Trouble sleeping? Try blocking out all sunlight in your bedroom with room-darkening or blackout Hunter Douglas window treatments from JC Licht, because getting good sleep is one of the most important things you can do to improve your overall quality of life.
But where to start? Roller or Cellular? Black or White? Opaque or semi-opaque?
The Three Main Components of Room-Darkening Window Treatments
1. Opacity
Opacity is a measure of transparency. In other words, how much light can filter through the material.
Shade fabrics labeled opaque and semi-opaque will block out most if not all sunlight and opaque fabrics will block out more light than semi-opaque.
Opaque, room-darkening liners can be added behind almost any Hunter Douglas shade to block out more light. The liners can be sewn into the shade fabric or hung behind as a separate window treatment.
2. Color
Fabrics in darker colors will let less light through than lighter colors.White and light colored room-darkening window treatments can be found in many different styles, but as a general principle, darker colors block the most light.
3. Light Gaps
Most window treatments reveal small light gaps along the sides of the window, in the seams and in route holes.If your goal is complete darkness, Hunter Douglas provides a few solutions:
- Blinds:Hunter Douglas de-Light™ feature can be added to blinds to minimize seams, light gaps and rout holes.
- Shades:Hunter Douglas’ new Duette® LightLock™shades system blocks all light gaps, providing 100% total darkness.
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All: Drapes can block out light entering the sides of a window.
Hunter Douglas’ Room Darkening Window Treatments
Hunter Douglas offers many different window treatment styles with a variety of room darkening features. By becoming aware of different approaches to room darkening, we hope you will be able to consider what options you prefer for your bedroom, entertainment room, or any other space you’d like to keep dark.
The Duette® Honeycomb Shades with LightLock™ System
Hunter Douglas’ Duette® LightLock™ System is the strongest black-out solution offered by Hunter Douglas.
Unlike most room darkening blinds and shades, this product was engineered to block out ALL light gaps with unique U-shaped side channels that overlap the front and back of the shades and patent-pending side channel design. The side channels feature micro-ridges designed to absorb or deflect all light, preventing light from seeping into the room.
Hunter Douglas Duette® Honeycomb Shades with LightLock™. Fabric/Material: Elan®. Color: Black Onyx. Opacity: Opaque. Mount: Inside.
Blackout Roller Shades
Hunter Douglas’ Designer Roller shades come in a wide variety of opaque, room-darkening fabrics, giving you the control to completely darken your room at any time of day. Blackout roller shades allow you to block out all light any time of day.
Hunter Douglas Designer Roller Shades. Fabric/Material: Cannes. Color: Oxybll. Opacity: Opaque. Mount: Inside.
Silhouette® Duolite® Window Shadings
Hunter Douglas’ Silhouette® Duolite® shades are two-in-one shades. The Duolite® model gives you all of the benefits of the Silhouette®shade with a built-in room-darkening roller shade behind it. The room-darkening shade can be independently operated, enabling you to use one shade or the other at any time.
Vignette® Duolite® Modern Roman Shades
Hunter Douglas’ Vignette® Duolite® shade utilizes the same two-in-one room-darkening roller shade Duolite® model but with a Vignette® light-filtering or sheer front shade. Both operate on the same single roller while offering the best of both worlds. You can get the benefits of darkness or light filtering sheer shades at any time.
Hunter Douglas Vignette® Modern Roman Shades with Duolite®. Fabric/Material: Leela. Color: Escape. Opacity: Room Darkening. Mount: Inside.
Drapes are a great way to prevent light from entering through the sides.
Hunter Douglas Vignette® Modern Roman Shades with Duolite®. Fabric/Material: Belfast Linen. Color: Mink. Opacity: Room Darkening. Mount: Inside.
Hunter Douglas Vignette® Modern Roman Shades with Duolite®. Fabric/Material: Belfast Linen. Color: Mink. Opacity: Room Darkening. Mount: Inside.
Parkland® Wood Blinds
Hunter Douglas’ Parkland® Wood Horizontal Blinds can include the de-Light™ light blocking feature. Parkland® blinds come with a routeless design that hides cord holes, creating a more polished appearance with greater light control.
Hunter Douglas Parkland® Wood Blinds and Cornices. Fabric/Material: Basswood. Color: Folklore. Opacity: Privacy Light Control Combinations.
Modern Precious Metals® Aluminum Blinds
Hunter Douglas’ Modern Precious Metals® Aluminum Horizontal Blindscan also utilize the light blocking de-Light™ feature for more room-darkening control.
Hunter Douglas Modern Precious Metals® Aluminum Blinds. Material: Aluminum. Color: Riding Boot. Opacity: Privacy Light Control Combinations.
Other Room-Darkening Window Treatments
Nantucket™ Window Shadings
Hunter Douglas Nantucket™ Window Shadings. Fabric/Material: Brant Point™. Color: Augustine. Opacity: Room Darkening. Mount: Outside.
Luminette®Privacy Sheers
Hunter Douglas Luminette® Privacy Sheers. Fabric/Material: Solar Screen. Color: Perfect Storm. Opacity: Room Darkening. Mount: Inside.
Pirouette® Window Shadings
Hunter Douglas Pirouette® Window Shadings. Fabric/Material: Satin Metallic. Color: Copper. Opacity: Room Darkening.>
While there are many options to choose from, room-darkening window treatments really come down to material opacity, color and light gaps.
If your favorite window treatment style is not room darkening but you’d love room darkening features, add-on features can fill in. The de-Light™ feature can be added to fill in gaps in blinds, and liners can be added behind light-filtering shades.
To learn more about your light control options visit our blog post, Window Treatments Privacy & Light – What You Need To Know.
Honeycomb Duette® shades with the Duette LightLock™ technology is not only the best Hunter Douglas blackout shade, but they also provide superior energy-efficiency and sound absorption. Duette® shades can reduce heat in the summer and cold in the winter, and they can reduce outside noises heard from indoors.
For more information about other important window treatment features such asnoise reduction,energy-efficiency, and motorized operating systems visit our blog post, 11 Decisions You Must Make Before Buying Window Treatments.
Still feeling overwhelmed?
Schedule a FREE in-home consultation with a JC Licht window treatments expert to find the perfect custom window treatment solution for each room in your home.
