When selecting the best window treatments for your home, there are a lot of considerations that need to be weighed. Your windows provide an opportunity to coordinate the interior design of your home between your soft furnishings and your color palette. They can be integrated into the overall décor and act as points of interest or provide contrast. Your choice of window treatment can be its own style statement.
However, your windows are not just there to dress up. Windows, just like several other features of your home, also have a significant functional role to play. There are aspects of privacy, light filtration, airflow, sound, and temperature control to consider when selecting the most appropriate window treatments.
It is not surprising, then, that many people turn to blackout blinds and custom drapes to achieve the practical outcomes they need. Blackout curtains and shades provide considerably more privacy and control the amount of light and UV rays you let in. By using blackout solutions, you can block the intrusion of street lights and car lights at night, muffle external sources of sound, and block out daylight at times when it is not wanted.
There are many reasons to get blackout window treatments for your home, especially in the baby’s nursery or media rooms and home theaters, where the complete blocking of light penetration is critical. Blackout window treatments can reduce glare when watching television or using your electronic devices. They are also excellent in blocking out the ingress of external noise, which can aid in providing a better sleep environment and helps provide a calmer, quieter interior to all the rooms in your home.
Reduce your energy costs
In cold seasons blackout curtains, blinds and shades help keep your rooms warmer by reducing heat loss. By contrast, in summer they can effectively keep your interior environment cooler by blocking the entry of sunlight. By moderating the internal temperature, they help reduce your energy costs.
Exposure to harmful unfiltered sunlight causes damage to the interior of your home, with discoloration, yellowing, and fading – a problem for carpets, furnishings, and even art. While blackout fabrics cost more, they are worth the investment due to the energy savings and also in the prevention of UV light from causing aging and fading in your floor coverings and home furnishings. If you are looking for something more stylish, but still effective in blocking out light, you could use a combination of curtains with blinds. That would give you more control over the lighting rather than just having full sun versus blackout.
But these functional factors don’t mean that you have to forego the integration of your window furnishings into your décor. You can keep all the practical advantages of blackout window treatments and still choose stylish and attractive fabrics to enhance your style design.
The lining used to darken curtains and custom roman shades used to be dark or black and had that stiff PVC feeling, but modern finishes are now softer and available in lighter colors, even white, while still achieving the same effect. This provides for a better street appearance when viewing the house from the outside.
Are blackout shades better than blackout curtains?
Curtains provide an elegant, draped visual appeal and are easily incorporated into your style theme, but shades and blinds can be more functional in places where it is important. Curtains are also the preferred choice for taller and wider windows while blinds and shades are the perfect solutions for smaller windows. Blackout blinds, when correctly fitted can be relied upon to deliver full light block out every time, whereas with curtains there can be the possibility of some light filtering in.
Blackout roman shades are an excellent choice for your windows for its many beneficial reasons such as blocking 100% of the daylight and exterior lighting at night while also ensuring privacy in the home. You are also able to control the amount of light entering a room at any time of the day or night and help moderate the internal temperature at different times of the year.
Roman shades are stylish and add a sense of luxury to any room. They are available in a wide range of fabrics, colors, and patterns while still being practical and versatile. To get the full benefit from your blackout shades, they must be fitted correctly. They should fit neatly inside the window recess to reduce any gap that might allow light to get through and they are relatively quick and easy to install.
If your windows are a non-standard shape or size, the ideal solution is custom roman shades, measured before fabrication to fit perfectly. Consult your supplier for a made-to-measure service and be sure to try swatches in your home before deciding on your colors and fabrics.
