Light-Blocking Opacity Selector
Not sure whether you need light-filtering or blackout? Pick the room and what matters most, and get a recommended opacity with its light-blocking range and privacy.
Recommended opacity
Bedrooms benefit from darkness for sleep; blackout blocks street lights and early sun.
Choosing an opacity
Every window treatment sits somewhere on a scale from barely blocking light to blocking nearly all of it. The trick is to match that scale to how a room is used rather than to how the fabric looks in the showroom. A nursery needs to go dark for daytime naps; a living room usually wants soft daylight and a bit of privacy; a bathroom needs reliable cover by day.
Remember that privacy and darkness are not the same thing, and that a fabric behaves differently once the sun goes down. When two rooms are close calls, this selector offers an alternate band worth considering, and layering — a sheer plus a blackout, for instance — lets a single window do both jobs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the four opacity levels?
Sheer fabrics only soften daylight and give limited privacy. Light-filtering fabrics glow softly and give good daytime privacy. Room-darkening fabrics cut most light for sleep or screens. Blackout fabrics block almost all light and give full privacy day and night. Each step trades view and brightness for darkness and privacy.
Does a blind give privacy at night as well as during the day?
Not always. A light-filtering fabric that hides your room by day can become partly see-through after dark, when it's brighter inside than out. If night-time privacy matters — a ground-floor bedroom or bathroom, say — step up to room-darkening or blackout, or layer a sheer with a heavier treatment.
Is blackout only for bedrooms?
Bedrooms and nurseries are the classic case, because darkness helps sleep, but blackout also suits home cinemas and media rooms where screen glare ruins the picture. In living and dining rooms most people prefer light-filtering, keeping the room bright and the view while still gaining daytime privacy.
How is this recommendation made?
It maps each room to the opacity band that usually suits how the room is used, then nudges it up or down based on whether you prioritise sleep, privacy, or keeping the view. It's curated guidance to point you in the right direction, not a rule — your own light levels and habits always come first.
Guidance only. Light-blocking percentages are approximate and vary by fabric, colour, and how the blind is mounted — check a sample in your own room before deciding.