How much privacy will I have?

[AddictedToDrPepper]

So I have ridiculously large width windows in the living room and currently only have curtains up. The curtains are old and tatty and I'm really struggling to find ones that fit the window at a price I can afford.

If I put net curtains up and just got a pair of curtains to go over the top and keep them tied open, would I have much privacy at night? Or would everyone be able to see in with the lamps on?

Going absolutely insane trying to find proper curtains atm and blinds are out of the question for the same reason - ridiculously expensive for the size I need.

We hang two sets at ours. Cheap IKEA ones very long too. We pull them back to each side.

Also, I think I mean violes not net curtains.

Never thought of getting two sets Nap I might just price up how much that would cost if the nets/violes won't give any privacy!

We got 2 pairs from Ikea as well, and they do longer than 90 inches at an affordable price, and when the are pulled back it just looks like a normal pair.

I've done this before, I also got cheap ikea ones and used two sets. Worked absolutely fine and looked good.

I did this:
Cost me about £70 per window (rails, nets and curtains from ikea).
You could have hooks to keep them back during the day, and unhook at night?

So I had the same issue at one point in time.

You have daytime privacy and nighttime.

For the day I made a voile panel. Cheaper that voile curtains as you need far less fabric. You are really just trying to "blur" the view and this works well and still allows lots of light in. It works especially well if you use voile that's patterned or embroidered. I used a cheap rod that I hung within the window recess to hang them.

Then I made "proper" curtains for nighttime.

It's honestly not hard if you have access to a sewing machine. Believe it or not, lined curtains are easier to make.

They key is plain curtains so you don't have to worry about pattern matching. You just need to measure up and make the lining about 3 inches smaller than the fabric. Sew it inside out and when you turn it the right way and iron the seams you have your basic structure.

Add curtain tape to the top and then hem the bottoms (adding weights helps - these can simply be 2p coins that you put in fabric and sew into the hem.

I'm sure you can find a YouTube video to show this.

I made window dressings this way for a massive window in a Georgian town house and they looked great. Cost less than £200 after sourcing the (super luxury) fabric online, but I bet you could do it for less.

We have a bay window that's more than four metres wide, so I have two pairs of curtains (Next sale) plus wooden Venetian blinds that we ordered on line. Before that I had roman blinds that I made with the kits and plain white lining fabric. You can make your own 'nets' with a cotton muslin voile if you don't want the nylon-y sort, but I'd second looking in Ikea for cheap but large curtains.

It might look a bit odd, but we've used that sticky back plastic from wilko to cover some of our kitchen windows. It lets in most of the light but gives us privacy. The problem is that you can't see through it either, but it's quite cheap to try out.

Yes multiple sets - I like horizontal blinds as they're bright but keep visual Light sonyou can still see, privately