My "Top Tips" for black out curtains that really work

My "Top Tips" on which black out curtains are the best and the right ways to fit and hang them for the best room darkening effect. This is especially important for mom's and dad's fitting nursey curtains. Let me give you few tips on what not to buy as much as what you should.

If you want to make the room just a bit darker then any curtain with a black out lining will do the job. So just pick one and hang it no problems. Take a look at these blackout curtains

But if your like most folks that definately want the bedroom to very very dark. Then you need to buy just the right kind of curtain style. Then on top of this there as some fitting tips you really should follow.

So what kind of black out curtains do you need ?

Why decorative curtain rods and poles don't work!

Short Curtains versus Long Curtains

This is another big factor to consider if you really want a very dark bedroom. If you have short curtains down to a window sill or just a few inches past. Then you are going to get light coming in from below the curtains no matter what you do.

So I recommend you go for floor length curtains every time. This way most of the light gets blocked between the curtains and the floor.

So enough of what doesn't work

What does make your bedroom very very dark. Well the first thing I recommmend is not even a curtain or rod. It's a simple piece of 6 icnch by 1 inch timber board. So bet your wondering how that's going to help with our room darkening curtains.

We are going to use the timber as a "top board". We fit this around 6 to 8 inches over our window. Just like fitting a shelf to the wall on simple "L" shaped wall brackets. Everything else all hangs from this board, I'm sure you think I've gone mad. It looks really ugly and cumbersome stuck on the wall just like that.

The beauty of it is not in its looks but in its ability to do several jobs for us. First it blocks all light from the top of your window. Underneath is where we fix are curtain rod or track. A lot closer to the window than a standard decorative curtain rod or pole. Blocking out a little more light, but not quite as much as we need. You cna use curtains with a gathered header or with pinch pleat headings these are the best for this job

So what about light from the sides of your window

So we need to do another simple little job to cut out that last little bit of light escaping from the sides of the curtains. We need to screw metal eyelets up into the underside of the top board. Set them at each side as close to the wall as you can. So when your curtains are hanging from the curtain rod. The last curtain hook on the back of your curtain does not hook into the last rod glider but into the new metal eyelets.

What about that ugly looking timber board

Now is the time to cover the timber top board. you have 2 ways to go with this, either cover it all the way round with a curtain valance. The other option is to make a pelmet/cornice yourself to cover it. Don't panic it's a lot easier than you think to make your own fabric covered upholstered pelmet/cornice. I have a whole page showing you how just take a look here at how to Make Pelmets the easy way.

If you want to fit a curtain valance then the easiest way is to use a staple gun. Simply gather the header on your valance as normal. Get it to the right length and tidy the surplus cords away. Then hold up to the 1 inch leading edge of the top board and staple it up between the pleats. Once you have it stapled up you can tease the pleats a little and that should hide the staples.