If you're living in a noisy area, it can be challenging to get a good night's sleep or concentrate while working from home. Unfortunately, windows are one of the most significant culprits when it comes to letting noise in. Sound waves have a much easier time passing through a thin piece of glass, so windows are letting more than light enter your home. However, armed with the right soundproofing materials, you can significantly reduce noise coming through your windows.

One popular option is to use some sort of blanket. It’s an attractive idea. Take something you have lying around the home and hang it over your window. Boom! Soundproofed it! But you can’t just use any old blanket you have lying around to soundproof your window, so we’re going to walk you through what works and what doesn’t for window soundproofing.

In this article, we'll explain why curtains and regular blankets are not good options for soundproofing. We will also go over some highly effective materials for reducing noise through your windows.

Types Of Noise You’re Dealing With In A Window

Your window is a weak point in a room when it comes to soundproofing, so your wall can only perform as well as the window. If you live near a busy street, you may be hearing a lot of road noise, dogs barking, or construction sounds. Air conditioning units, pool pumps, and generators can also create a lot of noise that can easily pass through your window.

These are all examples of airborne noise, which is any type of sound that travels through the air. For a barrier to be effective at blocking airborne noise, it needs to be dense and airtight, which is why the window blocks so much less sound than the wall around it.

There are several ways to improve the soundproofing capability of a window, but one popular method is to use a soundproof blanket.

Back to those Fantastic Frame Window Inserts

The Quiet Quilt 2-Sided Blanket is a solid option for soundproofing your window. But by far, the best method is our Fantastic Frame Soundproof Window Inserts. This product is lightweight, easy to install, and completely blends into the window once installed! The technology engineered into the frames allows you to get up to an 80% noise reduction with the Fantastic Frame Window Inserts - even low frequency noises which are the hardest to block! So, you can say goodbye to the loud road and mechanical noises keeping you up at night.

As an added bonus, these window inserts are also excellent thermal insulators. Installing these on every window in your home can reduce your energy consumption by 40-50%! Efficiency, baby!

Curtains And Normal Blankets Are Not A Good Option

As we mentioned above, a soundproofing material needs to be dense enough to actually stop sound from passing through it. Curtains are not dense enough to block sound and will do very little in terms of noise reduction. Many websites will claim that placing thick curtains over your windows is “an affordable way to reduce window noise.” As we showed in our table above… this is true, but you have to keep your expectations low. If you do lightweight curtains and block 10% of the noise, most people won’t even perceive the difference.

We see people try all types of blankets (moving blankets, etc). For people that go down that path, we understand. You badly want some relief! Just remember two basics of soundproofing: dense material with an airtight installation. Combine that with some sort of sound machine to mask the outdoor noise and you may get enough relief to improve your sleep. If you're considering sound blankets vs moving blankets, we recommend you read our article on the topic!

Our Blanket Recommendation: Quiet Quilt 2-Sided Barrier Blanket

The Quiet Quilt 2-Sided Barrier Blanket is the best option if you’re looking for a soundproof blanket. We line the vinyl blanket with a sheet of mass loaded vinyl to add density. We then add grommets on the top, which simplifies the install over your window. Due to the weight, we recommend screwing a support into the studs and then hanging the blanket on hooks you screw into that support. For a large window, the Quiet Quilt blanket includes Velcro so you can hook them to each other. Always extend the blanket past the edge of the window unit.

Because the 4’ x 8’ Quiet Quilt 2-Sided Blanket weighs about 50 lbs, you can expect to reduce noise through the typical residential window by 8-10 decibels. That’s 40-50% of the perceived noise!

Quiet Quilt™ 2-Sided Barrier Blanket

How to Soundproof Windows

How to Reduce Noise from Outside Window