Need recommendation for a GOOD cordless blackout shade for window

Need recommendations for a GOOD cordless blockout shade that works WELL to keep the room dark when the sun comes up.

Our boys have been gradually been waking up earlier and earlier- think it's the light that might be doing it. Windows measure 44 1/2 inches so think we need a 47" inch shade?

Recommendations would be very much appreciated. The blinds are right by 1 twins cribs so cordless (and safe) is a must!

thanks everyone in advance for your recommendations!

 

I had looked in to this before, but the woman I talked to said the truly blackout shades were too heavy to be cordless. They'd fall down because of the weight of the paint they put on the shade to block out the light. One suggestion could be to put a light reducing or blackout film on your window and then a cordless shade that is room darkening. The ones I have do a decent job, but I didn't put anything on the windows cause they face the front of the house, and I didn't want it to look weird. Once your child knows not to pull down curtains, you can use the curtains to black out the light over the shades. I'd also suggest that the darker the color for room darkening shakes, the darker the room will feel during light days. If your paint on the walls are also not too bright, that will help the room darkening effect of the shades. The walls don't have to be "dark" like navy or black or some other dark shade to make the room feel dark, but not white or some very light color. Currently I have light colors on the walls, but I just moved here so I plan on changing that. The colors we chose for the rooms are generally darker in shade and color. The shades are a light color in the boys' rooms but a darker color in our family room (dark green-gray on the walls that was there before I moved), which is why I can tell you that the darker color shades do make the room feel darker.

Those cordless shades are really nice. My boys do play with them but they are hard to break unless your child REALLY yanks hard on the shade when it's fully down. My boys never tried that so I don't even know if that would break them.

Oh! I forgot, the name of the company the shades I used were from Bali.

 

We have been too busy to outfit our new home with safe blinds. We just have the windows covered with two navy blue flat sheets. Very classy :blush:

 

We use blackout curtains on top of regular blinds.

 

Another "classy" suggestion -

My shutters let in a lot of light and my girls have been waking up earlier and earlier too. I wanted to make sure it was the light before I went out and bought new drapes or black-out shades, so I taped up black garbage bags behind my shutters. The room is incredibly dark and they're so light-weight they'll hang with scotch tape, so it won't damage anything. They look terrible from the outside, but I figure they're a temporary experiment so I'm not too worried. (I'm also using this method when we go on vacation next week.)

You could try the garbage bags or a dark sheet to see if that will help before you invest in new blinds or drapes. Mine have started taking a longer nap since their room is darker, but wake-up times have remained early. If anything, the longer nap is making it harder for them to fall asleep at night - ugh! To me, making the babies sleep later in the morning is the very hardest thing to affect in regards to their sleep schedule.

 

got paper shades for 5.99 from bed bath and beyond.
they are AWESOME. they look like regular pleated shades.

 

We do the same thing in the nursery. It may not be pitch black in there during the day, but it's awfully darn dark and requires us to use a night light even during the day.

As far as cordless blinds go, I did recently buy some Bali DiamondCell Cellular shades from blindsaver.com for the living room. And I love those blinds! They are so easy to lift up and tuck under the valance out of sight, and pull down smoothly. If I had it to do over again I would probably have put these cordless cellular shades up in the nursery instead of the wood blinds I have in there. I just checked blindsaver.com and they have those Bali shades in the double cell style with blackout "opacity."

 

We have blinds but we needed the room totally dark so we went to bed bath and beyond and bought these. They don't have cords and are velcro and work great!! We've been using them for well over 2 years and have washed them and they are still in perfect shape. I did have to buy 2 sets because we have a pretty big window. Good luck!

 

My boys are like yours and like a dark room. They currently have a blackout window treatment my mom made that covers the entire window and I use velcro to keep all the sun out. NO sun gets in, but their room is always dark.

I just bought a custom size cordless Hunter Douglas blackout shade for their new room. The shade actually has two shades built into one... a blackout shade and a sheer shade pulls up to lets in light while allowing privacy. It was kinda pricey - about $400. It has not arrived yet, but I can let you know how it works.

 

We did a room darkening window cling from Lowes, and did regular cordless shades from JC Penney. It doesn't completely blackout the room, but it allows us to put them to bed when it's still light out, get them up at around 7:30, and nap during the day. Oh, and it was fairly inexpensive

 

We have these from Target. I was hesitant to get blackout shades - I didn’t want it to effect their ability to sleep in places that may not be as dark. So far that hasn’t been an issue. I think they do help them sleep better. We have mini blinds in there as well, I will probably just remove those once they are lose in their room. I am sure I will have to deal with them pulling on the curtains, but hopefully that wont be for a little while.

 

[quote name='Shelly's twins' date='09 June 2010 - 04:50 PM' timestamp='1276116634' post='1647402']
We have these from Target. I was hesitant to get blackout shades - I didn’t want it to effect their ability to sleep in places that may not be as dark. So far that hasn’t been an issue. I think they do help them sleep better. We have mini blinds in there as well, I will probably just remove those once they are lose in their room. I am sure I will have to deal with them pulling on the curtains, but hopefully that wont be for a little while.
[/quote]

Those Eclipse Thermaback blackout curtains from Target are the exact same ones we put up in the nursery and they work REALLY good at blocking out light. We have the goldish/taupey color ones. I highly recommend them if you don't have room darkening blinds.