Room Darkening Shades for Nursery

The sun blocking roman blinds from Pottery Barn Kids are great. I put them in my son's room and they do a great job of keeping the light out - just as well if not better than roller shades but a ton better looking. They are slightly pricey but really well made of great materials and look super sharp!

When we first built our house, we just put it simple mini-blinds in each room, but soon found out that with four children they don't work so well. We found faux wood blinds at Home Depot. They block just enough light that you don't have kids up at the break of dawn from sunlight streaming in their windows, but they don't block so much light that it is completely pitch-black in their rooms day round either. The bonus is that they stand up to some pretty rough treatment from the kids. They broke some of the mini-blinds by trying to "peek" throught them and we were worried that with any pull-down shades, the kids would just pull and pull and pull, until they were broken. These blinds were pretty reasonably priced too, compared to some custom blinds and shades, and they come in a few different colors and we found that at Home Depot, they will custom cut them if they need to be adjusted to fit your window openings. We went with white, so we didn't have to change window treatments every time we changed wall colors. Hope this helps!

I have bought black out shades from Home Depot. They come in a couple of thicknesses depending on how dark you want it. They can be pulled down for night time or nap time and rolled all the way up for day time. You can get a small clear clip-on handle so there's no string hanging down.

Also, my newborns have all slept in complete day light (in any room of the house) at first, for a couple of months until I even started getting them in their own room, in their crib or bassinet. My 3 year old is napping now in a room with levolor blinds that let in some light. Happy nesting!

Check out Home Depot and Lowes stores in their oops and clearance sections for their blinds/shades that have been misscut or are being discontinued. We bought our room darkening shades for about half what they originally were.

H.,
I was in the same boat when decorating our nursery. I know that JCPenny's is expensive. We went to Home Depot and bought pull down shades. They work wonderfully. There are no cords at all for your cats and they make the room almost dark. Some light still gets in. Our son who is 17 months old takes his naps there during the day and there is enough light that comes in during the day that we do not have to turn on a night light or anything else. They also go up easliy and come in different colors. They were not as cheap as regular blinds you would purchase but they were not as expensive as the ones from JCPennys. Good luck and congratulations on your new baby.

"One Step Ahead" sells blackout drapery liner that will work with all kind of curtains, so you can match your curtains with the nursery.
Check www.onestepahead.com #12720 ($39.95)

Hope this helped and good luck!

B.

Hi H.,

If you cannot find what you are looking for then we could look at fabrics for me to make you a curtain that matches your theme. Happy shopping!

S. C
Custom Creations
____@____.com

Personally, we just use the walmart brand of mini-blinds. about 4 bucks. We also cut the cord short cause i have two kids ages 4 and 3 that like to try to pull on them. It lets just enough light in when shut that my 4 month old daughter knows it's still daylight out. Trust me though, your little one, once on a sleeping schedule will sleep through anything. Including the daylight.

H.,
I used the room darkening shades from Lowe's that could be cut to my specifications. The windows in my boys room are weird sizes! They are cheap enough that if they get destroyed its not a big deal. It doesnt make the room black but blocks out enough light that they can tell when its naptime. I have triplets by the way and thats why i said that its ok if they get destroyed. Boys will be boys! :)

Darkening shades do come in handy. Especially with daylight savings. I don't think it will mess hs daytime sleeping up. They have to learn night and day. Just leave the curtains open for daytime naps, but after a certain time (night starts) close them. I believe the Lakeside Collection website had them for pretty cheap.

http://www.lakesidecollection.com

In our room we used pull down vinyl shades and attached fabric to them with spray adhesive, It keeps most of the light out, but its not super-dark.

I had my son last July and also have a jungle theme (Zanzibar)in his nursery! For the windows we have a valance for decoration and then wood blinds (the 3" kind) to keep the sun out. They work really well and go great with the jungle theme (walls are tan and a grassy green with white trim)! We purchased them at Home Depot. They can cut them to fit your window, if needed.

Ok I haven't checked this out but we're getting to close on a house and this was something I thought about for my girls who are 4 and almost 1. I was thinking about those UV tinting films you can put on car windows; my parents had one on our glass storm door growing up. I know that on cars it often looks cheap due to bubbling, but there HAS to be a better film or way of applying it. My girls nap better when its darker, so I was thinking this could help without blacking out the room entirely. It might not work, but it was the best idea I've come up with! Good luck

H. if you were close to topeka,,i could sew some curtains for you,,some leapord print material in a heavy fabric,,would shade but not too much,,cotton or better yet hemp fiber
or you could even do that yourself
that way it would be all yours
H.

Home Depot sells room darkening shades (pull down) that can be cut to size...pretty inexpensively. We've got them in all our bedrooms. You could also look into miniblinds...while they aren't as room darkening, if you like the look better, our girls are fascinated by the pattern of light they make and it sort of mesmorizes them for their naps. :) good luck!

You really don't need anything other than venetian blinds (just be sure to tie up the cords). It is good to teach your child to sleep, even when it is light outside, b/c he/she will be taking naps up until the time they go to school. Also, if you go on a trip and your baby has to take a nap in a hotel room or car, they are not always free of all light. I also suggest soothing music instead. I have the safari lights & sounds crib music player that lights up (similar to the ocean wonders aquarium that attaches to the crib, but this one has a monkey). We take it with us when we travel. Or you could use a nature sounds CD, and that way it is something you can take with you along with a portable CD Player, or you could download it onto an ipod and take a small docking station w/you to play the music on. Hope this suggestions helps!

Try looking at Lowes. They have the cordless cellular shades and I believe they make a room darkening version. I am not sure how well they work. We did get the cordless cellular shades at Lowes, but not the room darkening even though I argued with my husband about it. But we are having some panels made with room darkening fabric on the back. I have also seen at Wal-Mart, a shade that is room darkening. And all of these things I've mentioned come in white. Good luck!

I happen to be a fan of the old fashion roller type shades found at Walmart for room darkening. My youngest's room is on the west side of our home and tried several shades when we did her nursery. I acually painted the shade to match her room too!

ABC Distrubuting has some (item number 436100-2Y7V) for $12.95 each in a variety of colors. www.abcdistributing.com

I have not bought them but was considering them, they seemed basic and a good price.

Hi H., Congratulations on getting ready to be a MOM!! I just thought I would write with my two cents which is probably worth that much. lol. But I have kids (6)ranging from age 5 to 19 and just wanted to tell you that you might just want to go with some material from the fabric store and make your own very simple curtains. My children's taste and Mine as well, change more often than they change clothes and they also break alot of things, blinds and shades included. So just to save yourself some anxiety and money you might go cheap and simple on this one. Plus, you might want to go with a window covering that is Not room darkening because the baby will have it's nights and days mixed up for a while and you want him/her to learn to sleep when they are supposed too, not whether or not it's dark or light. This will bug your kid for years to come, especially when summer comes around and they think they need to stay up because it's still light out even though it's bedtime. Been there done that.
On a different note, make sure to take good care of yourself after the baby gets here, I've had kids in my 20's and last one at almost 35 (it's a little harder in your 30's) and taking care of yourself makes you a better, happier mom. GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN WITH THE NESTING, it makes you feel very peaceful to be with your new baby in a happy room.
M. B.

This may sound cheesy, but a cute and very inexpensive way to do it is to buy the roll-up shades and then stencil on pictures that match your decor. Then you can spend the money on something else (like the never-ending diapers!)

We just got a nice curtain on sale at Lowe's. It is a kahkai color and darkens the room pretty good. So we are not bothering to get blinds (we are also finishing up preparing a new nursery!). But, with our other daughter when she was a baby, she would sleep through the bright sun light. And IMO, babies need to learn this. The room should only be dark when it is night out. You want your baby to be able to nap when it is daylight. And they need to be exposed to that daylight to help them w/ establishing thier natural circadian rhythms. With our younger one, we only pulled the curtain closed at night, and left it mostly open during the day (I might partially close it, if the sun beam was right on the crib...)
Hope this helps!

We have room darkening curtains for my daughter's room. They are fantastic! They block out all light, even when the sun is shining right at her windows. We got them at Linen's & Things, I'm sure Bed Bath & Beyond probably carries them too or any other place that sells drapery. They are just plain white, but we put some pretty pink curtains on top of them. I think we spent around $40 for each window for the sun blockers.

H.- I've had good luck with dark, navy blue long curtains. In fact mine are not even lined. You would install another rod under your valence and then pull them shut at bed time. It has worked well for my son who is now 3 years old. Good luck!

We bought wooden blinds at Home depot. They were white to match the trim, and did a great job of darkening the room during nap time. They're pretty affordable too, and cut to the exact size. But they do have strings. We always looped them up over the top of the blinds because they're a horrible strangling hazzard.

H.,
They sell room darkening curtains at Wal-Mart, and room darkening roller shades that can be cut to fit any size window at any hardware store, and they aren't very expensive. I do think you'll find you may not need them though, in fact you really don't want to do things like walk around on egg shells so you don't wake the baby up, and if you keep the room dark then what if you need to go somewhere and it is light out and the baby's nap time? If the baby is accustom to sleeping only in the dark then the baby will only sleep in the dark.

I wanted to do the whole room darkening shades thing when I had my son 19 months ago, but lived in a small town without many options. So, it never happened. He sleeps just fine. I have wood blinds with the cord wrapped in a cord keeper (you can find it in baby safety sections of stores - I got mine at Burlington Baby Depot in the Great Mall). I close them upward so the morning sun doesn't come crashing in. Good luck whatever you choose, but your baby will sleep in the environment they are used to, be it loud, bright, silent, dark...whatever. Have fun being a Mommy!