apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I just helped a friend with this problem and we came up with a great, modern, cost effective system.

We bought a large roll of adhesive window frosting film (the kind that you trim and roll on) and frosted the entire lower pane of her windows.

Now the view is obscured from forehead down and we installed simple matchstick blinds to hang over the top pane. She has been keeping the blinds open all day and getting lots of light and no peeping toms..... it looks nice too, but measure several times before cutting.

Solar Shades - WHITE ones will give you more day-time privacy than BLACK ones because of the reflective qualities of the color.

However, at night, you may not get the level of privacy you desire with solarshades (white or black) becuase of the back-lighting from your apt.

They also have different weaves of (tighter, looser) that can give you more or less privacy/light as you desire.

All that said, I could never find a set of swatches of solarshade fabric large enough to accurately judge the effect.

Well it depends on how much light you want to let in and if you want translucent or opaque. Order samples! But with solar shades at night people will be able to see in because the light on the inside will be greater than the light on the outside. Otherwise, these are the best bargain for opaque cellular shades I have found: http://bestblinds.com/blinds_category/light_filtering_cellular_shades_category.php
They are nice a nice soft material and not the paper-like stuff. But they will reduce the light down to a soft glow.

Growing up we got the honeycomb shades, they do exactly what you're looking for, let a decent amount of light in without letting people see in (or out).

try pearl river mart in soho. seriously cheap bamboo-woven blinds, beautiful and easy.

I'm unsure what solarshades look like, but have you considered shades that start at the bottom of the windowframe and scroll upward? It's the same concept as applying a film to the window--obscuring one's naughty bits while letting sunlight in from above--only with shades.

B

I live on a ground floor with all the same light/privacy/budget issues. My first solution was to buy sheets of heavy beautifully patterned hand-made paper at Kates Paperie, cut them to size and Scotch tape them to the bottom window panes. It worked like a charm and they lasted several years. I also had full length linen curtains from Pottery Barn that I closed at night to keep people from looking in.

Now I have cafe curtains on the bottom panes -- half curtains kept in place with a cheap metal rod. This also works beautifully and it means I can also open them up and look out on occasion.

www.theshadestore.com

they are super helpful and their prices are competitive. excellent customer service. you do have to measure accurately and install yourself. i bought their solar shades. they are great. they come in varying degrees density for letting in different amounts of light.

There have been several discussions on the boards recently about temporary frosted stick-on panels that let in a lot of light but help w/ privacy. Perhaps this could work on (at least the bottom half of) your windows?

Maybe I'm a cheapskate, but I don't find most of those suggestions very affordable. I wanted a similar solution, and also wanted to be able to see the old leaded glass design on my windows. So I created custom-fit screens, using frosted mylar paper, and square dowels that simply fit snugly into the bottom half of the window frame.

My affordable solution was to go to home depot and get your basic pulldown shades in white They come in different light filerting thicknesses. You should also be able to get hardware to rig them upside down. They have lasted me over 6 years, look great, let light in and are both modern and classic at the same time...very clean look. each one was less than $10.00

Another option would be double curtains with an inner layer of light linen or muslin or some other semi transparent fabric (I've found cheap sheets to work well) daytime with something thicker on the outer layer for more privacy at for night. More classic and less modern, but you could find fabric that works well. I've found some great old barkcloth curtains cheap in thriftstores in cool coloers like charteuse and dusty blue.

Depending on your windows you could also get those horizontal panels that Ikea and others carry that allow different light/privacy options

Finally, rice paper shades can work well and they are cheap...

I got plain old hardware store roller blinds and mounted them 1/3 down the window - light AND privacy.

I wouldn't want to frost my windows because sometimes I want to look out them, just to what is making a racket outside my door...

i just finished installing the frost stuff from ikea. i did the bottom panel only and left the top panel so i could still get light and see clouds. im really happy with the result.

The "Enje" roller blind from Ikea is inexpensive, sturdy, easy to install, and looks pretty much like the shade in the picture above (except Ikea's version is bright white). I've been very happy with them.

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?topcategoryId=15594&catalogId=10103&storeId=12&productId=49065&langId=-1&categoryId=15847&chosenPartNumber=60093572

Check out www.purlfrost.com.......they make exquisite window films!

Where can I get plain frost film in NYC?

thanks so much everyone! i decided to go with honeycomb shades that have a top-down option from blinds.com -- according to froogle it was the cheapest option for these kinds of blinds. thanks again for all your helpful advice!

This is what net curtains are for...

Vellum. Works every time. I work for an architect and take home rolls of vellum that are too small to use in the plotters. Cut neatly, they make very clean, simple privacy coverings for windows or french doors, allow sunlight to filter through and keep wandering eyes out.

I always like to go with as little window covering as possible--but my parents live in a modern house with floor to ceiling windows (on a fairly wooded lot set back from a street where there are no pedestrians) so maybe I got used to it as a child.

I just lived in a ground floor brownstone--our windows were literally on street level (the bottom of the window hit the sidewalk). They were tall windows so we got cheap rice paper blinds from pearl river. The blinds didn't hold up very well--they warped after one winter--but we found we didn't use them as much as we thought we would. We didn't get a lot of light anyway so even filtering the light exacerbated the cave like conditions in the middle of the apartment. What we discovered is that people can't really see in all that much when your windows are low (the top of the window was at eye level). We turned all the lights on one night and went outside to get an idea of what people could really see. We discovered that for privacy in all but the first 3 feet of the apartment we just had to lower the blinds 3/4 of the way down. Of course if people really tried to see in they could but usually they don't.

Anyway, I think the same is probably true of apartments that are higher up--you often feel more exposed than you actually are. We just moved to a second floor apartment with huge windows so tonight we are going to conduct the light test to see what works for this apartment. The biggest risk is the people in apartments directly across from you. We have identical apartments across from us so the windows line up perfectly but they all keep their blinds closed 24-7 so maybe we won't worry so much............

I just came across these adhesive films by British designer Emma Jeffs. Some very nice patterns on these frosted window coverings - have a look:

http://www.surfacematerialdesign.co.uk/

http://2jane.com/searchresult.aspx?categoryID=61

What about shoji screens (or even 'faux' shoji screens) ? i have the same situation. ground floor, with windows available for peering in and casing the place(casing? checking my place out for theft worthiness). I was thinking or two layers of curtains, one light (and thin) , the other dark ( and a thicker fabric) but I have yet to move on that.
What are those plastic(?) mirrored window covering that stores sometimes use? looked for them to no avail.

I have recently grappled with this issue myself as I live in a condo (Chicago area) and don't want to see my neighbors accross the street (and vice versa) yet want to have light and sky and trees in the windows. My solution was to buy artist's canvas stretchers at JoAnn fabrics and a few yards of white fabric. I stretched the fabric over the wooden "frames", stapled and voila, panels that I have leaned in the widows, secured with fishing line from above. About 18 inches of window is open on top. I've used three panels on the big living room window (81+ inches wide) so I can remove one or both of the side panels for ventilation or dog-looking-out-while-people-are away-at-work conveniences. In the open top space I hung closet rods (white) and from them plants with simple string - quite a striking mix of greenery and simplicity - brings light and life to the whole place. I will try again to take photos but the ones I have taken thus far have not turned out because I haven't figured out the lighing - when I take the pictures in the daytime they turn out so dark because of the light from the windows (!) - either a night photo or a different camera may be the solution...

As a child, we lived in a japanese architurally inspired home in Seattle, designed by my uncle. The challenge was to find window coverings for the long skinny windows that went from floor to ceiling. The solution: install a bamboo venetian blind at the bottom of the window, run a cord up to a pulley at the top of the window, and run the cord back down within reaching distance. (Note: not a good idea around small children, risk of entanglement and strangulation). This resulted in a shade that could be pulled up to the height you wanted, still allow a view and sunlight to flood the room. It was a beautifully simple solution.