Blackout cloth is used to line curtains to block the light so you can sleep in on a sunny morning. Blackout cloth is white or cream colored; it’s not black like you might assume.
A friend had cautioned me about being sure to not get anything translucent as he had some strange effects from his screen where the image was reflecting from the wall and back through his screen. Even without that, any light that penetrates the screen is not coming back to the viewer and is wasted.
I beamed the largest in focus image I could on my wall and measured. I got 8 feet of blackout cloth (it’s was 54 inches wide), three 8 foot 1x4s and a 2×4 foot piece of light plywood.
The plywood was cut into four triangles. The 1×4′s were cut so they fit together to match my measurements and screwed together in a rectangle using the plywood triangles on the corners.
I spread the fabric out on a clean surface, coated side down and carefully lay the 1×4 frame on top of it. I wrapped the fabric over the frame, stapled it to the wood and trimmed the surplus fabric. To mount the result to the wall I used small angle brackets; they were screwed into the wall in line with the top and bottom of the screen, then I slid the screen in between them and screwed directly into the top and bottom of the screen so the brackets were concealed.
I’m very pleased with the results.
Easy Automatic Control for Holiday Lights
We put up the Halloween lights over the weekend and I was reflecting that these timers really help make it an easy and no fuss set up.
It turns everything on at sundown and stays on as many hours as you specify. You can also just leave in on dusk to dawn or simply on or off for debugging.
It’s really nice enjoy your own lights if you come home after dark plus I feel better about using the energy since I minimize it by only having on for a few hours each night.
Coleman Cable 13547 6-Outlet Power Stake with Light Sensor and 6-Foot Cord