Thursday, August 12, 2010

Blackout Curtain

Bryn's room gets a lot of light and she was waking up pretty early because of it. Her window is six feet wide, so I had trouble finding black-out curtains or roller-shades wide enough. (Plus they were expensive!) So I made a simple black out curtain a few weeks ago and it's made such a difference!
I bought two yards of "blackout" fabric from JoAnns, and with a 50% off coupon it was only 2.99 a yard. Then I cut it to fit the frame of the window. (Actually, I cut it too short and so I had to sew an extra strip to the side. Figures.) I stuck a line of sticky-back velcro to the top metal frame of the window, and then sewed regular sew-on velcro across the top of the blackout fabric. And that's it. It only takes a second to stick it on each night, and then I just fold it up and hide it under Bryn's dresser during the day.
Here's Bryn's room this morning without the blackout curtain up.... (Just focus on the amount of light, not the bare white walls, lack of curtains, or mismatched decor. Ha.) And here it is with the curtain up. It makes a huge difference! She used to wake up at 6 am, and now it's closer to 8. Hooray for a quick solution, and for more sleep!!!
(We only use it at nights. If we used it for her naps too, then she'd get used to sleeping in a black cave and never fall asleep when we travel!)

2 comments:

Kristy said...

You just answered my problem. I finally bought curtains for Dallin's room hoping to darken the room in the morning. I had no idea they sell blackout fabric! Thanks for showing me how do it also! You rock!

Margaret Tueller said...

Laura, I just used your great idea in Dave's office--he had a horrible morning glare, but not any more--that was an easy fix!