Sheers filter daylight and give you daytime privacy without closing off the room. Blockouts cut light and give you privacy after dark. Run both on the same window, and you can move between the two through the day, which is why most bedrooms end up with a pair rather than a choice.
The part that decides whether it actually works is not the fabric. It is the track, the width, and the height, because a blockout curtain that does not cover enough of the wall lets light straight past it.
The Short Version
- Blockout fabric does not make a dark room. Installation does. Light comes around the sides and over the top of the track, not through the cloth.
- Layering needs a double track. Two curtains on one track cannot pass each other, so the decision has to be made before you order, not after.
- Sheers are daytime privacy only. Once the lights are on inside and it is dark outside, a sheer shows the room clearly.
- Height and width matter more than people expect. Mount the track high and run it well past the window on each side. Both cost almost nothing at order stage and cannot be fixed afterwards.
- Eyelet headings cannot block out. The fabric scallops around the rod, leaving gaps along the top by design.
- A pelmet is the single biggest upgrade for a dark bedroom. It closes the gap above the track that everything else leaves open.
What Each One Actually Does
Sheer and blockout curtains compared
| Factor | Sheer | Blockout |
|---|---|---|
| Daylight | Filters and softens it | Cuts most of it |
| Daytime privacy | Good, from outside looking in | Complete when closed |
| Night privacy | None once the lights are on | Complete |
| View out | Retained, softened | None when closed |
| Airflow | Passes through | Blocked |
| Room feel | Light, open, softened edges | Dark, quiet, enclosed |
| Best on its own | Living areas, anywhere the view matters | Media rooms, shift workers, bedrooms with no daytime use |
The night privacy line is the one people get wrong. A sheer that gives complete privacy at 2pm gives almost none at 8pm, because the light is now coming from inside. If the window faces a street or a neighbour, sheer curtains alone are not a night-time solution.
Why Blockout Curtains Leak Light
This is the complaint suppliers hear most often: the curtain is blockout, the room is not dark. Almost always the fabric is doing its job and the installation is not.
Light gets in at four places.
- Over the top. The gap between the top of the curtain and the ceiling is open, so light entering the window above the track spills over and lights the wall. This is usually the largest leak and the least obvious, because you are looking at the curtain rather than above it.
- Around the sides. A curtain that stops at the edge of the window leaves the reveal exposed. Light comes down the side and around the edge of the fabric.
- Down the middle. Two panels that meet in the centre leave a vertical seam. Closed, they touch; in practice they gap.
- Through the fabric. Real, but the smallest of the four. A pale blockout fabric with a light-coloured face can glow rather than transmit, which reads as brightness even though very little light is actually getting through.
What fixes each one.
- Mount the track high, ideally close to the ceiling rather than just above the architrave. The higher the track, the less window sits above it.
- Add a pelmet. A box above the track closes the top gap completely. It is the single most effective thing you can do for a dark bedroom and it is rarely offered unless you ask.
- Extend the track well past the window, typically 150mm to 300mm each side. This also lets the curtain stack off the glass, so you get more daylight when it is open.
- Specify returns. The end of the curtain wraps back to the wall rather than finishing flat, closing the side gap.
- Specify an overlap where the two panels meet, so they cross rather than butt together.
- Order enough fullness. A curtain should be roughly two to two and a half times the track width in fabric. Skimp on that and the folds are shallow, the curtain sits flat and it covers less than it appears to.
None of these are expensive at order stage. All of them are difficult or impossible to add later, which is why they belong in the conversation before anything is made.
Running Both: What the Track Has to Do
Two curtains on one track cannot pass each other. Layering needs either a double track, two separate tracks, or a track and a rod, and the choice affects the mounting, the pelmet size and the depth needed above the window.
Decide this before you order. Retrofitting a second track means new fixings, often a new pelmet, and sometimes curtains that no longer fit the new position. It is the most common regret in a curtain job.
Heading styles and what they can and cannot do.
- S-fold, also called wave. The fabric runs in continuous soft waves on a track. Even folds, contemporary, and it stacks tightly. Track only, which suits blockouts because a track can carry a pelmet and returns.
- Pinch pleat. Structured pleats at the heading, on a track or a rod. Traditional, tailored, and it works for both layers.
- Eyelet. Metal rings threaded onto a rod. Inexpensive and easy, but the fabric scallops around the rod, leaving an open gap along the entire top edge. An eyelet curtain cannot block out light, regardless of the fabric, and no pelmet will fix it while the rod passes through the fabric.
If the goal is a dark room, that last point removes eyelet from consideration entirely, which is worth knowing before falling for a fabric in a showroom.
Room by Room
Bedrooms. The strongest case for both layers, and the room where the installation details matter most. Sheers for daytime, blockouts for sleep, mounted high with a pelmet. East-facing rooms need it most, because summer sunrise arrives well before anyone wants it.
Healthdirect's general advice on sleep is that the room should be the right temperature, quiet and dark. Curtains only do one of those three, but they are the one that can be fixed in an afternoon.
Living rooms. Sheers do most of the work. Blockouts earn their place on a west-facing wall where afternoon glare makes the television unwatchable, or where the room doubles as a media space.
Home offices. Glare rather than darkness. A sheer usually handles it, and a blockout gives the option of a controlled background for video calls.
Children's rooms. Same as bedrooms, plus the cord question below. Daytime naps mean the blockout layer gets more use than in an adult bedroom, so operation should be easy.
Children's Rooms and Cords
Corded curtains and blinds fall under a mandatory Australian safety standard because a loose or looped cord is a strangulation hazard to young children. The standard requires safe design, warning labels, and that any loose or looped cord is secured out of reach with a tie-down or tension device fixed to the wall or window frame.
For a child's room, the practical options are a wand-operated track, a motorised track, or a corded track with the cord properly secured and tensioned. Ask which is being supplied, and if it is corded, ask what securing device comes with it and who installs it.
Keep cots, beds and anything climbable away from a window with a cord, and never leave a child alone in a room with an unsecured cord.
What to Specify When You Order
- Single or double track, and confirm it before anything is measured.
- Track height, as close to the ceiling as the structure allows.
- Track width, extended past the window each side so the curtain stacks off the glass.
- Pelmet or no pelmet, and if the answer is a dark bedroom, pelmet.
- Returns and overlap on the blockout layer.
- Fullness, roughly two to two and a half times the track width.
- Heading style for each layer, remembering that eyelet rules out blockout performance.
- Operation, hand-drawn, wand, corded or motorised, with the cord question settled for children's rooms.
- Floor clearance, whether the curtain sits just off the floor, breaks on it or puddles.
- Cleaning method for both fabrics, since sheers and blockout linings often differ.
NSW Government guidance on getting quotes recommends giving at least three suppliers the same written brief. For curtains that means specifying the track configuration, the heading style and the fullness, not just the fabric, because those are what separate two quotes that look identical.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are blockout curtains?
Curtains made from a densely woven or coated fabric, or lined with a blockout backing, that stops most light passing through the cloth. How dark the room actually gets depends more on the track height, the curtain width and whether there is a pelmet than on the fabric itself.
Are blockout curtains better than sheers?
They do different jobs. Blockouts are for darkness and night-time privacy. Sheers are for filtered daylight and daytime privacy, and they give you almost no privacy at night once the interior lights are on. Most bedrooms want both, which is a track decision rather than a fabric one.
Do blockout curtains completely block out light?
The fabric does. The installation usually does not. Light enters over the top of the track, around the sides, and down the centre joint, so a dark room needs a high-mounted track, extra width on each side, returns, an overlap, and ideally a pelmet. Ask for those specifically, because they are rarely included by default.
Can you layer sheers and blockout curtains?
Yes, and it is the usual answer for bedrooms. It needs a double track or two separate tracks so each layer operates independently. Decide before ordering, since adding a second track later often means new fixings, a new pelmet and curtains that no longer suit the position.
Are eyelet curtains any good for blocking light?
Not for that job. The fabric scallops around the rod, which leaves an open gap along the entire top edge by design. The fabric can be full blockout, and the room will still be light. For darkness, use a track with an S-fold or pinch pleat heading.
Are blockout curtains good for bedrooms?
They are the most effective window covering for darkening a room, which matters because general sleep advice is that a bedroom should be quiet, dark, and at the right temperature. They are most useful on east-facing rooms that get early summer sun, and on street-facing rooms where night privacy matters as well.
Talk Through Your Windows
The fabric is the easy part. The track configuration, the mounting height, and whether there is a pelmet determine whether a bedroom actually goes dark, and those are worth settling on site before anything is made.
Shutters Australia manufactures and installs custom curtains across Sydney, including sheers and blockouts layered on double tracks.
Call (02) 8858 0900 or explore the designer curtains, blockout curtains and sheer curtains ranges
If you are weighing curtains against other window furnishings, see our guide to shutters or blinds.
