Seeking Good Room Darkening Window Treatments

Good morning: I have to say we went to Hershfields and bought room darkening shades there. Yes they were a little more expensive but they make my son's room very dark and they are thick. Good luck.

We had the same issue with our daughter; *any* light and she'd have trouble sleeping. I finally covered her windows with aluminum foil, just past the edges of the panes, and *no* light came through that at all. I just taped it down. Then I put regular blinds over that just to look nicer.

We love to have really dark bedrooms, so that we can sleep in, and so that the kids don't wake up at the crack of dawn. In our boys' rooms, we had professionals (Custom Expressions) put in really good room-darkening shades, with lined curtains over that. At night we pull down the shades and close the curtains, and that keeps out most of the light.

In our room we have roman shades with an energy-efficient lining, that have magnets inside them, and seal closed on magnet strips on our window frames. They're called "Warm Windows", and are meant to keep out the cold, but they also keep out the light.

Good luck, I totally sympathize.

I bought "blackout" honeycomb shades from Budget Blinds. They come and measure the window so they fit perfectly and are custom made. They are more expensive of course but my daughter's room is on the East side of the house and she sleeps until 7:30 - 8:00 which is pretty good for me:)

It sounds like you are looking for a permanent solution, which I don't have. However, Home Depot has some awesome temporary shades that are about $3. The paper ones are not room darkening, but they have some vinyl ones that are about $5 and they work REALLY well for darkening a room. We moved into a brand new home and wanted to get shades up right away, but had other financial priorities. They go up easily and come down easily. They might get you by til you find what you really want.

I've used room darkening shades from Home Depot, which worked fine except that they are "inside mounts" and light leaks in the sides. So then I got room darkening curtains at Target that could be mounted over the window frame to keep light from leaking in on the sides. They work pretty well.

I put Roman shades in my sons room. I found an easy sewing book that walked me through step by step to make them myself. Then I picked out a cool dinosaur pattern on a dark fabric and lined it with a white fabric. But you can buy premade roman shade too. I have seen them at Target in plain colors for about 25-35 dollars per window. The kits at Joann Febric to make them are about 15 dollars, and I had more free time then to make it myself and save a little, and at the same time customize the fabric for them with something fun.

try buying the wood blinds at home depot. they are fairly inexpensive, and keep most of the light out. my hubby works nights so we keep the bedroom dark with them
If that dosent work you could add some black faabric to hamg over them as well. Something on sale at any of the fabric stores.

We went to Menards to purchase them. They come in 3 different colors and in different thicknesses. Tell them you want the thickest one because it's for a child's room. Otherwise, they will assume you just want the thinnest one just to keep the sun at bay. They are also cut to fit you window so make sure to measure correctly and remember to jot down if you measured outside the window frame or within the window frame. It makes a difference because you'll be putting your "hooks/posts" (can't recall the name but it's what you hang them from) on that location so the treatments have to hang just right.

Menards just has the pull down shades but other places such as pottery barn kids has drapes made from the same material. I also purchased drapes off ebay with the PBK brand to use in the spare bedroom for when we have guests.