Blackout Fabric

Blocking light, and more besides

Blackout fabric carries a dense coating that stops light passing through. Used as a curtain lining it takes a room genuinely dark, which is the reason it goes into nurseries, bedrooms for shift workers and anywhere a screen has to be seen in daylight.

The same density insulates: it slows heat loss through the window in winter and keeps a room cooler in summer, and it deadens outside noise a little. Line existing curtains with it or make new ones, and allow for its weight — a blackout-lined curtain needs a pole and fittings that can carry it.