and I don't care enough to replace them.

[sassenach]

I have the hardest time getting up if the room is blacked out in the morning. Even in hotels, we leave the curtains cracked. We have blinds that are kept open (my bedroom faces our back yard). 

[Arcadia]

I have two rows of tension rods for our bedroom windows. The curtain nearest the window is patterned, the second curtain is the light blocking curtains. My kids slept better after putting up the light blocking curtains this summer. They woke up at sunrise (6am) previously and had a hard time falling back asleep. 

The curtains I bought from Target, they don’t block/reduce noise though  https://www.target.com/p/lightblocking-curtain-panel-room-essentials-153/-/A-52257664

I can’t find the IKEA tension rods we use but they are similar to these from Bed Bath & Beyond https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/springs-window-fashions-adjustable-oval-spring-tension-curtain-rod/3241492

ETA:

We tie up the blackout curtains during the day after our kids wake up so that the bedroom is bright. 

Edited August 13, 2018 by Arcadia

[Kim in Appalachia]

no pictures but,

 

I have blinds with black out curtains.  The blinds are Home Depot, the curtains are JCPenny. 

It's ok.  I would prefer some sort of shade instead of the blinds.  I had some Roman shades, black out style, in my old house, and they worked great.  

I'm not a curtain fan, but the room is neutral color and the dark blue curtains add some color, which is nice.

Happy shopping!

[rebcoola]

My DH works nights part of the time so he made barn doors for the windows to block out all light.

[edelweiss]

I have plantation shutters.  I absolutely love how they look. They do a fairly good job of blocking the light, but I do sometimes wish that I had something that could black the light out completely.

[Katy]

Cellular blinds inside the window frame with blackout curtains in front.  If you really need it to be a cave, use layers of blankets or a heavy quilt, wrapped around a board and screwed to the wall, which will block ALL the light completely.  Used to do shift work and that's the only way it was dark enough for me. Ugly, but dark.

[VaKim]

I have blinds and blackout curtains from Walmart. But because we have to use a window a/c in the summer, I currently can't close the curtains, so I actually have a large piece of cardboard covering the top of the window so that it is dark enough for me to sleep, lol. 

[Selkie]

We don't have any window coverings in our bedroom. We live out in the middle of nowhere with no neighbors, so no need for privacy, and dh and I are always up before dawn, so no need to block the light.

My boys have blackout curtains that we got at Walmart. I can't remember exactly how much they cost, but they were super-cheap and they work pretty well.

[gardenmom5]

kids bedrooms have blinds.

my bedrooms has no window coverings (big wooded lots) - but I need to do something as a neighbor (who no longer lives here . . . . . .) got the city to install street lights.  one shines right in my bedroom window at my face.

[mommyoffive]

3 hours ago, rebcoola said:

My DH works nights part of the time so he made barn doors for the windows to block out all light.

 

Oh wow.  That would be great.  What a good idea.  We were in Rome and a hotel we stayed at had something like that and we loved it.   You could get the room so dark and we could sleep for a long time. 

[mmasc]

I just put up curtains in our bedroom for the first time in years. I hung these basically above the window but right below the ceiling and they slightly sweep/gather on the floor. They block light enough to cool the room and help us sleep later when we want, but don’t make my room dark during the day (which I would hate). I hung them on a rod so that they are the gathered look on top, not hanging from hooks like in ikea’s photos. (They’re designed to hang either way.)I love the way they look! And the light gray is very pretty.

https://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/20301323/

oh, and behind the curtains is those ghastly cheap, plastic, white blinds that break when you look at them ? (they’re on all the windows; we rent)

ETA: for my DC rooms I bought these and they do make it pretty dark in there. They have the blue. 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-Blackout-Energy-Efficient-Grommet-Curtain-Panel/53753298

Edited August 13, 2018 by mmasc

[Carol in Cal.]

Blackout shades and canvas-colored tab drapes in one.  We don't usually pull the blackout shades all the way down, because I can't get up very well if there is no natural light out there.

And Hunter wooden shutters, the big ones, in the other.  When we have the shutter flaps pointing down into the room, they let a little light in.  So that's how we usually have them.  If we point them up, no light comes in at all, which is good for a long afternoon siesta.

[Annie G]

I’ll be the weirdo.  We have lacy curtains because I LOVE light. In summer the sun is up before 5 and I love that...

[Annie G]

34 minutes ago, Arctic Mama said:

....

I wish I could be you.  I’m your antithesis, but I’d love to love waking.

I wasn’t always like this- but now the kids are grown and I am able to go to bed when I want and sleep all night uninterrupted. Makes waking up much easier. Plus I get blue if I don’t get enough sunlight. 

[Mergath]

We have Eclipse blackout curtains in the bedroom. We have the special wraparound curtain rods, and they work great.

I had sheer white curtains in there before, but the baby won't nap unless it's dark, so blackout curtains it is.

[regentrude]

cheap mini blinds. We only leave the ones closed towards the front porch, but have the other side open. I want to see when it's daylight - it's so much easier to wake up when you can feel the sunlight.

Edited August 13, 2018 by regentrude

[JIN MOUSA]

For our bedroom we sprung for "custom" Roman shades from Home Depot https://blinds.homedepot.com/p/levolor-roman-shade/205177122. Custom being in quotes because in my mind, it's not as fancy as having someone make them, but that may just be how I justified the expense compared to how we covered all the rest of the windows in the house (Hoppvals from IKEA https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30290630/ everywhere, with upholstered cornice boxes in some rooms).

We got the Roman shades in a room darkening option, and it works well for us. I would think that too much light leaks in around the sides for something like shift work though. 

[extendedforecast]

Our house came with shutters. We have a row of small windows above the normal sized windows that were not covered, so we recently paid to have matching shutters installed. I have gold blackout curtains from a previous house that I use to block the sun out further when we need good sleep. It’s like sleeping in a hotel. 

[MEmama]

4 hours ago, Annie G said:

I’ll be the weirdo.  We have lacy curtains because I LOVE light. In summer the sun is up before 5 and I love that...

I love taking naps in a bright, sunlit room. I'll even face the window so I can feel the sunshine on my eyelids while I sleep--it's the most luxurious feeling to me. :)

We have white wooden blinds in the bedroom, usually partially open since we sleep with the windows open 3 seasons. In the winter I hang insulating curtains over them to keep the heat in.

Edited August 13, 2018 by MEmama

[KathyBC]

Roller blinds

[laundrycrisis]

White wide slat blinds, white sheers, and grommet top blackout curtains. 

[Familia]

Too in need of repair to photo.  But, simple and light blocking.

Window is 6 feet across.

Rod with wood curtain rings/clips.

Two panels of thick, patterned tapestry simply backed with light-blocking curtain liner.  Along center (where the panels meet) seams, it is shantung edged with tassel trim.  So, simple to make.  I love them, but the shantung is shredded from the sun...easy to replace, just need to find the time.

 

[sbgrace]

I just have curtains in most bedrooms. But in one son's room I installed black out shades (roller type), then curtains on top of that.  

[Murphy101]

I have neutral colored heavy light and heat blocking curtains inside the window frame and I have pretty curtains hanging from a rod outside the window frame. 

[lailasmum]

I have heavy curtains with an additional blackout layer. It's not as dark as I'd like and I'm thinking of adding an extra blackout blind. There's also a very recently added voile on a tension rod because we've had an unusually sunny summer and I wanted to have something to diffuse the light coming into the room for my plants.  I personally prefer really nice blinds but I think for a lot of windows curtains work better.  I used to sleep well in bright light and like being woken up by early morning light but I don't anymore. I'm a very light sleeper these days. 

[Liz CA]

We have these on several windows - not just bedrooms:

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80349256/

They roll up during the day. I have cream / white sheers in front of it. When they are rolled up you can almost forget they are there. These shades do not block light completely but enough to be dark and allow a little morning light to filter in through the sides.

Edited August 14, 2018 by Liz CA

[DawnM]

We ended up getting wood blinds about 4 years ago.  We had nothing for 8 years.  No curtains or blinds.  We live a bit out and our property is covered in huge trees.  But our neighbor (we each have over 2 acres so we aren't super close) got motion sensor flood lights and they would go off at 3am and wake me up!  So we finally got blinds.

[Melissa in Australia]

no coverings at all. DH particularly hates window coverings. we have drapes in the lounge-room and the kids bedrooms. DD has a sheer as well. I have a heavy lace curtain in  my dressing room, but nothing in my bedroom. It took a few years for me to get use to it.

 

I would love to have lace everywhere 

[moonflower]

I like dark when I'm trying to sleep through the morning, but light when I'm awake.  This is hard to do.  I finally figured it out, although it is not elegant.  I have wide blinds that have the little pull cord and go all the way up so I can open it all the way during the day.  I don't have curtains.

Then if I'm going to sleep late in the morning or nap in the afternoon, I have this lightweight but pretty light-blocking blanket called a kantha quilt; I've sort of cut/ripped two holes in it at the top, one on each end.  I suppose you could do this more formally and make like tabs or something.  anyway, there's a bar at the top of the blinds and I slip one hole over one end and the other hole over the other end, then voila the room is dark.  Easy to take down and put up as we don't have high ceilings or anything.  I keep the blanket on or near the bed during the day.

[moonflower]

ugh zombie

[Pawz4me]

I reported the spam post by Guest Barbara

[Suzanne in ABQ]

When we needed true darkness during the daytime, I found with all the window coverings I tried that even if the material didn't let light through, light still got around the edges.  Hotels overcome this with huge drapes that extend far beyond the edges of the window.  I've never wanted such huge, heavy (expensive) drapes in my home. The only way I've been able to block all light is by making an insert out of rigid, light-impermeable material that fits perfectly inside the window frame, flat against the window.  When my dh studied and worked nights and slept days, but we had no money to buy anything, we made due with cardboard covered with aluminum foil (not a fashionable solution, but it worked).  Later, when my son wanted to control the light in his room for making videos or using his DJ lights, we fashioned the inserts out of black foam core (from Hobby Lobby).  You could easily cover your inserts with fabric or paper that coordinates with your decor.  Foam core is rigid, but lightweight, so it's easy to move around, and it tucks away easily behind a dresser or door.  

[Pen]

Zombie thread due to spammer