GeoffM

Just watch out for the "blackout" blinds from Levoler. Yeah, they do block out most of the light... except at the bottom where the slats level out and let loads of light in.

But yeah curtains on top, even simple ones, help with that last bit.

notonuksoil

Have a look on wayfair.com

scrubbedexpat091

My blackout's cost 40 dollars at Wal-Mart and make the room dark, no issue sleeping for me when I was doing grave yards, got the room plenty dark.

It's not always necessary to pay more for something to work well enough.

I now refuse grave yard shifts since they are so bad on your health, but the years I did it, these curtains have worked very well.

GeoffM

My wife is hopefully coming to the end of night shifts now as an RN. It's so disruptive as a family, she can't get enough sleep during the day, she ends up being grumpy, it limits what we can do, all for about $4 more per hour. Yeah that's $50 per shift minus tax lost but it's not doing her - or any of us - any good.

scrubbedexpat091

Same here minus the 4$ an hour, I got around 50 cents to a dollar more. I was always miserable grump when on graves, I never got the sleep I needed, and was basically a walking zombie. And of course could never do anything and didn't see my partner more then just passing, since I'd be sleeping all day.

I found I needed about double the amount of sleep when sleeping during the day since I was woken up so much, and it was so disturbed, so I basically slept from 9am to 9pm/10pm and then back to work.

We have a friend who is a nurse, but she has gone into another profession as working overnights was becoming a health burden, at her employer to be fair to everyone, the union doesn't allow full day or full nights, they rotate every 2 weeks, so 2 weeks days, then 2 weeks graves and she couldn't do it anymore. She took a significant pay cut and now works in a doctors office.

Lanyu

John Lewis do ship internationally � ���� Just depends on if it still works out good value with the exchange rate.

indigogirl1976

American curtains are a bit rubbish. I ordered some thermal lined custom ones on etsy that were good and then I got a sewing machine at a yard sale and ended up making my own with the help of a you tube video. It's surprising easy if you have the time :-)

hungryhorace

Exports to America from Britain are very cheap right now. The only issue I see with John Lewis is that they would need to be custom made, which does pose certain problems over the phone. That said, I am actually typing this from England, but I didn't take any measurements before I came over.

I think I'd just prefer to have them done in the US, makes it easier all round.

kins

John Lewis curtains/blinds are ridiculously over-priced. I'd go with a company like Budget Blinds here in the US, if you can. They made some really nice blinds for us.

Yorkieabroad

We used a 3-day blinds type place for most of our windows- it was worth getting somewhere that had a measure guarantee because none of our windows are 'square', so fitting the blinds was a bit tricky in places.

We have got curtains at some of the bedroom windows - one guest bedroom gets light from the street, so we got some really good heavy blackouts from the online version of one of the big stores - JC Penney or Macys or somewhere like that. We used to sleep in there when we first moved in, and it really was pitch black, even with the street light, and they weren't too expensive. The other guest is dark, so we got some ready mades from Linen n Things which are OK. My MiL made the rest. Interesting that the sun is so strong here that even through solar glare reducing glass, the curtains 'age' really quickly,so its not really worth spending a lot on them. Or maybe that's just the Yorkshire in me..... The thing that ticked me off was not being able to get "proper" curtain track like I was used to in the UK. We ended up using poles with either tab top or those big eyes like a shower curtain. Not happy.

We bought a rental recently, and it had "custom drapes in the Den, available by separate negotiation". Basically they were just long lengths of cloth from the double height ceiling to the floor,topped like a curtain with ruffly pleat type thingys - the sort that just hang on a fixed rail looking pretty, but not actually moving anywhere. The seller wanted 10k for them I sort of laughed, and told the realtor to tell them no thanks. Next thing, they sent over the original invoice - they had paid 12k a year earlier. They were OK, but not worth 10k, (never mind 12!!) so I declined again - I figured they probably wouldn't want to go to the bother of taking them down, but when we closed, the drapes had gone. No real loss to me, but I do wonder what they actually did with them - they would never be able to sell them for much, and they moved to a single storey house....

scrubbedexpat091

Unless made from gold or studded with diamonds or something of value, no way is any curtain worth that much. Some people just have too much money to spend.

They are probably sitting in a box in a closet where they will sit until someone throws them out.

That is the problem with custom anything, there may not be anyone else out there who want's it.

Yorkieabroad

I totally agree.
The realtor reckoned they were selling because they were a young couple, it was their first home, and they had "bitten off too much house". I don't know if that is true, (although they did downsize), but if it was finances that caused it, I suspect it was as much the "extras" that killed them, as the actual house itself. They had put in a lot of expensive "upgrades" that they would not get value out of on selling.

WEBlue

Agree! Extremely easy to sew your own, and even if you make an error, it's usually not difficult to rectify it (I have). Simple curtains are a good first project for a novice sewer....

Bob

Quality Home and Office Furniture | Arhaus Furniture

Arhaus, very nice. Nearest one to you might be Natick or Burlington.

There's also a Ethan Allen in Natick.

Someone in our MetroWest meet up group also makes custom drapery, so could probably find a contact number if you're interested.

BubbleChog

@ Yorkie We had that with one place we went to view that had custom plantation shutters. Wanted an extra $10K for those as well. Me and Mr Chog just said to each other as we left what are they going to take them with them.
Didn't buy that house anyway also wanted $4000 for the lights in the dining room and hallway