I Hung a Duvet Cover on My Curtain Rod to See if It Really Works as a Room Cooling Trick

My New York City apartment has retrofitted central air and heat, which can be a blessing even though it’s the loudest AC I’ve ever encountered anywhere and the airflow can be uneven and inconsistent. When I’m next to a window, it’s hard to ignore the blazing sun — even with my curtains drawn and the AC running. There are windows directly by my head when I sleep, so this can get rather irksome — especially if I want to take a midday nap. 

Recently my eyes have been opened to all the creative ways people try to keep the heat from entering their home and staying cool in the summertime. So when I heard about the cooling potential of a duvet cover against your window, I knew I had to give it a shot.

According to multiple videos I’ve seen on the internet, hanging a duvet cover on your curtain rod will give you an extra protective layer alongside your curtains, ultimately keeping your room cooler by blocking and reflecting some of the heat. You can see content creators Laura de Barra and Claire of Sister Pledge Cleans show off their duvet-laden curtains, achieved by buttoning the bedding (ideally a white cotton duvet cover, as black can absorb heat) to the curtain rod. 

“This isn’t really a new idea, people have been using duvets, blankets, and sheets to cover windows for years but with the heatwave here I thought it was worth sharing!” writes Claire, adding that “it won’t replace air conditioning, but it helps keep your room a lot cooler, especially if you close your curtains and windows before the sun starts heating the room.”

I had some hesitations about trying this duvet cover hack. My duvet cover has ties on each corner, instead of buttons, and I have smaller-than-average bedroom windows and even smaller curtains. I tried attaching and tying the duvet ties to the rod at equal intervals, but instead of seeing a subtle layer of added fabric, my duvet cover hung loose and irregularly like some kind of large pink parachute. I adjusted the ties and folds, but it seemed destined to look this way. It did cover most of my windows, though, so I decided to run with it.

In de Barra’s video, she says you can “feel the difference in minutes,” and this did actually prove largely true. Before I hung my duvet up, I placed my hand in front of my window with the curtains drawn to see if I could feel heat, and I could. Once the duvet cover was hung, I felt no heat coming through. It was hard to focus entirely on temperature because the odd look of the hanging fabric changed the room’s whole vibe — it felt more like a cave, and getting in bed reminded me of being in a blanket fort. So the next day, I tried another method: draping the duvet cover on my curtain rod with the edges facing downward, like a towel on a towel rack. It looked a lot more normal, but it also kinda looked like I was hiding from someone. (Honestly, I preferred the weird parachute look.)

As interesting as it was to try, I’m not sure if I’ll be regularly attaching my current duvet cover to my curtain rod. However, it was a fun experiment and has given me a renewed motivation to replace my transparent, too-short curtains with more effective ones (something I’ve been procrastinating on for literal years), so I’d say it was worth it.

Plus, another thing I learned from this experience is that there’s a history of people using various … creative tactics to help cool their house down. Some people cover their windows with tinfoil to ward off warmth, which seems like a bit of a buzzkill even if it does help. At least my wonky duvet cover looked interesting.