Woman Uses Simple Home Depot Finds To Cover Windows And Block Out Texas Heat

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With the summer of 2026 being the warmest ever recorded (per the National Centers for Environmental Information), it's no surprise people had to do whatever it takes to beat the heat. Having become fed up with what she calls the "ridiculous" Texas heat, TikTok user Shianne / The Crafty Goth decided to do something about it. She went to The Home Depot to buy some wood, paint, and window screen then set about making light-blocking screens for all her windows. In keeping with her goth design scheme, she chose black screens to absorb sunlight and radiate it back outward. 

Shianne constructed a wood frame to fit each window, painted it black, then stretched out the screen fabric and stapled it to the frame. The screen she used was Phifer Super Solar Screen from Home Depot which has a 4.8-star rating from over 450 customers. Once she completed a screen, she mounted it to the windows. She used screws to attach the screens to the window frames, which could make them easier to take down for the winter than if she had used a nail gun. She also painted the window frames black to match the screens and her goth aesthetic.  

Whenever you construct a rectangular frame with wood, you've got the problem of how to connect the corners. One common method is to miter the ends of the frame pieces at 45 degrees and join the corners with glue and some kind of fastener. However, Shianne drilled a pilot hole for a screw at an angle into each corner, then use a bigger drill bit to make a countersink for the screw head. Sunlight shrinks wood, making frame separation likely after prolonged sun exposure, but this variation on drilling pocket holes should prevent that. Adding glue could also reinforce these joints. 

@thecraftygoth

After a $385 electric bill I took matters into my own hands and started building window screens that block 90% of the sun's heat. Shoutout to @The Home Depot again for the wood, paint, and screen. #gothityourself #giy #bellushall #doityourself

♬ original sound – Shianne / The Crafty Goth

Shianne also added a tip for anyone fabricating a screen on a wooden frame, and it's a useful bit of information for installing screens in general: Don't trim the screen until after you've pulled it tight. If you trim it before, you have nothing to grip, and it's essential to get the screen tight, not only for looks, but for the stability of the frame. This is definitely easier to do if you have a helper although she was able to do it on her own.

When you mount shade screens outdoors, it's often necessary to take them down in winter to get more sun in the house. A simple modification to Shianne's design would make this easier. Build the shade frame to fit the window's trim. Install rotating flush clips (like the ones used for storm windows) on the trim to hold the screens. That way, you won't need a drill to mount or remove them, and you won't lose any screws. This YouTube video by Salt River Project gives an idea of how the installation would look and you can get 6 Primeline flush clips for $1.85 at Home Depot.

Also, not everyone lives in the Texas heat, where you need day-long sun protection during the summer months. For occasional protection, or if your HOA prohibits outdoor screens, an indoor shade might be a better idea, and a dark one provides better transparency than a light one. In fact, as Shianne points out in the second video below, the view through the black shade she used is excellent.

@thecraftygoth

Hey hey hey...come in close, you'll want to hear this: solar screens are a type of woven window screen that are made to keep your house cooler. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. I still have the two upper windows to cover, but my entire body hurts from building these AND I ran out of screen on the last one so I gotta take a break to recover and get more materials. #gothityourself #giy #bellushall #doityourself #homerenovation

♬ original sound – Shianne / The Crafty Goth

An indoor screen, however, presents the danger of thermal stress and cracking glass caused by the heat a black screen radiates back toward the window. A simple mitigating strategy might be to hang light, semi-transparent type curtains between the window and the screen to reflect some of the incoming sunlight. For this to work, you'd have to install the curtains inside the window's trim while the indoor screen will be installed on it (like Shianne's). The double coverage may reduce visibility somewhat, but not completely. You can also purchase indoor solar screens that allow the window to breathe, or try one of a number of other window treatments to block the sun.