Bay window onto road - shutters or blinds or ?

[TooMuchRain]

What would you do with a large bay window (3m across) that fronts onto a road?

It's a sitting room and I would like to still get some light but don't want people walking past to be able to stare in (which is currently exactly what I am have been doing recently to see what solutions other people have!)

[Pinkje]

How about opaque window film on the lower parts and full length curtains for night time.

[OddFodd]

Yes I'd do window film too

[Pannacotta]

Shuttters if you can afford them (and are good at dusting!).
If not then how about roman blinds and half height sash panels or privacy (IMO window film is a bit "bathroom")
www.blindsandcurtains.biz/alison-white-designs/

[MoreBeta]

Shutters. We have just done this in our current house and also in a previous house both bay windows and on to a road.

With shutters you can see out and get light in but strangers cant see in if you angle the vanes of the shutter correctly.

Expensive and dusty though.

[BackforGood]

I have light coloured roller blinds (were there when we moved in). Light still gets through so it's not a dark room at all, but you can't see through them. Have floor length thick curtains for warmth at night.

Next door have just had some very nice new wooden shutter type things, but they are on the inside of the windows. They are quite flexible in the ways they can open up a bit, but do seem to dominate the room quite a lot from the inside, although they look lovely from the outside, but you don't have the option to throw them back if you wish.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

My friend has just fitted [[http://www.luxaflex.co.uk/products/indoor/twist-roller-blinds/ these behind her roman blinds for privacy. Hers are a dark colour which cuts out too much light but I'm contemplating them in a lighter colour for one of our windows.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

These

[Kewcumber]

shutters if you can afford them. I couldn't - I got ikea wooden blinds and hung them from half way up the window (where the sashes joined). They looked rather nice. Also had curtains using Calico for over the top - very cheap so you can use a generous amount of fabric.

[alcibiades]

I love my shutters. I've got a bay window in my sitting room, about the same width as yours, and there's only a very small garden between the window and the pavement. I've got tier-on-tier, narrow, bifold kind of shutters, which means I have a total of 16 shutters that can be angled independently.

I like the flexibility, because sometimes the morning sun reflects off the windows of the houses opposite, and sometimes the evening sun shines through the other side of the bay - all of which is a nuisance if I'm working at my desk which is in the bay. Usually, during the day, I have the top tier fully open and the lower tiers angled so I can see out, but it's difficult for people to see in; late afternoon I close the lower tiers and angle the top tier; when it's dark I close the top tier. I guess that's probably why I don't have much of a problem with dust - it gets dislodged by all the opening and shutting I do.

They are expensive, but when I estimated how much it would cost to get curtains made and fitted, the price didn't seem too bad after all.

[PigletJohn]

have you considered cafe curtains?

[Talkinpeace]

we filled the window with plants like this
insideurbangreen.typepad.com/.a/6a00e3982480928833010535b9a59d970b-pi

[InsertUsernameHere]

We had shutters and window film. We just did the lower section of the window. You don't need really opaque film - just enough to stop you catching somebody's eye. We found that you couldn't see the film from the outside - rather it just made the windows more reflective - so people just saw them selves. We had a clear border around the film which helped make it less bathroomy. I've also seem people have stain glass panels at the bottom of the window - which can look good - other options are window boxes?

[TooMuchRain]

Ooh, lots of ideas thank you! I like the idea of something to cover the bottom during the day and big warm curtains at night. The shutters look lovely but they do seem expensive, do you think they will date? (worried about resale). I will look into the window film too, I suspect they have come a long way since I last saw them.

[clb]

Two recommendations: first, window boxes - great big ones with perennials/small shrubs in them (eg lavender, box). What you plant will obviously depend on which way the window faces, but you will get a nice view from the inside, your house will look pretty from the outside and passers by will not be able to see you when you're sitting down.

Second, for more privacy, try blinds which are fitted at the bottom of the window frame and have cords which run up to the top of the frame and then down to a fixing point on the frame (?pull-up blinds). Have them made of a white, fairly translucent material. You can stop the blind at any point and it will provide complete privacy, but also a lot of light through it and full light above it.

[Kewcumber]

I doubt shutters will date - unless you paint them turquoise and pink stripes but I doubt you'll get your money back when you sell.

I promise you, wooden slatted blinds (mine were from IKEA but that was coincidental that they fitted) fixed half way up with big voluminous curtains over the top for the evening looked really nice - well mine did! And was private enough for a bedroom on the ground floor.

I never got the window film to sit right or look anything other than a bathroom window (but perhaps I'm just not very good at that kind of thing) and couldn't afford the other options.

[TooMuchRain]

window boxes are a great idea, it's east facing so options may be limited but would be really nice

I will investigate wooden blinds too, thanks!

[Creamycoolerwithcream]

I moved last summer and have bay windows in my living room and bedroom. I went for white wooden Venetian blinds with quite thick white tape. I'm really pleased with them as can vary the slant of the blinds depending how much privacy I want. I sometimes slant one blind more than the others if the sun is shining onto the T.V. I also have curtains as these look nice and cosy in the evening. Each window cost 300 to have the blinds made and 75 to have them installed.