Blackout!

We have lived in a lot of places that were very light and bright. Which is usually a great thing. However, both Steven and I like sleeping in a dark bedroom and we've never seemed to have one. We have always just made do during the light summer months.

No more! I'm totally converted to "black out fabric".

I first found out about this when I went shopping at Mill End with Shelly for her dining room fabric. She was talking with a shop attendant (who was SO knowledgeable) about how to make Ethan's room darker with curtains. He immediately asked about if she would line the curtains. She said she hadn't planned on it, she was just assuming she should buy darker fabric to block more light. This might true, he said, but it was easier and more effective to use 'black out fabric'. So she bought some and I forgot about it because she hadn't decided on curtain fabric yet.

Until last weekend. When it started to get really hot in our bedroom. We have two south facing windows, and a south facing SKYLIGHT. Our bedroom is basically the one place in the house that heats up and stays the most hot all day and night. We thought we would do ourselves a favor by replacing the windows. But after doing that we didn't see much of a difference as the days starting getting longer and hotter.

So last Saturday while I was out with my friend Mel at JoAnns, she suggested I buy blackout fabric. I have no idea why I thought I had to buy it at Mill End, but for some reason it never occurred to me to buy it there. So I bought 6 yards with a 40% off coupon.

We have some inexpensive, adorable IKEA curtains in our bedroom currently.

The most professional thing to do would be to buy new fabric and before sewing the side and top seams of the curtains, to place the black out fabric inside, creating the lining panel.

But because I love my IKEA curtains and I didn't want to spend more money or go through the ordeal of choosing new fabric for the bedroom (I always agonize over this!), I thought I would just line the curtains I already have. I had intended to rip open the side seams and place the panel inside, sew it up and put a nice hem on it.

(All IKEA curtains come unhemed so that you can get the most custom fit for multiple window sizes. Part of their genius. They also include hem tape for those less sewing inclined.)

However, I assumed that IKEA curtains would be the standard width of 54" and they ended up being 58" instead. So there goes that idea. So I actually just sewed a straight stitch along the already placed side hem on each side and then again along the top. I still need to hem them, but for a quick little Sunday project, I actually got pretty far.

Because there is an extra 4" of curtain fabric on the 'right' side of the curtain, it looks extra full while still providing 100% blackout on the backside. Not the most professional job, but it does the trick and unless you come over and start really looking at my handy work, you'd never know.

I have to say I'm very impressed at how much light the new lining blocks out. The room stays so much cooler, which is another benefit of the blackout fabric. The only downside is that it is dry clean only, so if I get something on them, they have to be dry cleaned.

I also plan to create a custom shade for the skylight. Steven is helping work out the mechanical details and then I'll create the pattern, buy the fabric, line it with the remaining black out fabric and then sew it up. That's our Fourth of July project along with painting the bathrooms since we'll have some house guests in a few short weeks. I think once we get the skylight shade up it will make a huge difference. We plan to create something that can be easily opened or closed during the year so you can control the amount of light that gets let in.

Photos as soon as we get the math worked out for the Skylight. I picked out some fabric samples but I have to run them by Steven before purchasing.

On a side note: I plan to recover our Four Person Dining set chairs this weekend as well, so long as I can get hands on the fabric. I also have to do the math on how much I need of that, but that's a quick little two hour project that involves the staple gun! Steven will get a kick of that, I'm sure. Can't wait to post before and after photos. I'm really pleased with the fabric I chose. I think it will bring the kitchen together a little bit better. These are really exciting, inexpensive projects that make a big difference in our house.