[glynnw]

Today I ordered 4 room blackening shades from Penney's for just a little over $50 with tax and shipping.  This price is ridiculously low, assuming the blinds are of any quality at all. After retiring ( I thought) from the record biz I returned to Louisiana where I found I needed employment to get health insurance, so I spent a couple of years working for one of the large window covering manufacturers training the big box store employees in my area about their products, so I am pretty qualified to install these puppies.  My BenQ projector is quite bright, but this addition to the room should make daytime viewing a pleasure.  Formula 1, anyone?  OK, I am single.  Makes it easier to choose these design options.

[Phil A]

I have two projectors (master bedroom and main system - Epson 5030 and 8350 and have an old BenQW5000 sitting in the garage I should sell) and I have one room with a TV that I keep dark (blinds + poster board + room darkening curtains for the one window) in case I want to watch during the day.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Sounds like you're on the right track. 
In my room, I attached some nice fabric to a piece of 1/4" plywood that's "just a hair" smaller than the window frame.
I can install and remove the "shade" in about three seconds, yet still blocks 98% of the light.

[loving_it]

I looked at a bunch of shades and the cost , one day I was shopping with the wife and found some room darkening shade material and thought of this idea , since I never open the windows in this room it worked out fine 18.00 for 6 windows and room is 100% pitch dark - I popped the screens out and used a thin strip of carpet tape to hold the material on  couldn't be happier

[macrojack]

Well, I'm the big spender (or fool) in this group. We just had three Graber black out shades designed for our west facing living room windows and the tab was close to $700 for all three. They look great and work well. I bought them off a recommendation from a friend. They are supposed to have very good thermal insulation properties. I'll let you know what they do in the winter. Right now they help keep that damnable desert sun out of the LR. The glare is horrific and the solar gain enormously counterproductive so I don't care what it cost to cure that.

[glynnw]

You're surely no fool if it makes you happy.  In my above mentioned employment in the window coverings business, I worked for Spring which own Graber, and I was very familiar with their line.  Graber was our top product so you are dealing in some quality that should be trouble-free for a long time.  Sometimes money well spent is a good deal.

[jpm]

Most decorative curtains are poor at both room darkening and insulation. Most blackout curtains tend to be plain and boring.

If you find a good local alterations business, you can have them line decorative curtains and get them hemmed to the correct length at the same time.  Typically they won't be worried (and may even prefer) that you provide the blackout material itself which is pretty inexpensive.

This approach usually works out to be quite a bit more cost effective than going 100% custom but gets you a comparable or better result.

Kudos for the screen modification - very creative!