What do you need to know about doing blackout shades in your Reno or Tahoe home? The most important thing is that when it comes to how dark you need it in the room can not be determined by your window fashions expert. If you don’t hire an expert, you will be even less confident of your decision though. Keep these things in mind.

When you go to a hotel, do you find that to be a sufficient amount of room darkening? You need to communicate the amount of darkness you prefer so you will be happy with the end result. When we did these Solera Soft shades, by Hunter Douglas for a Reno NV client, we spent quite a bit of time discussing how much darkness they needed.

Keep in mind that room darkening and blackout shades are kind of different. Most people would equate them, but there is a difference. For example, ANYTHING over the window, even a white sheet which allows most of the light into the room is technically a room darkening material. It becomes a matter of degrees of difference. An example of this is the Silhouette Shade, also by Hunter Douglas. The standard material blocks about 30% of the light from entering the room. The Bon Soir material is their “light dimming” material and it only blocks 70% of the light. If you need your room to be dark for sleep or TV viewing, you will not be happy with 30% of the outside light coming in to your eyes or glaring off of your television. There are ways to make a room almost completely dark, but I’d NEVER promise 100% darkness, though I’ve helped clients to accomplish just that. If you look at the video, you will notice that the Solera Soft Shades block all of the light from coming through the material, but quite a bit leaks around the edges. The client was consulted about this ahead of time and was happy with the result. Make sure you have a professional consultation to get what is best for you.