Black out blinds

Kemik

Kemik

Kemik

Soldato
Joined
7 Nov 2005
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Location
Widnes
I currently have venetian blinds in the bedroom but they're not great a blocking light. They are recessed to get as close to the window handle as possible so I was thinking of either:

1. Buying a roller blackout blind and fitting it behind the venetian blind. This will probably require me moving the venetian 1 or 2cm forward. Estimated cost £80.

2. Buying the perfect fit blinds that clip into the window frames. However, these cost about £210 for the three window panes.

Ignoring the cost for now, has anyone else faced this issue? How did you resolve it? I'd like to keep the light in the room adjustable rather than switching out to just black out blinds but at this point I am tempted to remove the venetians all together... The only time they're closed is at night.
 
We've got the perfect fit blinds, and then fitted them elsewhere too. I wouldn't fit them behind venetian ones though. We have some like that in the lounge and it's a real pain getting your hand through to adjust the perfect fit ones (obviously you could raise the venetian ones, and then lower afterwards but who wants to do that!)

If cost isn't a factor then i'd go for it, you'll get much better performance as you won't get light bleed around the edges.

I suppose the advantage of keeping the venetian ones would be that you'd keep some privacy when the blackout blinds were open.
 
You could fit a roman blind over the top as well.

We have:
1. Venetian - light leakage
2. Dual-blind - nice translucent light and then an inner that makes it pretty opaque.
3. BlocBlinds - mega blackout. absolutely perfect

We did black out blinds but the light leakage made it useless for the intended purpose (blacking out light). Obviously if you are not mental about it being mega pitch black then it would be fine.
 
Have the same issue in my new home office so have put up a curtain pole in prep for some black out curtains. Look at curtainscurtainscurtains since they are very reasonable and for a small fee they will adjust the length so work out much cheaper than having full made to measure.
 
we got our windows tinted which resolved this issue, it also stopped the house heating on sunny days.99%uv & 80% light rejection which sounds high but the room has plenty of light but it removes the glare to the point that the light bleed through out perfect fit blinds has not woken me once since we had it fitted.
 
I'm having a new uPVC window put into my bedroom in a week or two and am looking out for a decent black out option, it doesn't have to be perfectly pitch black as I can sleep through a nuclear detonation but something that blocks ~90% of the light would be decent enough. Was thinking about just grabbing a set of these cheapo blinds from IKEA for a fiver and having them behind black out curtains. I'm also in two minds about whether or not to apply some of that mirrored/tinted film to the glass too.
 
ODuffer said:
Just fit black out curtains in front of them? I've done this in my 'man cave', as I have a projector.
Click to expand...

I really want to avoid curtains for the bedroom. They don't fit in with the theme of the room unfortunately.

dLockers said:
You could fit a roman blind over the top as well.

We have:
1. Venetian - light leakage
2. Dual-blind - nice translucent light and then an inner that makes it pretty opaque.
3. BlocBlinds - mega blackout. absolutely perfect
Click to expand...

Roman blind in front of the Venetian? Didn't think of that. Will check out BlocBinds too cheers.

Malevolence said:
I'm having a new uPVC window put into my bedroom in a week or two and am looking out for a decent black out option, it doesn't have to be perfectly pitch black as I can sleep through a nuclear detonation but something that blocks ~90% of the light would be decent enough. Was thinking about just grabbing a set of these cheapo blinds from IKEA for a fiver and having them behind black out curtains. I'm also in two minds about whether or not to apply some of that mirrored/tinted film to the glass too.
Click to expand...

I have the IKEA black out roller blind in my front room and it works great. That is what I was considering for behind these venetians.
 
I have a dual aspect bedroom in which the largest window faces east and the smaller south. Both windows have venetian blinds in the reveal and blackout roman blinds in front. I think I am really sensitive to light and find that light leaks around the roman blinds because of the gap between the blind and the wall, which wakes me up in the morning. I've just bought an eye mask to see if this helps.

I think my solution in future houses will be venetian combined with blackout curtains.
 
Kemik said:
I currently have venetian blinds in the bedroom but they're not great a blocking light. They are recessed to get as close to the window handle as possible so I was thinking of either:

1. Buying a roller blackout blind and fitting it behind the venetian blind. This will probably require me moving the venetian 1 or 2cm forward. Estimated cost £80.

2. Buying the perfect fit blinds that clip into the window frames. However, these cost about £210 for the three window panes.

Ignoring the cost for now, has anyone else faced this issue? How did you resolve it? I'd like to keep the light in the room adjustable rather than switching out to just black out blinds but at this point I am tempted to remove the venetians all together... The only time they're closed is at night.
Click to expand...

I had these in my last place and they are bloody brilliant. I can't get them where I am now as the window is too big - so having to spend nearly £1k on shutters! It's worth it as we are staying here for years and I'm quite sensitive to light.
 
I'm looking at the Bloc Blinds, but my concern is ventilation, if they're fully closed to block out the light you're also not getting any fresh air into the room, is there a way around this besides leaving the door open?
 
redrabbit29 said:
I had these in my last place and they are bloody brilliant. I can't get them where I am now as the window is too big - so having to spend nearly £1k on shutters! It's worth it as we are staying here for years and I'm quite sensitive to light.
Click to expand...
We have shutters downstairs and not by any stretch of imagination are they "black out". Light bleads through everywhere.

Also I hope you did your research, these shutters are in vogue at the moment so you can end up paying anywhere from £120 - £500 for exactly the same Chinese made unit... I got my bathroom and living room done through Blinds2Go IIRC.

norm said:
I'm looking at the Bloc Blinds, but my concern is ventilation, if they're fully closed to block out the light you're also not getting any fresh air into the room, is there a way around this besides leaving the door open?
Click to expand...
I don't have trickle vents in the room it is in anyway so haven't noticed any issue with ventilation. There are two tiny holes at the bottom right/left which could let a spec of air through if it was a big concern.
 
Worth mentioning you don't have to leave a large gap around traditional Venetian blinds - on all the made to measure websites, blinds2go etc, they all recommend I think 7mm or so clearance either end giving lots of light bleed, but if you do careful measuring & your window apertures are square, you can order exact sizes & reduce this down to 1-2mm each side. That's what I did & the light bleed is now minimal, although not a total blackout.
 
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