Perfect for rooms where you need more light blocking or privacy than typical shades, our room darkening shades will significantly dim the room without being completely blackout. Blocking more outside light helps provide better sleep in bedrooms, better screen viewing in media rooms, and greater privacy at night.
Another common opacity ranking for fabric shades is blackout. While room darkening and blackout are sometimes used interchangeably, these are technically different things. Room-darkening fabrics will block most of the incoming light but still let a very small amount pass through the shade. A blackout shade on the other hand is 100% opaque and will not let any light through the fabric.
It may seem like a small distinction, but if you're looking for maximum light blockage, you'll want to look for shades labeled as blackout. However, if you need the room to be significantly dimmer than a normal shade would provide but don't want absolute darkness, then a room darkening shade is the way to go.
For custom window treatments available in multiple colors and patterns, there are three main categories of opacity (or how much light can pass through the shade):
- Light Filtering – these shades will provide privacy from outside views but will still allow a large portion of light to enter the room. The light is "softened" with harsh direct light being reduced and distributed more evenly in the room.
- Room Darkening – this type of shade will block almost all incoming light (90-99% depending on the fabric and the color), significantly darkening the room but still allowing a touch of light pass through the shade.
- Blackout – these include fabrics that are completely opaque, letting no light pass directly through the shade material. Remember that some indirect light may be visible around the edges of the shade, allowing a very small amount of light to still enter the room.
You may also see shades described using the terms sheer, semi-sheer, semi-opaque and opaque, but the overall idea is the same. The light filtering shades are broken out into more groups, although sheer and semi-sheer shades are not very common
Since room darkening blinds and shades are designed to block more light than light filtering shades, they provide direct benefit no matter the time of day, especially when you want to significantly darken a room during the day. This could include bedrooms and nurseries, TV and media rooms, and in windows that face bright direct sunlight. Reducing light in these situations provides better sleep, less glare on screens, and can help reduce eye strain and heat gain from bright sunlight. Just keep in mind that room darkening blinds will not provide 100% light blocking like blackout shades.
Room darkening blinds also provide higher privacy than light filtering shades. While some vague shapes and shadows can be visible from the outside with light filtering shades, the room darkening shades help prevent any shadows or silhouettes since they are blocking more of the inside light being visible from the outside.
Additionally, they offer a stylish touch to your home, as they come in various colors and patterns. You can also order them with a battery-powered motor with a receiver for remote control, enhancing both convenience and privacy while maintaining a beautiful view inside and out.
If you're looking for room darkening shades, these are the types of products that feature this fabric opacity:
- Roller shades – look for products marked "room darkening" to significantly dim the room without going fully blackout
- Sheer shades – these shades don't have blackout versions since they don't have extremely tight closure, but the room darkening fabric is much less opaque than the light filtering versions
- Zebra dual shades – like sheer shades, the dual layers of fabric on zebra shades don't close tightly against each other leaving light gaps, but the room darkening fabric will block a significant amount of incoming light
You can also check out our assortment of blackout shades if you want to more fully darken the room. If you have any questions, you can reach out to our customer service team for help!