Ideas for blacking out windows? (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

Are there some special blinds for this purpose? I very much dislike curtains I would rather not have to put some up. And I cannot imagine them being very effective either in darkening the room enough for front projection.

What do you use for this purpose, for those who must?

--
H

 

[Steve Berger]

I use blackout cloth behind the removable glass over the built-in blinds of my Pella windows (not dark enough) with movie posters placed in them also. I use a sheet of the same cloth on the sliding screen on the sliding glass door. I used the free 76" pull-down screen (came with my SP4805) in the doorway to the room to block the other half of the house which allows enough light underneath to keep you from tripping in the dark.

Blackout cloth is cheap and can be used in lots of creative ways, even as a fairly nice screen. 10' wide x 54" high = 2.35:1 aspect ratio screen.

I briefly considered drapes accross the entire rear wall to add sound control also but the cost would be outrageous (8 foot high x 26 foot long).

 

[Citizen87645]

Target sells some near-opaque curtains in basic colors. While they work pretty well, you will still get bleed from the sides.

Bed, Bath and Beyond sell curtain backers - essentially black out cloth that you can hook onto your existing curtains. I think these work a little better than the near-opaque curtains, but they're kind of a pain since you're dealing with two layers of material once it's all said and done.

You may ultimately need to do a combination of blinds and curtains.

 

[Hanson]

I have cellular blinds for just this purpose. You can add drapes to the sides to control all of the light coming in. They work wonders for environemtal control as well.

The only drawback is that you can only open them from the bottom upwards and you can't control the amount of light like with regular blinds. But they are pretty cool looking. I still get oohs and ahhs from visitors when they open them for the first time.

 

[Holadem]

I could have those in addition to the blinds that are already there. Like that they would be up all the time except at movie time. The problem is that I hate drapes. I am more of a modern/minimalist kinda guy and see drapes as clutter .

--
H

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Blackout cloth. It's exactly for this purpose, and if you line your curtains with it, it will block all the light, hence the name.

 

[Steve Berger]

You can also put a sheet of blackout cloth behind some cheap blinds. You can make a simple removable frame for the cloth from the DIY window screen frames. Do It Yourself Window Screens, DIY Solar Screens, DIY Home Improvement Use the cloth instead of screen mesh. Put a movie poster on the cloth if blinds or blank cloth is too plain for you.

 

[sarah99]

cheap sleeping bags that zip together, plenty of colourful designs to choose from.
Hang them over the curtain rails for perfect blackout at minimum cost.

Can also be used as sleeping bags when not watching movies.

 

[SherardP]

go for a black aluminum window blind with black theater curtain on top, that will do the trick. JCpenny or Lowes/Home Depot offer them very cheap.

 

[Brian D H]

Heck, just pretend you're back in college and use aluminum foil and duct tape. Total light control.

 

[Doug_H]

depending on the size of the window: I bought some of the large cardboard (4x4 or 4x3) craft boards from Hobby Lobby along with some black felt. Wrapped the board in the felt after cutting to size and inserted them into the window frame. A set of cheap blinds hide it from the inside and from the outside it looks fine.

This gave me 100% blackout for around $15