PRODUCT REVIEW: Permastik Blackout Material and Magnetic Adhesive Tape

I’ve had several people ask me about this window blackout option which can be purchased for a very reasonable price from Bunnings ($20.05 for 2m x 1m blind and $48.28 for 15m magnetic tape) so I thought I’d write up a review from my personal experience.

To set the scene, we live in a rental property and both kids (aged 4 and 2) share 1 bedroom. The bedroom has two small windows approximately 1m in height and 60cm wide.

In another house (overseas) we tried foil and cardboard to block light. The foil stuck to the windows (that was a mess to remove) and the cardboard kept warping from the heat on the windows. We then added blackout curtains which blocked most of the light (the curtains were still on rods which were sitting about 10cm from the frame so light was still able to enter the room).

During the chaos and move back to Australia, we cut our old blackout curtains to fit our current windows and stuck to the frame using the Command 3M picture hanging strips. It did a great job of darkening the room but it was never blacked out completely. After 2 years, the curtains kept falling down which was fine…until the sun started rising incredibly early in the morning which then woke the kids.

So I thought we’d test out this option to see if it suited us. Here’s my thoughts.

Pros:

  • Cheap (cost us $68.33) plus we have some left over material and adhesive tape.
  • The magnets mean that we can lift the material so that we can open the window during the day to let lovely fresh air in.
  • One side of the material is silver which should help reduce the air temperature in that room.
  • It looks neat (no unfinished fraying material from me being too lazy to overlock the edges of the cut up curtain).
  • The portions covered by the material were completely blacked out!

Cons:

  • The magnetic strip was a little challenging to attach to the window frame. Not because the strips didn’t work but because we were too lazy to remove our vertical blinds first. Yes, a few profanities were expressed at this time because we made it harder for ourselves than it should have been.
  • One of the magnetic strips keeps detatching from the frame – this is probably because we re-stuck it a few times when we couldn’t secure it in the correct spot on first attempt (see above point).
  • We thought we’d be clever and only cover the glass portion of our windows but as it turns out, the sun creeps in through tiny joints in our frames! If we did it again, we’d cover the entire frame.
  • The magnetic strips do not stick to the white side (only to the silver side) which means that the silver must face out. If you live in a strata block, I’d recommend attaching this on the inside of your blinds rather than closer to the glass.

Note: we haven’t been using this system for very long so I’m not sure if they will remove as easily from the frame as the 3M strips when the time comes that we have to move.

In summary – for the price, this system is fantastic, especially if you are renting or your budget is tight. You can easily open them to let in fresh air, the silver might manage some of the heat coming through the glass and they really do block the light. Just make sure you cover the whole frame and have removed any existing curtains/blind rails BEFORE you attach the magnetic strips – this will save you having to unstick and re-attach.

Happy sleeping in!