Windows and privacy

taurusgb

Hello all - and a very happy new year!

Would appreciate some input on window dressing. We have a living room with a very large front and rear window, which is lovely and which lets in a huge amount of light - but is a bit like living in a goldfish bowl.

Until recently we had a voile curtain at the front to 'hide' behind, but I never really liked it - and I dont like net curtains either. Am thinking that blinds might be the way to go but the window is almost 10 foot wide and I don't think you can buy them that wide

Of course the other thing is I don't want to spend any more than I have to - well actually, to stay solvent I CAN'T spend much (New Year Resolution number 26 - "I will not spend money in 2007 unless absolutely essential )

Any ideas gratefully received!...can I also take this opportunity to thank everyone on this board for all their fabulous ideas and moneysaving tips during last year - I don't post much but I love to read the posts and have saved a fortune because of it - really, REALLY do appreciate you all - thanks :T

culpepper

we have the white plastic horizontal blinds you can buy in wilkinsons. Our windows are the casement type but 4 in a row so we have one large blind in the middle and 2 smaller side blinds. I also have 2 largeish pot plants to stop nosey parkers when we have the blinds open as anyone standing at the front door can look right in.

tigerlily

I have voile pannels at my front window but they are in a tab-top curtain style ontheir own track so I can open and close them easily, on other windows I have bamboo blinds which when closed do let light in.

Pipkin

Hi

We moved flat not long ago, and at the last flat we had blinds from Ikea.These were lovely, but I found the blind cords kept breaking, making them a bit wonky, even though they were fixed, and being a light colour, even though I vaccuumed them they looked dirty after a bit.

I bought them initially because we live in a very compact estate with blocks of flats facing us on either side - on one side a whole row of bathrooms and kitchens look into my living/dining room - on the other my kitchen looks into someone elses living room etc..

Therefore privacy is important to us.

When we moved I didn't want to fork out for more blinds,(couldn't afford to anyway!) as they were expensive to me, that and and we have a lot of windows.

So, I made some cafe style curtains out of dressmaking gingham I purchased off Ebay very cheaply.

These go halfway up the window, and afford a lot of privacy, but still let the light in.

They also look very pretty and individual.

You could do this using any fairly thin material (would have to be thinnish to let in the light/hang properly)

I did 6 windows for a total of about £10 to £12 I think, bearing in mind thats with a lot of gather so they hang nicely, but you could also make just a flat curtain (like a faux blind) if thats not your kind of thing.

I've made faux blinds before, which I hung at the top of the window, and these looked lovely too, for very little money.

I often would buy just a metre of say a really nice Laura Ashley material and use that, so a nice peice of material (too expensive for me to use for curtains or a real blind) went a long way and had a big effect.

Not sure everyone who visited thought they were real blinds, but many did, and that was nice too.

tawnyowls

Isn't it weird how houses always seem to have the living room opening onto the road, so everyone can see in? I found blinds the best thing too. Our window's about the same size, but has quite a thick vertical bar halfway along, so we just bought 2 Ikea wooden blinds and OH cut them to fit.

LJM

hi were quite lucky as it is our kitchen that fronts onto the road, at the mo i have a net but want a blind.but we too have a huge window and would have to get one made to fit,something for me to look into this month.

blue-kat

on living room window is right onto the street i.e. no front garden. people walking past couldn't help staring in. I hate nets and love light, but it was jsut too much invasion of privacy.
we put a short net/voile set jsut above the eye range of passing people, because it's slightly lower outside, we can get awy with the net about 1/3 way up the window, so still get plenty of light coming in. also another trick is have really wide curtain pole so you can draw your curtains right back to let in maximum daylight.

re: big windows
maybe have a look at shop display supplies such as morplan?
or do it in sections.
good luck