I’ve become obsessed with blocking out all light in Dylan’s bedroom as it’s amazing how much better he sleeps when it’s totally dark. When we planned Dylan’s nursery, we didn’t really consider how dark we would need the room to be as we had no experience of helping a little person get to (and stay) asleep. We choose a roller blackout blind which is the same thing we use in our bedroom and it’s just fine for us. However, the amount of light that comes in around the edge of the blind is incredible and you really notice it when your baby wakes at 4.30am and thinks it’s morning.
Each nap time and every evening before bed, I spend ages using velcro and Blu Tack to stick an extra blackout blind up underneath Dylan’s roller blind. It’s still almost impossible not to let chinks of light through so I end up trying to stuff the gaps with muslins. Anything to try and prevent him waking in the danger hour between 4am and 5am.
Future Proofing
Currently Dylan is sleeping in the small bedroom next to ours but the plan is to move him into the bigger bedroom next door which is our guest bedroom at present. We didn’t change the Venetian blinds in the guest room when we moved in and aside from the fact that I don’t like the odd off white colour, they are awkward to keep clean and are also not child safe due to the chord. We have been meaning to replace them for ages.
A couple of the places we’ve stayed recently in the Lake District and Inverness had skylights with blackout blinds fitted. They kept out so much more light than the roller blinds we’ve got at home so it got me thinking. Can I get something similar for Dylan’s bedroom?
EcoFit Blackout Blinds
Make My Blinds offer a wide range of blinds, all made to measure. In their conservatory blinds section, I found the EcoFit Honeycomb Pure Blackout blinds which looked perfect. I decided to try them out in the guest room – soon to be Dylan’s room – seeing as we needed new blinds for there anyway.
I went for plain white and plan to put up a patterned blackout curtain on top once Dylan has moved in to completely block out the light from around the edges and also add some colour to the room. And of course to cover those few nights in Scotland where it’s warm enough to actually need the window open! The EcoFit blinds are fitted to the window pane so obviously won’t block out any light if the window is open. I’m not sure how we’ll decorate the room yet but I think this plan is fairly future proof as white goes with everything.
There is a handy video on the website explaining exactly how to measure up for the blinds so in no time at all I was able to place an order.
Installation
The Make My Blinds website also has a video showing how to install the blinds and it looks very easy. The idea is that you don’t need to drill any holes, just clip the blinds underneath the black beading around the edge of the window, between the beading and the glass itself. I’m not going to lie, we found it a major struggle!
The blinds are such a tight fit and it was difficult to get them underneath the beading. I’m not sure if our beading is maybe stuck tighter to the frame than normal? The clips are tapered to help you get them in, but we found that the taper wasn’t much use when trying to push the blinds up the frame, which you need to do for the second side you install. Anyway, we did finally manage to get them installed with one of us holding the beading off the glass using a scraper, the other forcing the clips in, plus lots of washing up liquid as lubrication!
They’re Up!
I love how the blinds look when they’re are open. I love how little space they take up on the window. The window in our guest room is quite small for the size of room and our old blinds always annoyed me as they took up far too much space and blocked a fair bit of light. The EcoFit blinds only take up a few centimetres at the top of the window so the room instantly feels much brighter.
However, I’m a little disappointed by the amount of light that still comes in around the edges of the blinds. They aren’t quite as perfect as I’d hoped for. Don’t get me wrong, there is much less light than the traditional roller blinds we have in the other bedrooms, but it’s more than I’ve seen with EcoFit style blinds fitted to skylights. Perhaps our beading isn’t as deep as you would get on a skylight?
To get the room properly dark, we will definitely need to get a blackout curtain or additional blind on top. I had planned to do this anyway as the window looks a bit bare just now and could do with a bit of colour so it’s not the end of the world. And the good thing is that this will be much easier to do with the EcoFit blinds as there is still space on the frame to install another level of blackout.
I’m planning to purchase another set of EcoFit blinds to put up in Dylan’s nursery as well. They should save me the hassle of faffing around with Blu Tack every time he sleeps, although I think I will still need my trusty muslins to block out those last little chinks of light!