When you hear “room darkening” in reference to a window treatment, you may think that means total darkness, but that is not necessarily the case. Only “blackout” will give you complete darkness, if that is what you are looking for.
The amount of light in a room is important to our customers here at Value Blinds serving Arlington and the Northern Virginia area. Hunter Douglas Window Fashions does an excellent job in explaining the opacity differences within their product line. They use a scale from 1 to 5:
- Sheer – allows light to enter the room while reducing glare
Various Opacities - Semi-sheer (with view-through) – diffuses light with moderate privacy
- Semi-sheer (no view-through) – transmits filtered light with no view-through
- Semi-opaque – filters more light, blocks the view
- Opaque – blocks virtually all light with the highest degree of privacy and light control
So when selecting a new window treatment, ask yourself, how much light you want to filter out. Are you looking to reduce glare on your TV? Do you want to just filter the light, so you can still see out? Or do you need the light totally blocked out in the bedroom to sleep?
What Is Room-Darkening?
The key here is the fabric, material type, and color. Sheer fabrics used in Silhouette® Shadings will soften and filter light while semi-opaque and opaque fabrics found in Duette® Honeycomb Shades will darken a room, but do not necessarily completely eliminate light. Look for a rating of 4 or higher for room-darkening benefits.
What Is Blackout?
Blackout means that no light will enter through the material. Look for a rating of 5. So, if you want to totally block out light, you might want to consider Duette®, Architella®, or Applause® Honeycomb shades in an opaque fabric. It has silver metallic lining inside the honeycomb that prevents light from passing through the fabric. However, if you mount the honeycomb shade inside the window, you may have light gaps. Either adding blackout drapery panels or mounting the shade on the outside of the window to eliminate the light gap can fix this.
Another option would be to add a room-darkening liner to your shade. The liner can be sewn directly on the face fabric, or it can be operated independently to give you more flexibility. Again, remember the light gap if you mount the shade inside the window. Provenance® Woven Textures would be a good option.
Many of Hunter Douglas horizontal blinds offer the de-Light™ feature that eliminates the rout holes, so there is no pin light coming through. For example, consider Parkland® Hardwood Blinds or Modern Precious Metals.
In conclusion, room darkening seems to work perfectly fine, but when the need for total darkness arises, your best bet is a honeycomb shade in an opaque fabric.
Shop for Room-Darkening Shades in Arlington, VA
Value Blind & Heirloom Draperies is a locally owned business serving the Washington DC metro area and Northern Virginia for 14 years. Visit our Hunter Douglas Gallery showroom in Ashburn and see hundreds of window fashion samples and functional displays of child-safe window treatments. We offer full-service interior design services including color consultation, room layout, and complete lines of blinds, shades, shutters, custom window treatments, custom rugs, wall coverings, bedding, pillows, and furniture. Contact us today!
