The $6 IKEA Find That Cools My Room By 5 Degrees During Heat Waves

I grew up in a wooded area of Long Island, where glaring sunlight was never an issue and privacy was a given. Curtains were mostly decorative and sheer. After I moved cross-country to urban San Diego, I realized that the sheer curtains I had grown up with would not cut it. I needed something that would provide privacy as well as offer protection from solar heat, which notably had more of an impact on my home’s interior temperature in this new locale.

But I had a problem: Window treatments are notoriously expensive. Custom ones can cost between $167 to $1,874 per window, according to Angi estimates. That means my south-facing bedroom’s double window could easily cost over $300 to outfit, even on the low end of those estimates. 

Of course, I had no intention of installing custom blinds in my rental home. So I looked to a more affordable solution: blackout curtains. Even still, the blackout curtains I found online and shopping in person just weren’t right for my space. I couldn’t find any that seemed to fit the look that I was going for and that were within my price range. I also wanted to sometimes let filtered light into the bedroom. So, I went to IKEA.  

When I found the cut-to-size adhesive SCHOTTIS blackout blinds from IKEA, I was intrigued by the $6 price tag. If I didn’t like them, I figured, the cost to try them out was low enough that I was willing to take the risk. 

The SCHOTTIS comes in one size: 39 ¼ inches wide by 74 ¾ inches long. There is no hardware. The shade is made of a durable synthetic fabric with an adhesive strip. To install the shade, you simply measure the interior top frame of your window, cut the shade to size using a pair of sharp scissors or a box cutter blade, remove the strip, and press the shade into place. The package also comes with a hook-and-loop fastener that you can adhere to the bottom interior of your window to keep it closed, and two clips for when you want to keep the shade open. The shiny black side should face outdoors.

There are two shade options available. The blackout shade is $5.99, and the white privacy shade that dims sunlight is $4.99. 

The SCHOTTIS blinds excel at keeping out solar heat. During a heatwave in my first summer in San Diego, I spent an afternoon taping aluminum foil over all of the south- and west-facing windows in my apartment. It took an annoyingly long time and was wasteful. The IKEA SCHOTTIS, meanwhile, took just a few minutes to set up per window.

While my house definitely still gets hot in the summer, the SCHOTTIS blinds help to keep the temperature in my bedroom down by probably five or so degrees on particularly hot days. And since the air conditioner isn’t competing with consistent solar heat entering the home, it works a lot more efficiently. I haven’t kept diligent records of my utility costs before and after installing these shades, but I did notice that we were spending less on electricity during the summer months after we put them in. 

When I first purchased the SCHOTTIS, I was expecting them to be a temporary solution. I figured that by the same time the following year, I would have found a solution to solar heat that was more attractive. Yet, 12 months later, I have no plans of taking these down while I still live in this rental house. They’re quite durable and honestly so practical. 

I also have the white sunlight dimming SCHOTTIS shades in my living room. Originally built in the 1940s, my house is very close to the street. Our living room window is quite literally right up against the sidewalk. For years I tried to find a practical and attractive solution for this east-facing window, which receives great morning light that I didn’t want to completely block with a blackout curtain. But the sheer curtains didn’t offer the privacy that I needed either. SCHOTTIS offers the perfect combination of light filtering and total privacy. 

These shades aren’t perfect. The white ones aren’t ugly by any means; they’re functional, and they’re affordable. The black ones, however, do kind of clash with my bedroom’s style. IKEA lists the color as dark gray, but they certainly read as black in person. Black can be a harsh color, especially for my bedroom which mostly consists of light blues, greens, and yellows. I would be willing to spend a little more money for a white blackout option. 

However, I appreciate that the interior window mount design allowed me more flexibility in selecting a curtain. I wasn’t limited to blackout curtains, which meant I could choose a light filtering cotton curtain in a design that I really liked. 

I think these shades are perfect for renters and homeowners who are looking for a convenient, functional, and affordable solution. They’re cheap enough that they can also offer a temporary window treatment for those who just moved into a new place and aren’t ready to commit to a curtain or shade yet. 

Ultimately, you get what you pay for. These work great at blocking out heat, but they’re five and six bucks. They can be annoying to clip up, and sometimes the clips release themselves from a gust of wind. Those who are willing to spend a few hundred dollars will be able to find a more permanent, more attractive, and easier-to-maneuver shade. 

Buy: IKEA SCHOTTIS Blackout Blinds, $5–6