Blackout of this World

[juboy]

Was passing my local out of town shopping centre yesterday and noticed the Rosebury's was having a refurbishment sale. I've been meaning to put up some blackout blinds for ages now so thought I'd take a look.



They had the exact colour and size of blind I needed at 30% off (meaning it only cost me £30) which was a bit of a result.



Got the blind home and fitted it behind the curtains yesterday afternoon. What a massive improvement to my TVs PQ. Total darkness and no light reflections at all from the window - even with it being very bright sunshine outside.



This now means I don't have to wait until 9.30pm/10pm during the Summer months before I can put on a DVD :D~:-D~:grin: Also makes general Sky TV viewing a much more pleasant experience during the late afternoon/early evening.



One of the best sub-£50 upgrades I've ever made and would recommend it to anyone with ambient light problems in their viewing room.

[martintyler]

Is this a blind that is a seperate roll down blind behind the curtains, or an extra layer you have added to the curtains themselves?



Mine let too much light through too, especially noticable at this time of year as you said.

[juboy]

Hi Martin - the blind is the standard roller type with proper blackout material. I'm lucky in the my house is very old and has recessed windows with a couple of 'layers' in the recess (best way I can describe it). The window frame also has a good 5 or 6 inches of surround before it hit the edge of the recessed wall area.



This means that the blind sits in the first layer and the curtains sit over the second outer layer. I spent a lot of time correctly measuring the exact width so that, although I don't have it perfectly blackedout (ie, running in grooves down the side), it does significantly overlap the actual window area.



With the curtains then closing over the front of this, with my surround rears speakers in between the blink and the (fairly thin) curtains, it gives me virtually complete blackout. I guess this might be far more difficult to achieve in newer homes with their narrower window sills :(

[ricdiggle]

I recently bought 4 blackout blinds. 3 for the bay window and one for my french windows. I think it cost me about £40 for the lot. Good old IKEA.



Richard

[baileych]

I bought a blackout blind for my study (or computer/gaming den :D~:-D~:grin: ). Thoroughly recommended. I no longer have to tweak my contrast levels when gaming during the day. Hell, I don't even know when it's daylight :lol: (almost).



I'm seriously considering getting some for the AV room (ahem, sitting room), for inside the curtains.



Charles.

[CarlB]

In my AV room I have a blackout blind, and then blackout lining on the curtains in front of the blind. Believe me when I say that under full sunlight with everything closed the room is as dark as night. Great stuff.

[savage]

Velux are now doing their siesta black outblind for standard windows in custom sizes :nod: - but they do not come with side channels like the original siesta blinds for the roof windows :(



Cost are between £65 and £105



Sav :)~:-)~:smile: