Whoever designed the apartment complex I’m living in is a moron, my balcony and sliding glass door are 20 feet from the next apartment structure. I put up a bamboo privacy shade, but at night the light from inside my house allows them to see through the bamboo curtain. I’ve thought of putting a cloth of some sort over it at night, but it rains all the time here and it would become modly and patchy really fast.
What can I use? I was thinking maybe a tarp could work, but I’m not sure if they are opaque enough. That maybe a shadow outline would be viewable still. Sort of like when people are camping in a tent and if they have a flashlight on inside you can see dark shadows of them from the outside.
You can buy blackout material (kind of a lightweight rubbery feeling cottony cream colored or white sheeting) for about $4 or $5 a yard, 60 inches wide, at any shop that sells drapery fabrics, like Joann’s Fabrics chains in the US. It is completely lightproof — I’ve used to to make blackout curtains for our camping trailer and it really does block any view in or out, even when back-lit. It would probably hold up reasonably well outdoors, especially if you made a double layer and reinforced the edges with a heavy twill tape binding so the wind did not shred it. Get it sewn with dacron thread (more UV resistant). It doesn’t really absorb water so I don’t think it would collect mold. Mold hates sunlight so if you allowed it to dry in the sun it ought to be OK. The fabric is light enough that you should be able to machine wash it if it starts to look cruddy.
Excellent stuff — try it and it should work.