Blackout Blinds or Blackout Shades? Which to Choose.

When you're looking to decide between blackout blinds and blackout shades, you should always consider which you prefer for design style. However, there is a big key difference you need to keep in mind when considering blackout blinds over blackout shades (or vice versa).

What I've noticed when talking to people who purchased blackout shades is that they love how they look and the fact that they block out 99% of the light (whatever you do with blackout blinds, they won't block out that much light). However, the biggest drawback is that they cannot open their blackout shades while maintaining their privacy. So, if the blackout shades are open, they're open.

Now, living in a sunny place (with neighbors close by), I understand when I hear, "well, we never opened our window blinds so I figured we'd get blackout shades to block out more light than blackout blinds." What most people don't take into account is that normal window blinds still let in a fair amount of light when closed. So, while you may complain about how much light they let in on occasion, do you really want your room pitch black all the time? And, on the times that you don't want it pitch black, do you really want to let anyone passing by look into your window?

Blackout blinds allow for a great amount of flexibility. They block out most of the light, and while they let in more than blackout shades, blackout blinds do their job. Plus, they can look great in any room design. And, you can choose to tilt the slats to let in light while not letting anyone have a view of the room to tilting them so they're horizontal and filtering the view of the room to pulling them up completely to allow for a full view.

If you're still set on blackout shades but want a little more flexibility, consider buying them with the top down, bottom up option. This option allows you to open and close them like regular blackout shades but you can also pull them down from the top: which allows you to let in some light while maintaining your privacy (after all, there are few people who are tall enough to look in from the top of a window).