Pj room blackout curtains

marty1

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I need to get 2 curtain tracks that run along the 18ft side walls, the curtains need to run the entire length and height, 9ft of these walls as my wife is not too keen on dark paint.

The curtains need to be black velvet for the least amount of light reflectivity and also need to be blackout as I have windows along 1 wall.

Does anyone know what the cheapest way of doing this is without making it look tacky, does anyone know anywhere that does curtains like this for a decent price?

I would appreciate your help

Thanks
Marty
 
I don't know that best/cheapest way to do this, but just to point out something: 18ft worth of curtains will still take up a fair bit of space when open. My patio doors (approx 2.4 metres wide I'd guess) have a good 40-50cm of curtain exposed during the daytime for example. Going on that, you could have maybe 4-5 feet of black curtains showing during the day...might not be a good look, especially if you have please your OH. Might be worth considering a dark colour that suits the room decor, such as dark brown/blue/red as these colours will tend to look almost black in the dark and be much better than having white walls for example.

The better news is that the further you get from the screen, the less the effect the walls have, although the rear wall seems to make some difference in my setup (6.5 metres from the screen). Coming out maybe one screen width would be enough for 90% of the effect perhaps.

It must be great having a proper dedicated room, which is why I find it disappointing when I see one and they've painted it cream. :suicide:
 
Well my OH did say she would probably accept aubergine/really dark purple, would that look better?
 
Depends on your taste...if you like deep purple, then it would still have a good effect on the room from a projection point of view.

I was always a bit partial to a bit of 'Smoke on the water' myself.;)
 
My walls are now an aubergine/plum colour after a recent redecorate and the contrast levels have seen a big improvement over what was previously with cream walls.

The ceiling is white though which does not help so I will have to look at doing something with that sooner rather than later.:)

I also added dark purple carpet and purple blackout curtains from Dunelm which also helped.
 
Do you find the walls go completely black when watching films?
 
No they don't go black but they are very dark in colour and much better than when they were cream.
 
I need to get 2 curtain tracks that run along the 18ft side walls, the curtains need to run the entire length and height, 9ft of these walls as my wife is not too keen on dark paint.

The curtains need to be black velvet for the least amount of light reflectivity and also need to be blackout as I have windows along 1 wall.

Does anyone know what the cheapest way of doing this is without making it look tacky, does anyone know anywhere that does curtains like this for a decent price?

I would appreciate your help

Thanks
Marty
My screen is in the centre of an end wall. I have dark chocolate velour curtains that run from behind the centre of the screen and down the two side walls. This is a run of 20 ft. for each side of the room. They pull back, surprisingly, to a width of only appx 18 inches. I purchased them online from Littlewoods.
They do a very good job and the area behind the screen disappears completely. The side walls are visible when the screen is illuminated but the amount of reflection is minimal.
During the daytime the dark brown blends very nicely with my magnolia walls.
 
My screen is in the centre of an end wall. I have dark chocolate velour curtains that run from behind the centre of the screen and down the two side walls. This is a run of 20 ft. for each side of the room. They pull back, surprisingly, to a width of only appx 18 inches. I purchased them online from Littlewoods.
They do a very good job and the area behind the screen disappears completely. The side walls are visible when the screen is illuminated but the amount of reflection is minimal.
During the daytime the dark brown blends very nicely with my magnolia walls.

That sounds good, what height are they and if you dont mind me asking, how much did they cost?
 
Problem solved :thumbsup:

I have used Graham & Brown's Plummy Accent flat matt, it looks good in the light, not dreary but when lights are out it goes completely black.

I have Pearly Queen colour for ceiling, brighter shade of purple but still a lot darker than the white ceiling I have now, I hope it will do the trick! I think if the ceiling is as dark as the walls it would feel a bit claustrophobic.
 
Right the room is painted but as expected there is dull reflections on the dark greyish ceiling, and on the dark purple walls surrounding the screen. Screen involvment is much better but does this dull light have a major effect on the screens performance?

I want to get it proffesionally calibrated so I wanted to make sure I have effective decor first. Do I really need black velvet/velour around the screen or will there be minimal difference in quality? The picture looks fantastic and it's not even calibrated but to me it looked fantastic with white ceiling and light fawn walls so am i really going to notice much difference?

I would appreciate your advice :lease:

Thanks
Marty
 
Do you think it looks better now that you've painted it darker? If so then perhaps adding some black velvet would give smaller improvement (maybe just near the screen if you can manage this tastefully for maximum WAF ;)). If you don't think it looks any better than before [-]get your eyes tested[/-] don't bother with the velvet as you've probably already done a large part of the job already.
 
Do you think it looks better now that you've painted it darker? If so then perhaps adding some black velvet would give smaller improvement (maybe just near the screen if you can manage this tastefully for maximum WAF ;)). If you don't think it looks any better than before [-]get your eyes tested[/-] don't bother with the velvet as you've probably already done a large part of the job already.

Ha! I probably do need my eyes tested :D

It still looks great, there is definately less distraction in the room when watching a film but I couldn't tell if it looks better than it did before unless I can switch between both images??

Not sure what I am supposed to be looking for :confused:

Like I said it was great before and it's great now but I couldn't look at it and go wow that's a massive difference.

That's why I was wondering if the I did bother with the velvet I would have the WOW factor compared to what it is now?
 
I got black out curtains from next for abour £60. they are not velvet and were for the wall facing the screen in a dedicated room. The difference was huge, even the wife commented on how much better the image was. I priced black velvet curtains but the ones out of next came in at about a 3rd of the price. They are just plain black cotton with a black out lining. My room is now super dark with the lights out, previously i only had black out vertical blinds but loads of light still got in. This has made a great difference for just £60.
 
I got black out curtains from next for abour £60. they are not velvet and were for the wall facing the screen in a dedicated room. The difference was huge, even the wife commented on how much better the image was. I priced black velvet curtains but the ones out of next came in at about a 3rd of the price. They are just plain black cotton with a black out lining. My room is now super dark with the lights out, previously i only had black out vertical blinds but loads of light still got in. This has made a great difference for just £60.

Was the wall you colour bright where you had put your curtains up over? Did you just have the curtain on the wall opposite the screen?
 
Was the wall you colour bright where you had put your curtains up over? Did you just have the curtain on the wall opposite the screen?
The wall with the cutain was mostly taken up by a window with about 2 feet either side of wall. It was painted a light blue matt colour which looks great but I will be darkening down at some stage. I keep the curtains closed all the time now nad the image is much brighter and jumps out more. I still have a white celling so that may go soon as well for total darkness
 
I have a dark chocolate colour on all walls apart from the ceiling which is white, will I see a dramatic improvement if I paint the ceiling dark as well?
 
I have a dark chocolate colour on all walls apart from the ceiling which is white, will I see a dramatic improvement if I paint the ceiling dark as well?

I have painted the ceiling dark grey, it is very dark but when pj is on you can still see a dim light reflection. The screen involvement feels better as there is less things visible in the room so it isn't so distracting.

As for a dramatic improvement, I am no expert but my room went from light fawn with white ceiling to very dark purple walls (as close to black I can get with wifes approval) and very dark grey ceiling and I can't tell the difference, it has given me piece of mind that I have done all I can to the room and still keep it reasonably like a living room, but that is about it!

I am sure if I could have the screen on and switch between the 2 decors I might notice some differences, but after spending a couple of days repainting I was hoping to sit back, turn the screen on and go :eek: that is incredible! But that didn't happen, maybe I was expecting too much from it the way people were saying how much the performance will be increased in a dark room, so maybe it is only worth doing if you will cover the room in black velvet.

I would suggest if you are going to do it but are not willing to go to extremeties just try out a dark colour that doesn't feel depressing, I dont expect you to be blown away but it will certainly get you feeling a bit more involved in the screen action and a stage closer to that cinema feel, after all paint isn't too expensive and you can always repaint again if you don't like it.

Regards
Marty
 
We got our cinema blackout curtains (Lewis Blackout Ready Made Curtains), along with an extendable curtain rail from TerrysFabrics. Fast service, prices seemed good and most of all we're really happy with the quality of the curtains.
 
i got blackout velvet curtains made to measure from 24/7 curtains, they were about a fifth of the price of what i got quoted at john lewis and i think they look pretty good, most importantly they're excellent for blocking out light i don't even have a tv anymore because i can totally control the light in my living room.
Downside is they took ages to arrive and customer service is none existnt at the place but all in all i'm very happy with the result.
 

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