IKEA BENGTA black out curtains for dark cloth

I was in IKEA with the family yesterday and they had a big stack of BENGTA blackout curtains they are selling as discontinued. I'd not seen these before. They are really opaque and light weight (beware less black versions are available) and would be ideal if you want to make a focus cloth to your own specification. The may also work as bellows material or general blackout for alt printing or over a darkroom door etc..

I am going to make version 3 of my focussing cloth this evening.

It looks like they are discontinuing this product so if you are passing an IKEA it may be worth popping in and picking one up for future use - your regions may vary of course...

Neat! I wonder if the blackout layer is a kind of polymer coating that's liable to flaking off of the underlying weave. It kind of looks that way. May not be ideal for bellows or other things that move a lot. As static blackout material, it looks really promising!

I wonder how lightproof they are for darkroom purposes? The reason I wonder is that a lot of blinds/curtain shops sell so-called blackout curtains/blinds for the likes of a child's bedroom or someone working nightshifts and sleeping during the day but talking to a installer of such material, he said that they were far from darkroom standard in terms of creating total darkness for the likes of windows that were exposed to daylight

That's not to say that as a curtain for a darkroom door that isn't exposed to direct daylight or sunlight and is used for printing it won't work, just that such material may be called "blackout" curtains but be of a standard that may not be suitable for windows or be able to create total darkness

pentaxuser

At that price, certainly worth a try. I’ll check my local one for some this week.