If you've had the utter joy (and desperation) of parenting through the first five years of a child's life, you’ll know the daily cycle of hope and despair when it comes to sleep. Yours or theirs, it's always a challenge, it’s always at the wrong time, and there’s never enough of it. There’s the nap that ends too soon (writing off the next 24 hours because they’re now overtired), the dreaded danger nap (which always ends in tears), or the nap you take leaning over the cot, patting their warm back just fast enough to assure them you're still there, but slow enough not to stimulate them.
Sleep is exhausting.
That said, I have always loved my children’s bedtimes. Those few precious last minutes of the day, when the outside world is done and their little corner of our home is reset with its familiar, magical, warm glow. The magic of a shared story, or the privilege of hearing their worries as they process the day. There is something truly special about your child’s bedtime. And the hope that this might be the night they finally sleep through, as you gently close the door ("Not too far, Mummy!") never fades.
Whilst designing our range of children’s collections, I was so aware of the privilege it is to potentially set the stage for other exhausted mummies to share those golden moments — transitioning from the splashy chaos of bath time to sleepy heads on pillows.
The collections feature new friends for your little one to meet, characters ready to greet them in fluffy towels, warm and waiting for pyjamas and stories.
But of course, that warm golden glow of soft atmospheric lighting I so often imagine is, in reality, hard to achieve without effective blackout window treatments.
We've all tried and failed to secure sucker-cup blackout panels to the windows of a sunny nap space. I was once so desperate for my little one to sleep that I gaffa-taped a pair of my daughter’s curtains to the wall to block the sliver of light sneaking in around the edges. It promised outstanding results. Until, 15 minutes into the nap, the monitor delivered the sound of crying.
I returned to a well-lit, sunny room featuring a hot and upset small person, paint pulled off the walls, and curtains stuck to themselves in a sticky mess I never did manage to wash out.
So when I was developing the first nine children's collections, my thoughts turned to the exhausted, gaffa-tape-wielding version of myself. That moment of empathy (and the determination to create designs that parents and children love, that genuinely improve little ones’ spaces) played a part in our partnership with 24/7.
24/7’s range of made-to-measure blackout products, from rollers and Romans to full curtains, ensures that even the sunniest July evenings or bedrooms “blessed” with oversized, south-facing windows can finally be truly sleep secure.
Thanks to this partnership, you'll never again need to “go up the wooden hill” to bedtime armed with stories, milk, and gaffa tape.
Choosing the right window treatment for your child’s room should be playful, but I suggest always starting with blackout as a non-negotiable.
Roman blinds offer a clean, neat finish, keeping the space beneath the window free for furniture and toys. Personally, I like to install them to the front face of the reveal, overhanging each side by around 15 cm for better coverage.
Full-length curtains add a softness and sense of occasion to a child’s room. Not only do they help control heat loss, but they also make the perfect setting for your little one’s next Olivier-worthy entrance during the bedtime stage show!
Whether it’s the fun of the Dasching About Puppy print, the smile-raising Egg and Soldiers from King’s Breakfast, or the sheer ridiculousness of Dino Bunting from Jurassic Joust, whatever you choose for your little one’s room, my top tip remains:
Ditch the gaffa tape, and choose blackout every time.
