Dining room in old shop-front - are net curtains the only option?

[Xiaoxiong]

We are moving in January to a house where the ground floor used to be a shop. This room is now the dining room (no other option, kitchen too small for a table). It has a lovely arched shop window which fronts right onto the high street. It looks like it was converted in the late 50s maybe as the interior/staircase is has a rather mid-century modern air.

The current occupants have net curtains in the window backed with blinds at night, but this makes the room feel incredibly dark and stuffy to me with practically no natural light.

Does anyone have any clever ideas to maximize light in that room but maintaining a modicum of privacy?

I've put a picture on my profile if that helps at all.

(We have only ever rented top-floor flats before this so we aren't even used to pulling the curtains at night!!)

Frosted glass - you can get frosted glass film that lets in 90% of natural light. We got ours from a company called purlfrost I think.

yes the frosted glass type film that you can just stick onto your window.

You can personalise it yourself if you want sometimes. We have something in a small bathroom window for modesty

We first saw it in Holland and thought it looked really modern and a far better alternative to net curtains.

Ours is about 2/3 coverage so the upper third of the window is plain glass.

You could use what I think are called Cafe Rods? Which in essence go half way down the windows - so top would be net free, bottom netted.

How about some decorative shutters?

Window film here

You guys are brilliant. Thanks for all the ideas.

I may come back and ask you all about stair carpets (apparently they all need to be redone).

Window film every time! It's really easy to apply yourself too.

I am going to go against the grain here. Window film is great for privacy butit can feel very claustraphobic as you cant see out at all.
It depends on your view and it you want ot be able to look out, but when I used it in a previous house I wasnt convinced.
Shutters made to fit your window would look great and they offer a choice regarding light/privacy.
Hope the link will work ok
www.shutterlyfabulous.com/gallery/arch-ivory-shutters.html

cafe curtains. need not be nets. velvet on thick poles is good. you can pull them back if you feel like it.

Ooooh, nothing more to add to what has been said, but it looks beautiful!

It does look great. For me, it would depend on how busy the street is, and how much privacy you need in that room.

I prefer the idea of shutters (those Jali decorative ones are nice) but would go with film if on a budget or if I really needed no-one to see in at all.

You can get all kinds of partly-patterned window films eg. here

I dream of making my windows look like John Lewis in Leicester

Can you have plantation shutters or blinds?

ah, panacotta beat me to it

If your house is on the high street mentioned in your profile, I don't think just covering the lower part of window would be any good.
Double decker tour buses frequent the area. A lot.

I too was going to say plantation Shutters, you would only really need them half way up,or just had them drawn half way during the day.

You can also get blinds that pull up from the bottom so you could just shut them half way in the day and up fully at night.

yani well spotted. You're right about the buses, I had forgotten about them...

I think what we might have to do is move in first and try some different temporary things to see what works best, possibly papering over the bottom half of the window first to see if a half-height barrier will be enough privacy. Then we can decide whether we go with blinds or film (I'm not keen on anything that can't be dusted/wiped so I think cafe curtains, while pretty, are probably out).

It's just going to be a dining room/entryway/dumping ground so I'm not too worried about total privacy. It might be entertaining for the tourists if we have some eccentric Downton-style banquets when the buses go past. Perhaps we could even make some extra cash by demanding money if they take photos of us through the window...

Have a look at the Tuiss website, they do blinds which you can pull up from the bottom

We're in an old shop too, and the dining room has the shop window. We have heavy velvet curtains for warmth and night-time privacy, light bamboo blinds for daytime. We roll them so they block eye level but let light in at the bottom. There are loads of plants on the windowsill as well.
We do open up everything for dinner parties sometimes!