Top Down Day Night Shades

[cephoto]

I'm thinking about mounting my day/night shades upside down to make them top down. I often want light but privacy and given the height of our homes, top down shades would really be an asset and I don't see why mounting my day/night shades that way would be a problem.
Any thoughts?

[Devilishjim]

I think you may have a bright idea let us know how it works. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't

[2gypsies]

Top down are sold in stores and I don't know what the difference might be. You might want to go to a window coverings store and look at them to see if yours are doable. Good luck. It's a good idea for RVs.

[LFDR3116]

Our windows are shaded and you really cannot see into the rv very well. The windshield would be the area people could see in. Have you gone outside and walked past your rv to see if you can actually see in? Try it at night too.

 

We usually have the large awning out, and have awnings over the slideouts, so someone would have to walk up closer to the rv to see beyond the awnings.

[dewilso]

I put top down-bottom up blackout insulating cellular shades in the bedroom of the Foretravel. GREAT, is the only way to describe them in our opinion. Totally closed they are true blackouts and provide added insulation, down at the top, privacy and ventilation.

[Devilishjim]

Our windows are shaded and you really cannot see into the rv very well. The windshield would be the area people could see in. Have you gone outside and walked past your rv to see if you can actually see in? Try it at night too.

You can see into ours if the lights are on at night

[budeneighe]

My skylight over the shower had a regular day/night shade that was mounted horizontally and that worked OK. From what I have seen, the two parters could be reworked to put the daylight part above rather than below the more opaque part so you had some visability when they were all down but blocked when only half down.

 

The one objection I would have with flipping them upside down is that when they are open there will be the whole collapsed shade in the way across the bottom of the window. How much that might be in the way would depend on how tall the window opening is and what you have in front/below the window on the inside.

 

If you actually compare visibility from the outside at night, there is not much difference between looking through the "day" section and having it wide open.

 

Honestly, I still like the accordian shades over everything else but really like the cordless versions much better. Most brands do make clips to hold the bottom of these from clacking around when they are down.

 

We are looking into this right now, mostly for the bedroom. Need blackouts but trying to get a feel for whether the multi cell shades actually offer much extra value. Cold air is going to fall out from behind them, anyway, so the value might be in reducing the direct radiation type heat from outside.

[2gypsies]

There are true blackout pleated shades. We bought them at a shade store for the bedroom which we need absolutely dark. You can't see anything from the outside with the light on and no bright camp lights from the inside when trying to sleep. We'd highly recommend true blackout shades for the bedroom.

[budeneighe]

For the short-term we bought a couple of Blackout Redi-shades from WalMart for about $6 apiece. They are not a permanent solution but will definitely work until you can figure out exactly what you want to do.

 

They are pleated paper with no cords and are held at the open/closed level you want by a couple of clips over the remaining collapsed bunch of pleats. They are mounted with a peel-and-stick strip across the top end. I just stuck it to the front surface of the existing day/night shade top bar up behind the valance. Over time they will show handling wear. Raising and lowering simultaneoously with two hands is recommended to reduce this wear.

 

We have had them up for nearly a year raising and lowering them daily. They immediately convinced us that we wanted a permanent blackout solution but so far we have not decided how much we are willing to spend to do it. For $6, we may just replace them rather than spend $80 - $260.

 

I am looking into finding replacement blackout fabric to swap with the bottom panel. I am willing to do a lot of the work myself over paying outrageous $$ for the ultimate solutions. Another thought is to just swap the fabric between the top and bottom panels and if you want, just don't put the top panel in. Theoretically, I think this would work. I have seen plenty of D/N shades with fabric only in the lower section so you can do exactly what you are talking about and block from the bottom up or open them all the way to the top.