Here’s the story of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas.

Mr. Douglas works as a concierge at a hotel in downtown New York, while Mrs. Douglas has a job nearer home. She has normal working hours from 9.00 AM to 5.00PM. They decided not to send their tiny baby out while they both were at work. So, Mr. Douglas opted for working in the late shift from 6.00PM to 2.00AM, so that he could take care of baby Jonathan during the day. They were quite confident that the arrangement should work well for the next two years till the baby was old enough for going to school. However, within a fortnight Mr. Douglas realized that the baby had different time of getting started for the day, as Jonathan would wake up bright eyed and active at the crack of the dawn. It’s not difficult to imagine the plight of poor Mr. Douglas who would barely sleep for three to four hours in the last part of the night. He felt sleepy and he needed sleep badly all during the day.

Soon, Mr. Douglas realized that windows in all the rooms were facing east and the early sun was making him feel uncomfortable, while he tried sleeping in the early hours of the morning. Thankfully for Mr. Douglas, his wife, while cruising the web found the perfect solution- blackout shades.

Soon, Mr. Douglas realized that nothing works better than a standard roll, blackout roller shade for having a total blackout during the day. He further learnt that for optimum blockage of light, it should be fixed on or outside of the window casing. Such an arrangement is called an outside mount or OB. For best results you should have at least three inch extra width to stop light coming thru the gaps and some arrangement in the form of a valance or cassette to prevent light form entering thru the gap over the roller. Further it should lengthen at least an inch and a half beneath the bottom molding or sit squarely on the sill. That is the best blackout arrangement.

A very good alternative is to use a blackout cellular shade that is fixed from the inside of the window casing. This arrangement is known as an inside mount or IB. As it fits snugly to the inside of the window casing there is very little incoming light. Another equally good arrangement is to have Roman or pleated shades on the inside or outside the window but you’ll need to add blackout liner.

Blinds may be in metal, wood or plastic and irrespective of being horizontal or vertical, they just can’t provide total blackout, whatever measures you may adopt. Though some may prove to be slightly better than others, for instance wood blinds with route-less feature. Instead of having holes in the center of the slats for their stringing, they are strung together through notches made in the back of the slats to hide the holes and thus keep out light. Another alternative to block the holes and thus prevent incoming light is to use decorative tapes. That takes care to some extent but the main problem of light coming in thru the gaps between the slats, louvers, or vanes persists.