For instance, you don’t want your young children to be woken up from napping with rays of light in their eyes, nor would you want the light shining in when you’re trying to sleep after getting home from working all night. Neither would you want any glimmer of light with a terrible migraine, because any light at all showing just plain hurts. This won’t always look like an obvious bodge (nor necessarily look obvious at all, depending on the colour and finish you get) but it is probably not something you were hoping to have to do when you bought your blinds either.

Pictured: Blinds.com Easy Classic Pleat Drapery in Linen Stripe Tan-Smoke layered over Blinds.com Light Filtering Sheer Shades in Linen Ash. Ready To Give Your Windows Complete Coverage?Do your blinds or shades let in light from the sides? In the window covering world, we call these “light gaps.” These gaps exist because blinds and shades can’t be made to fit perfectly tight to the sides of the window. Without this gap, the fabric or slats would scrape along the window frame when they raise and lower, causing damage. To stop light leaking around the sides of a blind hung over the window recess, you need to measure up for your blind factoring in an additional margin of at least 10cm on each of the four sides of the window recess.

Fitting your blind over, rather than inside of, the window recess and factoring in a buffer of additional blind material to cut the light off is a more effective solution than trying to prevent light leakage on a blind hung inside of the window recess. How do I stop the light from coming around the side of my blinds if they’re fitted within the window recess? Permanent strips are for people who don’t have tilting windows. You want to make sure the strips have a durable commercial grade adhesive so it won’t come off your window frame. One size does not fit all. They should offer multiple lengths and the ability to cut them yourself to the size for your situation. Cutting with utility scissors or tin snips should be the only tools you need. Look for an easy return policy that offers a at least a 30 day guarantee. The guarantee should cover them even if you already cut them. You could also invest in a second set of window blinds to hang over the window recess, which I mentioned in the first section.Even a tiny ray of sun glaring through your blinds seems like a gigantic spot-light shining right in your eyes. Just makes it so hard to get good sleep during the day. What they don’t tell you when you buy room, darkening shades, especially motorized shades, that light still creeps in at the sides sometimes at the top and sometimes at the bottom depending on the make. The problem with hanging a blind inside of the window recess when it comes to light leakage is that you can’t build in much of a margin around the sides of the blind to stop light from escaping, as the blind can only fit into the space within the recess! Depending on the windows you have and the type of blind you choose, light leakage will not always be an issue on blinds hung inside of the recess; for instance, if your window has generous mullions or wide-ish sides of the frame, and the blind itself sits close to the window. In fact, in this situation, just about the only thing you can do to reduce the extent of the issue is to choose a blind with a relatively narrow headrail, so that it does not protrude from the window any more than is absolutely necessary. This is because in this scenario, the closer to the glass itself that you can get the blind, the less of an angle there is for light to get around it. How do I stop the light coming around the side of my blinds if I’ve already bought and hung them?

Retroactively, there isn’t a lot you can do about stopping light leakage around blinds that are already in situ, unless you’re willing to get a bit Gonzo about it. However, light leakage is more common and/or harder to avoid on blinds fitted inside of the recess, for the reasons mentioned, and there’s not masses that you can do to prevent this if the narrowness of your window frames and/or mullions are working against you. Also look for white on the outer side of the strips. White is easier to paint over so you can match your rooms décor. Enjoying a morning wake up with natural sunlight is actually healthy for you, nothing better than stretching out to the warm welcoming sunlight in the morning. There are times however when that welcoming sun isn’t so welcoming.