Effectiveness: Most light stays out
Light crept around the edges of the curtains, too. To prevent the sneaky light, we would need a wrap-around curtain rod and extra long curtains to encapsulate all the light. But, we were satisfied that the curtains performed well at their main purpose for us.
Fabric Quality: Effective but not attractive
The stiffness of the fabric gave these curtains body but not drape, which doesn’t make them visually appealing. Part of their flat look is due to the rod pockets. Rod pockets create gathers, which usually give a quaint, casual appeal, but when paired with a fabric that is too stiff and doesn’t drape well, the fabric puffs outwards in a flat, stiff way. Sadly, these curtains looked like a bargain find but not in a good way. Heavy, drapey fabrics often tend to look high end, but, in this case, it was the opposite.
Design: The visual detracts from the effectiveness
Although the dense fabric is effective at blocking out the light, straight out of the package, one look at the fabric made us feel we were looking at a drop cloth rather than curtains. Once hung, in its full glory with the gathers at the top from the curtain rod, it looked worse than when it was in the package. The stiffness of the fabric also makes it more challenging to hang on the curtain rod. It wasn’t insurmountable, but after hanging curtains with grommets in another room, by comparison, grommets were much easier. After the curtains were up and secure, we tested how well they opened and closed. It was tough since the fabric caught on the curtain rod. These curtains also come with tiebacks. They have rounded ends and seams finished with bias tape. The casual use of the bias tape finish added to the bargain basement feel and appearance. The tiebacks used a strong Velcro that held back the curtains well. But, since the curtains are a stiff fabric, the gathered look was visually unappealing.
Cleaning Ease: Machine washable but be prepared for wrinkles
These 100 percent polyester curtains can be machine washed in warm water then line dried. We appreciate anything that can be machine washed over dry clean or hand wash only. However, there have been some reports of problems with machine washing these curtains. Some people have followed the washing instructions only to have the curtains ruined. Some report that the fabric sticks together and the blackout fabric breaks away in some places. We did not have that problem when we washed ours. We suggest checking the temperature settings before washing to make sure excessive heat doesn’t damage the curtains. Next, we threw them into a dryer with a wet cloth on low heat. Twenty minutes later, there was no change in wrinkles. Our next de-wrinkle attempt involved a clean dish towel and the iron’s steam setting. While the steam method took a long time and went against the manufacturer’s instructions, it did get some wrinkles out but not all. We’ve rarely had wrinkles that could resist an iron on full steam, but these did. Maybe it’s blackout fabric or a special finish we can’t detect, but even after fully ironing the curtains for 45 minutes, there were visible wrinkles. We finally gave up and hung them anyway. Hanging them did pull out some wrinkles, but we accepted that they may always have some wrinkles.
Price: Hard to beat but at a cost
These curtains are a bargain, but they’re not attractive. The fabric and bias tape edge of the tiebacks looked like the manufacturer was cutting corners. Maybe in a different color, it would be a different story, but in white, they looked like a bargain basement blackout curtain.
Competition: Opt for more attractive options
Deconovo Blackout Curtains: Deconovo’s blackout curtains have grommets and a heavy, draping fabric. They come with a higher price and slightly less blackout ability, but if you want curtains that look higher end, these are a better choice. Maybe, if you need a bargain pair of curtains and love rod pockets, you might consider them. Otherwise, there are curtains with similar blackout capabilities, better fabric, and comparable prices.
