To control the light, first i must control the dark…
Added on Saturday 05 March 16
I brought my Gro Anywhere blind about a month ago. I saw it in Mothercare on offer and then they priced matched it to the Amazon price for me.
The Gro blind is a portable blackout blind which sticks to windows with little suckers. It has a cute stars and moon pattern on the side facing into the room and it’s intended to helps young kids sleep when they go to bed while it is still light outside.
I wanted it for a similar reason. I am very sensitive to light and prefer low level indirect lighting. I invested in putting smart lights throughout my home so I could better control the lighting to make my home feel more comfortable.
However, my curtains are not very good. Lots of daylight gets in making my home uncomfortably bright. I hoped having the blind up in my bedroom would make the room more comfortable and also make the smart lights / my bubble tube more effective.
I put the blind up myself and it did a goodish job. Just on the suckers alone it blocked most of the light and was a big improvement, but lots of light leaked around the edges. To fix this I then used gaffer tape to stick the sides down. It worked, but wasn’t very tidy.
A few days later, the rather awesome babysitter who looks after me in the evening saw my attempt and offered to have go.
She did a MUCH better job! There’s an awkward handle in the middle of my window and she fitted it around the handle better. She also used velcro to hold down the edges.
Since then, the corners have come down a few times, but only one sucker or two and generally only on bright days when the blind gets very warm.
Ideally it would not need the velcro, but even with the velcro it is much less hassle and cost than replacing the curtains.
The blind is very effective at keeping the light out and on that score alone I would recommend it. As I hoped, having a room which was much darker meant the smart lights etc worked better. I could have the room anywhere between almost black and fully lit depending on what was most comfortable.
Beyond just keeping the light out, the blind has had a second, surprising effect.
My windows goes from floor to ceiling and the blind meant I no longer needed curtains so I took them away. This left me with almost an extra square meter of storage space! It made the usable space in the room 11% bigger.
I store some books, colouring books and a few toys on the window sill. As they are near floor level, they are in easy reach for when I am playing on my playmat / rug.
This is very practical, and to me at least also makes the room look nicer and more fun.
The Gro Blind has been a really good purchase. It gave me more control over the lighting in my home which made my smart lights work better.
Additionally it freed up a bunch of space and made my bedroom look more awesome. Plus, I can take it with me when I move. For £20 it seemed like a really good purchase, I would recommend it without reservation.
