Our apartment came with a functional but fusty handmade curtain over the glass-paned front door. For two and half years we ignored it. But stymied by the (long overdue) prospect of washing the thing and inspired by the window-film designs from this (and this and this) post a while back, a front-door makeover project was born.
First, the before: likely a previous tenant's clever solution, the rod itself was a scrap piece of bamboo, the bottom of the curtain edged in cheap brown velvet attached by loops of turquoise ribbon. A valiant try, but poorly constructed and now old, stained and falling apart.
After researching the options for pattern and design, we stumbled on Brume's made-to-order window film offering customization with your own letters and numbers. We live on the top floor of a cottage in Seattle, and though we have our own entrance with a separate house number, we don't have that number posted anywhere. Insert a-ha moment here.
Instead of buying the custom film from Brume, we went to Lowes and spent $30 on Gila window film and supplies (film spray, squeegee, blades), and printed a stencil in Word. Before cutting into the final sheet of film, we practiced cutting the numbers 3 or 4 times.
The uncovered space along the bottom is for our cat, who used to duck under the curtain and climb on the sill to watch passing wildlife and greet us as we approached the door coming home. The film still comes a little lower than her eye height when she's up on her back legs, and it gives us a little pang to watch her hunch down to see out now.
But not having that dingy curtain there is so worth it.
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Looks great.
view southernwayfarer's profile
Looks wonderful!
I just put up some Gila window film a little less than halfway up my patio doors (to hide the street below) and it gives my space and loft feel. Love it!!!
Amazing job on the numbers btw...I can see how that would be very difficult.
view NLtoNUtoNC's profile
Very sharp! Of course, it would look better if you'd covered the entire window, but I understand your desire to keep your cat happy.
view Nougat's profile
What a great solution! It looks amazing.
view Lexo's profile
If you left a cat shaped cutout at the bottom, would the cat look out of it and fill the opening? That would be awesome.
view morte100's profile
morte100--that's hilarious.
Danielle--it looks great. I have the same ikea bins by my back door. Along with little hooks for pup-sized jackets, they're my doggie landing strip.
view brittanykate's profile
dig it!!
view denise123's profile
That's the perfect solution for my bedroom. I dread opening my blinds to view the neighbor's unsightly yard, so this would work great.
view miyagisan's profile
great idea!
view crash's profile
It looks great, and PS I really love morte100's idea!
view Aulaire's profile
THANK YOU!!! I was trying to figure out what to do with my front door!!
view DD104's profile
this looks amazing! I did something similar, with textured contact paper (only around $5 at Lowes) it was right next to the window "films". It has a cool, retro box pattern in it, let's the light in but no peeping Toms. I also used it in the bottom panel of my bathroom window so i can still see the trees in the top part, i get the privacy with the neat look and natural light. I love it so much. It doesn't look as high-end and custom as yours, but serves the same purpose :)
great job!
view Stephvixen's profile
Thanks for the great feedback everyone! morte100 -- your idea is perfect. I really wish I had done that now, and I still might just do it.
Our other idea (we thought of it after we were all done though) was to go to the bottom of the door, but leave a higher stripe open.
Stephvixen -- we were planning on doing our bathroom window exactly as you've described. We might use a patterned film, though.
Thanks again!
view Dani's profile
nice work--this looks great!
view elkanikkole's profile