Spiffy Speak

Best Blackout Curtains for Bedroom: Top Ideas & Tips

Your bedroom should be a space where you can dream with eyes both open and closed. As Virginia Woolf might put it, every man, woman, and child needs a room of one’s own to unwind and relax.

To create this perfect personal oasis, there is a checklist that starts with our favorite word – calm. The serenity of your bedroom should allow you to retreat from the day’s grind to your bed, and relax physically and emotionally. At the same, a room so close to you must visually also reflect all things ‘you’. To take care of both these requirements, start with soft furnishings – the game changer being curtains.

Curtains in your bedroom should be highly-insulative with noise and light-blocking abilities to help you have complete control over the ambiance of your space. At the same time, their coziness, doubled up with the promise of privacy, should give you the security to drown in the sea of slumber.

But that said, bedroom curtains should not be considered mere functional elements, when in truth, they double up as excellent decor pieces. Curtains can invite an extra layer of texture, color and pattern to a bedroom, adding a potent element of visual oomph to the mix.

These are the core benefits that compel countless homeowners and designers to explore Spiffy Spools’ extensive collection of blackout curtains for bedrooms. So if you too have found us today on your hunt for the perfect blackout curtains for your bedroom, we invite you to this blog and be the mastermind designer of your space with top ideas and tips from our drapery experts about blackout curtains for the bedroom.

Order blackout curtains and drapes from Spiffy Spools for your bedroom in any size. Pick from over 3,000 fabrics and patterns!

Blackout Bedroom Curtains to the Rescue: A Knight in Night’s Armor

Image by Maison Maison Interior Design

So you’re trying to take a quick afternoon nap but unwanted sunlight keeps getting in the way. Or you are having a terribly sick day and noise from the apartment above isn’t helping at all. Or perhaps you’re a nighttime hustler and that street light outside isn’t exactly the productivity booster you need.

Whether you are an early bird or a night owl, none of these scenarios are ideal at all, right?

Point is, why darken your eyes’ dark circles when you can darken the room and get a good restful sleep? Blackout curtains – with their specially-treated, tight-knit fabrics that block out light, heat, and cold – are perfect insulators for bedrooms. To know all the reasons you should say yes to blackout drapes for your bedroom, read on:

Black out with Blackout Curtains: Blackout curtains, as the name suggests, are curtains that black out a space by blocking unwelcome light from entering the room. Light affects your circadian rhythm negatively if it becomes a disturbing element while you are trying to sleep, affecting your health adversely. Blackout curtains come to the rescue by preventing any light from seeping in, creating a perfectly dark room for you to sleep in.
A Quiet Place: The tight-weave fabric of blackout drapery muffles out external noises and helps you catch on to a good sleep or be more productive at work without any disturbance. Whether you have nosy neighbors or noisy neighbors, blackout curtains have got your back.
What Happens Behind Blackout Curtains, Stays Behind Blackout Curtains: There’s nothing that tops blackout curtains when it comes to dressing your windows for privacy. The thickness of blackouts completely blocks the inside view, giving you the benefit of complete privacy and protecting you from the prying eyes of neighbors, especially if you live in busy neighborhoods overlooking streets that blur out privacy lines allowing outsiders to have a complete view of your life through windows.
Whatever The Temperature Outside, It’s Always Comfy Inside: In all seasons, blackouts are great natural insulators. While they retain heat within your bedroom during winter, they block out excessive heat and maintain a cool temperature during summer, thus helping maintain an optimal temperature within your bedroom.
Sleep Better with a Sustainable Lifestyle: With optimal insulation comes energy conservation! Blackout curtains help save on electricity bills by cutting down on the usage of electrical heating and cooling gadgets. This also helps you lead a more sustainable and environment-friendly lifestyle.
Sunscreen for Your Interiors: If you have ever read a fabric label that instructed you to avoid exposure to sunlight, you should know that ultraviolet rays have a negative effect on your soft furnishings as well as wooden furniture and wall paint. Unfiltered exposure to sunlight ages your interiors. Blackout drapes protect your carefully curated interiors from the harsh effects of prolonged exposure to sunlight, increasing the lifespan of your furnishings.
Black Out, White In: Lastly, if you are worried about your room becoming too dull with dark curtains, don’t be! Blackout curtains do not have to be dark and drab anymore. At Spiffy Spools, we offer you a collection of blackout curtains that features palettes from light pastels to dark dramatics. So if your heart desires, go ahead and choose whites and brights to make your room look spacious and comfortable.

Spotlight On: Warm Snow

Want a serene aura in your space? White bedroom curtains will always look ethereal in your personal piece of paradise. Drape your windows with these simple off-white light-blocking fabric that reduces the inflow of external irritants like light and noise. Warm Snow’s gentle off-white color is cool and tranquil on the eyes. This blackout fabric can be paired with numerous sheer options for a perfect blend of looks and light control.

To Choose Blackouts, Dimouts, Or Linings, That is the Question

Image by Stephan Julliard

There are two main ways to go when shopping for blackout curtains for bedrooms with Spiffy Spools.

The first option is simply to choose a blackout face fabric for your curtains or, if you are looking for partial room darkening, choose one of our dimout curtains. As the term suggests, dimout curtains work to partially block out incoming light and are not as effective at room darkening as blackout curtains. This can be ideal in some circumstances. For example, if you are looking for window treatments for your kid’s room who might feel too afraid in complete darkness, dimout curtains are your answer.

Spotlight On: Aquaroom Blackout Curtains

Block out unwanted sunlight and noise in style with this handsome blue Aquaroom fabric. Its denim-like color brings youthful energy to your space while also cutting down sunlight and noise from filtering in and disturbing your peace. Plus, it goes well with several gorgeous custom drapery options available at our site that you can pair these with. Highly recommended for teens’ bedrooms, nurseries and media rooms.

Spotlight On: Coffs Harbour Dimout Curtains

Blackout drapery for bedroom

Lend your window treatments an upscale makeover while blocking unwelcome light and noise with this 60% dimout fabric. Featuring an abstract medley of shades of deep pinks and purple, the gorgeous Coffs Harbour fabric will not only raise your room’s glamour quotient, but also block outside light and noises from filtering in.

The other, more popular option at Spiffy Spools, is to opt for blackout lining behind non-blackout curtain fabrics. This option opens up our vast collection of over 3000 fabrics to choose from, without compromising on the benefits that blackout drapes bring to a bedroom.

Our blackout linings are available in two colors – beige and gray. The lining color is decided by our stylists in accordance to the color of the face fabric.

If you’re leaning towards this option while shopping with us, here are some tips from our drapery experts to help you choose the right fabric to pair with blackout lining for your bedroom:

While choosing the face fabric, it is recommended to use thick tight-knit fabrics like velvets or cottons instead of sheers or linen for more effective light control. This is because thick, densely woven fabrics are able to offer additional ‘support’ to the lining in the back, making the drapery more effective for room darkening.
Bear in mind that the darker the face fabric, the better the effectiveness of the blackout treatment will be. Lighter fabrics reflect light while darker fabrics absorb the light rays, considerably adding to the effectiveness of the blackout lining.

God is in the Details: Styling with Blackouts

Image by Shine By S.H.O

Don’t stop at simply getting the perfect fabric. To get the best out of your blackout treatments, you must take care of the finer details so there are no light leaks, and they look absolutely stunning.

Choose Heading Style Thoughtfully

Image by Juliette Byrne

Heading styles with gaps or holes like grommet tops, tie tops, and tab tops allow light to leak through from the holes and loops in their headers, which are not ideal for blackouts.

Full-coverage heading styles like back tab tops, rod pockets and all varieties of pinch pleats are perfect for blackout curtains, as these styles are more effective at minimizing light leakage.

Bonus tip: Our drapery stylists recommend going with panels widths with at least 2x fullness to not only get richer pleats but also enhance the insulative capacity of the curtains. Refer to our Curtain Sizing Guide for detailed guidance on how to measure accurately for your bedroom curtains.

If you want to have a more detailed understanding of drapery heading styles, refer to our Curtain Headings Style Guide.

Install Hardware with Proper Spacing

Image by Steve Keating Photography

Everyone needs personal space, even your curtains!

To help your bedroom blackout curtains reach their full potential, install your pole/track at least 8 inches above the window trim. This will help minimize any light leaks from the top edge of your drapes.

Similarly, if space allows, our stylists recommend extending the pole/track at least 8 inches on each side of your window frame/trim. This will not only minimize light leaks but also provide stacking room on the sides for your curtains. This, in turn, will also make the window frame look larger, and hinder less of the view and light when the curtains are drawn open.

Here’s your spiffy tip: To prevent light leakage from the sides, use every designer’s favorite trick: the classic hook and eye hack. Simply install an ‘eye’ on the wall underneath your drapery pole, placing it carefully where the last pleat of your curtains are on both sides. Loop in your final pleat’s hook into this eye, bringing the curtain as close to the wall as possible, and there will be no light leaks from the curtain edges.

This quick fix not only enhances the functionality of your curtains but also gives a neat and professional look. Handy reference images are available in this blog post here from blogger Seng Nickerson.

Choose Proper Length for Curtains

Image by Eric Piasecki Photography

Before you make your choice, let us first go through the different length options available for curtains:

Floating Curtains: These stop an inch above the floor and are ideal if you are placing your curtains in a high-traffic or dust-prone area.
Kissing Curtains: These curtains subtly ‘kiss’ the floor. They embrace or touch the floor, ever so softly.
Break-Puddle Curtains: These extend an inch after touching the floor. If you want floor-resting curtains without bringing in the drama of a full puddle, this is the one for you.
Puddle Curtains: Curtains in this length do complete justice to the grandeur of drapery. Puddled curtains extend 6 to 16 inches after touching the floor, creating a gorgeous puddling effect that makes any room look regal.

Unless it is your child’s room, bedrooms are generally spaces with low footfall and there is a low risk of accidents caused by long floor-length curtains. Therefore, while shopping for blackout curtains for a bedroom, prioritize going to all lengths to ensure that there is no light leakage from the bottom edges as that would mar the entire purpose of getting blackout curtains.

Avoid short, sill-length curtains as they will almost always allow light to come in from the sills. To get the best out of your blackout drapes, it is advisable to go for full-scale, floor-to-ceiling curtains.

READ MORE: HOW LONG SHOULD MY CURTAINS BE?

Layer Blackouts with Sheers

Image by Emily Followill Photography

While sheers invite light inside and blackouts summon complete darkness, combining them both as one set of window treatments lets you have the best of both worlds. The sheers blur the inside view and cut down the harshness of the incoming sun rays, and blackouts turn the day into calm nights whenever you like.

To execute this layered set, hang your sheers behind the blackout curtains. When blackouts are drawn aside and only sheers are used, they add a layer of privacy while also allowing soft sunlight to embrace your interiors. If you want to get work done with natural light or use sunlight as a natural sanitizer for your bedroom, this works perfectly. Again, if you are planning for an afternoon nap, just draw over the blackout curtains and you’ll have a dark space to doze off in. This dynamic window treatment solution lets you have complete light and privacy control with its versatile functionality.

Layering curtains also adds visual depth and dimension to your window treatments, adding to their aesthetic potential. With a tasteful choice of palette, or mixing solids with patterns, the two can complement each other to create a chic bedroom decor. With sheers, you also have the option of matching your window sheer curtains with canopy bed curtains that add a customized feminine and whimsical look, which you can especially consider if you are shopping for matching sheers and blackout curtains for girls’ bedrooms.

Finally, to give a complete and clean look to your window treatments, you may consider adding a valance that hides all hardware and is also a foolproof method of blocking all incoming light from window heads.

Customize to the Nines

Image by Ricardo Labougle

If you have the idea that blackout curtains are all dull-looking, dark fabrics, we are here to pop your bubbles yet again by showing you all the ways you can make your blackout curtains pop!

A bedroom is your personal space, and everything in it should be a reflection of your personality. In addition to expanding your choices to over 3000 fabrics in our collection, we now invite you to customize your bedroom blackout curtains with delicate details and accessories to bring out the ‘you’ in every bit of your bedroom drapery.

Consider adding curtain trimmings that add color and texture to your curtains while also infusing your choice and personality into them. If you opt for tassels or ribbon trims with motifs, you also get the opportunity to bring in a subtle touch of patterns in your space.

For a modern or minimalist bedroom, our stylists suggest ribbon trims as a better option as they are svelte and sport a clean look. Patterns like the Greek key on a ribbon trim look especially well in such setups with its thin-lined edgy motif. However, tassels fit in better with their rounded architectural decorativeness in traditional and maximalist decor.

Walk ahead a little further and add coordinated accessories like cushion covers and bed runners. The use of customized soft furnishings in your space goes on to show the amount of thought that has been put into decorating your bedroom and gives it a professional finesse.

SHOP NOW: CURTAIN TRIMS & TASSELS FROM SPIFFY SPOOLS

Order Custom Blackout Curtains for Bedroom from Spiffy Spools

Image by Kit Kemp Design Studio

Now that you have successfully covered the educational bit of your journey, it is time to dive into the fun part. Browse through our collection of over 3000 fabrics including a dedicated blackout curtains section to find the perfect fit for your bedroom. Just in case you still have any questions, feel free to reach out to us. Stay spiffy & shop Spiffy Spools!