You are looking for opaque curtains because the streetlight opposite creeps into the bedroom, because the morning sun wakes you up too early or because at night everything can be seen from the street. The word seems clear, but in shops it sits alongside “dim-out” and “blackout”, and each one lets through a different amount of light. Once you know which is which, you get it right first time.
what you will take away from this guide
- 1What opaque curtain, dim-out curtain and blackout curtain really mean.
- 2How each level of light is achieved and what changes in the fabric.
- 3Why no curtain leaves a room completely dark.
- 4How to tell whether you need blackout or whether a darker curtain is enough.
three names, three different promises
All three terms talk about the same thing: how much light passes through the fabric. They are not fabrics or styles, they are levels. The problem is that in everyday conversation we mix them up, and that makes it easy to buy one thing expecting another.
At home, “opaque” usually means “not see-through”: from outside you cannot see what is going on inside. That does not mean the room goes dark. An opaque curtain can do its job perfectly and still leave a pleasant brightness at midday. To ask it for dimness you need to go up a level; to ask for near darkness, two.
Opaque means you cannot see through it. Dim-out means the room is left in half-light. Blackout means the fabric lets almost no light through.
what each type of curtain does
Think of them as a scale. Each step holds back more light, and each step also changes the feel and drape of the fabric a little.
the curtain you cannot see through
It stops people seeing in, by day and by night, and softens direct light. By day, with the curtain closed, the room is still bright.
the curtain that darkens the room
It holds back much of the light and leaves the room in half-light. It is what many people are looking for when they type “opaque”: a darker curtain that keeps the drape of a fabric curtain.
the curtain that blocks light
It has a coating or a multi-layer weave that lets almost no light through the fabric. It is the option for sleeping during the day or for a home cinema.
Opaque curtains
They are the basis of any window facing the street or a courtyard with neighbours. Their job is privacy: making sure the lights on at night do not turn the living room into a shop window. They also take the edge off direct sun, but they do not switch it off. If you want to see during the day without turning the light on, this is what you are looking for.
Dim-out curtains
They go one step further. Dim-out curtains (you will also see them called room-darkening curtains) hold back most of the light and leave the room in half-light, without reaching darkness. They are the ones that let you stretch out a Sunday morning a little, watch a film in the afternoon without glare on the screen, or stop the streetlight from marking the bedroom ceiling.
Blackout curtains
Blackout curtains are designed so that the fabric does not let light through. They are used when darkness is not a preference but a need: sleeping during the day because of shift work, a room facing an illuminated sign or a room for projecting films. In return, the fabric is usually thicker, stiffer and heavier.
how each level of light is achieved
What separates one curtain from another is not the name on the label, but three things you can recognise by touching it.
The density of the weave
The tighter the weave, the fewer gaps the light finds to pass through. This is what gives body to an opaque or dim-out curtain without changing its fabric feel.
The colour
With the same weave, a dark shade holds back more light than a light one. But colour comes second: a light, dense fabric can darken more than a dark, lightweight one.
The coating or layers
Blackout adds something the fabric alone does not have: an inner layer or a coating on the back. You can feel it, because the curtain is firmer and a little less fluid.
That is why a dim-out curtain falls and moves like a fabric curtain, while a blackout curtain behaves more like a panel. Neither is better: it depends on what you ask of the window.
why no curtain gives total darkness
This is where doubts tend to arise. Even if a curtain’s fabric blocks the light completely, that does not mean the room will be dark. Light can still come in at the sides, at the top or bottom of the curtain, and even through the small gap left between the two curtains when they are closed. That is why, even with blackout curtains, some brightness may come in during the day.
Light goes round the curtain where it does not reach the wall
It slips in above the fabric and through the gap at the floor
It passes where the two curtains meet when closed
If you need real darkness, the solution lies in the whole window: a lowered blind does the blocking, and the curtain dresses and finishes it off. If what you want is half-light, a dim-out curtain properly closed is enough and you need nothing more.
do you need blackout or a darker curtain?
Most of the time, people looking for “opaque curtains” do not need blackout: they need a curtain that is darker than the one they have. To find out which side you are on, think about what exactly bothers you.
A dim-out curtain is enough if…
You want not to be seen from outside, the morning sun not to wake you with a jolt, the streetlight not to mark the ceiling or to watch TV in the afternoon without glare. In all these cases you are looking for half-light, not darkness, and you will appreciate a curtain that keeps the drape and look of fabric.
You need blackout (and probably a blind) if…
You sleep during the day for work, you have a sign or a spotlight shining straight at the window, or you want a room for projecting films. There, darkness is a need, and it is worth combining a fabric that blocks light with a blind that seals the edges.
The backlight test
If you have the fabric in front of you, hold it between your eyes and a window or a lamp, and put your hand behind it. If you can see the shape of your hand, it is a curtain that filters light; if you only see brightness, it is opaque; if you barely notice there is light on the other side, it darkens. It is the quickest way to know what you have in your hands, without relying on the label.
a curtain that darkens, described as it is
We do not have blackout curtains. We have high-opacity curtains: they darken the room, cannot be seen through and keep the drape of a fabric curtain. We prefer to tell you what they really do before you buy them, so that they arrive at your home and do exactly what you expected.
opaque, dim-out or blackout: now you know which is which
Opaque gives you privacy, dim-out gives you half-light and blackout blocks the light that reaches the fabric. None of them leaves the room dark on its own, because light comes in at the edges. If what you want is a darker curtain than the one you have, high opacity is your starting point.
discover our high-opacity curtains →
