cheap reflective material question

i bought some reflective material from the dollar store and put it over a window screen. it worked well but since there is nothing on the other side but wire mesh i can see right through it.its like a shiny silver window. im assuming this is bad and that light will pass through and not reflect but want to make sure before i rule it out and go back to brainstorming. Im trying to set up my first Veg closet and i cant paint or ruin the paint on the walls.any help is greatly appritiated. the space is 3.5 x 4.5 x 8 feet. the light is a 400w HPS. Closet has attic access

Mylar is the best hands down, you can check if light is coming through by covering your window with it, turning off all the lights and blocking any other light from coming in the room. If you can still see light, its not working.

I guess it depends on what you're using it for. Since it's for a veg room, you're not worried about light getting IN to your grow room (and disrupting a light cycle), right? You just want a material that's REFLECTIVE - so you can increase the amount of light the plants see - and cheap enough to hang on all the walls of your grow space? In that case, the material you bought already MIGHT still be reflective enough when it's hanging on the wall of your closet or some other SOLID surface - like plywood, or that white cardboard stuff (what's that called, poster board?) that they sell in crafts stores. You might try taping it to something other than a window screen (like the wall of your closet) and see if it actually makes the space look brighter then how it looks without. Then again, maybe you could use just the posterboard against the walls of the closet and skip the extra materials.

Anyways, mylar is good...as is the 6-mil black-and-white poly that's also available at many hydroponic shops. Both can be stapled or taped to walls and removed with little or no damage to the paint job. You can't buy either of these at the dollar store, unfortunately. They'll cost you a few bucks more. If you want to do it on the cheap, pick up a few sheets of posterboard, prop 'em up around your plants and see if it makes the leaves look "brighter." Probably shouldn't cost too much.