A Dark Room Is An Installation Job
Custom blockout curtains, made to measure and — the part that actually decides whether the room goes dark — hung so the light cannot get around them. Through Brisbane, the Gold Coast and down to Byron Bay, by the third generation of a family business trading since 1978.
Why Lusso, Brisbane & Gold Coast
Buy The Installation, Not The Lining
Every blockout curtain sold in Australia stops light through the fabric. That is the low bar, and every supplier clears it. What separates a dark room from a nearly dark one is the return at each end, the overlap in the middle and whether the track is set high and wide enough to cover the gap you cannot see in daylight.
The range
Local conditions
East-Facing Bedrooms Have A Deadline
In December the sun is up over the water before five, and it arrives at an angle that walks straight into an east-facing bedroom. That is the single most common reason someone on the Gold Coast rings us about blockout curtains, and it is also the reason the fabric spec matters less than the fit: at that angle the light comes in along the top edge and down the sides long before it comes through the cloth.
The other half of the problem is heat. A blockout curtain closed against a western wall in February is doing what it can, but by then the sun is already through the glass. Shading the outside of the window is what actually keeps the room cool — the Australian Government's Your Home guide to shading is blunt about it, and so are we. If that is your real problem, an outdoor blind or an awning will beat any curtain we could sell you.
So we ask which way the room faces before we talk fabric. It changes the answer more than the colour chart does.
The detail that matters
Three details turn a blockout curtain into a dark room
Light does not really come through a blockout curtain — it comes around it. So three details decide whether a room goes properly dark, and none of them is the fabric. They cost very little at the specification stage and cannot be added afterwards, which is exactly why a cheap curtain ends up being the expensive one.
A curtain that stops flat at the end of the track leaves a slot of daylight down each side of the window. A return bends the track back to the wall so the fabric closes against it. It is a few centimetres of track and it is the difference between dark and nearly dark.
Two curtains meeting in the centre need to overlap, not just touch, or you get a bright vertical line at 5am. The same goes for the hem: a curtain finishing at the sill leaves the wall below it lit, so in a bedroom we hang to the floor and set the track high, well above the reveal.
Anything cord-operated falls under the mandatory Australian standard for corded internal window coverings, which governs how a cord is secured and kept out of reach. In a nursery we would rather specify a wand or a motor than fit a cord you have to think about.
Brisbane & Gold Coast clients
They Had Them Hanging Perfectly
The reviews below are unedited. The first one is a repair on someone else's blockout curtains, which is a fair summary of how often the make-up is the problem rather than the fabric.
My block out curtains needed new runners, brackets & end caps to have them hanging in the right position, they were crooked & looked a mess. Ngu is very good, efficient & knows his craft. He had them hanging perfectly in…
David
Great friendly service. The boys were efficient and had some great ideas. Totally love my new curtains! Highly recommend!! Thanks Lusso
Nicky
Thank you to Deb and the team for their guidance in selecting the perfect blinds and curtains for our home. Prompt service, great workmanship and professional to deal with.
Michael & Louise
Where they go
What We'd Actually Specify
Floor length, track set high and wide, returns both ends, overlap in the centre. If the room faces east, that specification is not optional — it is the whole job.
QuoteSame specification, cordless operation. A daytime sleep in a bright room is the hardest test a blockout curtain gets, and it is the one people judge them on.
QuoteWall-to-wall rather than window-to-window. Covering the whole wall kills the reflected light off the plaster beside the window, which is what you actually see on the screen.
QuoteA blockout will save your floors and your furniture from the afternoon. It will not keep the room cool on its own — pair it with external shade or accept the trade-off honestly.
QuoteCeiling-fixed tracks are often out, so we work off the reveal and build the coverage into the make instead. Bring the strata rules to the measure and we will design around them.
QuoteHow it works
Three steps, quote in 48 hours
We come to you anywhere on the Gold Coast. Detailed quote within 24 to 48 hours, valid for 30 days — no deposit to get a price.
We need the dimensions and the aspect of the room before we can quote. Aspect is not a formality — it decides the specification.
Itemised component by component, so you can see where the money actually goes. Valid for 30 days.
Nothing starts until you are 100% comfortable with the selections. We fit them and we come back if they need us.
Where we work
Brisbane and the Gold Coast
From Byron Bay to Brisbane, across the whole Gold Coast and inland to the hinterland. If you're anywhere on that stretch, we'll come to you.
Not sure whether a curtain or a blind is the right answer? The sheer versus blockout comparison works through it, and blockout blinds solve the same problem a different way.
Before you ask
Same product, different spelling. Blackout is the American spelling and blockout is the one the Australian trade uses, and you will see block out written as two words as well. None of them describes a different fabric. What actually varies is the lining and, far more than people expect, how the curtain is hung.
The fabric does. The window does not. Most of the light left in a room with blockout curtains has come around the sides, over the top or under the hem, which is why we spend the measure talking about returns, overlap and where the track goes rather than about how dense the fabric is.
It depends on the drop, the width, the heading and the fabric, in roughly that order. We will not put a figure on a window we have not measured. You get an itemised quote within 24 to 48 hours of the measure, valid for 30 days, and no deposit is needed to get a price.
They help, and they are not insulation. A closed blockout curtain stops the sun landing on your floor and furniture, but the heat is already through the glass by then. Shading the outside of the window does far more, which is the whole argument for an awning or an outdoor blind on a western wall.
Yes, and it is the arrangement we fit most often. A double track carries a sheer at the front for daytime privacy and the blockout behind it for night and for sleep. One window, both jobs, and you are not choosing between a bright room and a private one.
They take the edge off, mostly by stopping reflections inside the room. They will not fix single glazing on a main road, and anyone telling you a curtain will is selling something. If noise is the actual problem, spend the money on the glass first.
Get in touch
Free measure & quote, Gold Coast wide
Tell us which rooms and we'll come to you with the fabric range, measure properly, and tell you honestly which windows need side tracks and which don't.
